Posted 1 month ago Comments

Liberation
By: ©Melissa Calvert

Pathways composed of black and white; the back-step of time
My words are cryptic in no surrender
The method was intended and intricate; justified
For an abyss lingers within

It was the beast that stained the lace with blood;
Mutated the doves into demons
But it is I that plays the part of the painted clown, 
The dying puppet on strings

My existence shifts like windblown ashes
Animated suspension; the limbo of my demise
The cooling fluid turning to liquid fire in my veins
My delayed destruction in a vermillion saltwater bath

A serpent poised over the forbidden flower
To breathe in the aroma of ivory
Fingertips laced with acid and venom
The twisted torment of a magician

Frost and whisper transformed into lava and howls
Ink night sets on the shores of virtue
Coiled embers stir in dormant caves
And words are my only source of liberation

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Posted 3 months ago Comments

Carnal, Littered and Beyond
By: ©Melissa Calvert

Amid the canopy of nature
There in my abandon
A whisper of crimson
Greets the tips of my fingers
And where will I linger?

Water drowning the asylum
You wrote horror on my walls
And expected me to find peace
With roots screaming in my ears
Leaves falling like tears.

Atonement is a false stain
Written on innocent hands
Scars on fragile flesh.

Opaque is the world in question
Left to its own demise
You could absorb my words
The corporeal being, trite
The veils in which I write.

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Posted 5 months ago Comments

Beyond Transgressions
By: ©Melissa Calvert

Wearied by the filleting of my soul
Embraced the phantasm with wings
Swept into the estuary of whispers
While I pondered direction; floating
My satchel embraced revelations
Seeking sanctuary amongst glow and charcoal
The tranquilizer was only a parable
The shelter was laced with crime
Fleeing of the poison with no pivot
I’ve accepted my expulsion
A unique refinement
Drawn down in glaciers and embers
The hypnotics of a reverie
Where patience won through banishment
And I wager sanity with ethereal realms
To hemorrhage and drift as one
A dual soul interwoven with venom and elixir
Shifted through surrender and assault

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Posted 1 year ago Comments

Within
By: ©Melissa Calvert

There’s a specter that dances the chambers
Of the walls of this dwelling; a stranger
This being that whispers into the night
About the radiating disaster; its plight

The coffee-black of its soul, enriched
A dance within the light, bewitched
There’s a haven that crumbles and repairs
A puzzle of crooked circles; shattered squares

And the phantom sweeps in with a torch
Preparing its way for the vicious scorch
The revenant and the fire, they dance
A blending; a merging; a trance

The black and white of a blood undiscovered
A haven turned asylum until it’s recovered
The divine turned poltergeist before the Zen
An eclipse and aurora that revels within. 

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Posted 1 year ago Comments

Never let the winter days tarnish
What summer can make intoxicating
Create sweet a decanter and a cherished haven
Hold it close before it withers away
Nature is not a forbidden gift
To those that hold it to their heart
It is here and meant to prosper
To place a tender smile upon your face
And if this is not the end, what can death hurt
I can leave you here in the beauty of the world
Until the time comes for another sweet realm
Because my soul shall never leave your side.

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Posted 1 year ago Comments

Cemetery Thoughts
By: ©Melissa Calvert

All the fragmented pieces that lie here, bleed in their own intensity. Each with a scar that tells a story. Each with a story that could never be heard. The hourglass has stopped here. Archived souls are sifted through like pages in an ancient book. Their voices are like whispers to us. Their voices are like screams to them. Each invisible, fading aura lingering in quiet exile.

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Posted 1 year ago Comments

I’m On the Moon 
By: ©Melissa Calvert 

The shadows of the trees sprawled out into a labyrinth.
I watched the wind change the paths of this maze.
The droplets of rain stained the whole picture.
It allowed me to see where I belonged.

Luna danced before me, pointing her finger.
A soft-lit smile flickered on her face.
I closed my eyes and saw the willows weeping-
But nothing about any of it seemed near sad.

My eyes changed colors, like the sky at sunset-
Spinning marbles in the game of life.
I took a paintbrush dipped in oil paint-
I splattered the world in a million dreams.

Here are my hands, clean yet bloody.
Here is my heart, battered yet beating.
Here is my life, not perfect yet glowing.
This is who I’ll be at the end of the day.

There’s a dark river raging in quiet depths,
Of a desert so beautiful that there are no words.
And I’ll stand on the moon listening to the stories,
Of a heart so strong that it brings tears to my eyes.

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Posted 1 year ago Comments

The Violin
By: ©Melissa Calvert 

I heard the violin cry to colors that don’t exist
It pitched into a wail of paralyzed agony
Old blood poured from the strings
Black as a night without stars

It has something deep to say
Words of forgotten cadet blue
Feelings of sharpened violet
A forlorn dance of notes in vain

Never forget the blood tears
The shredded veins of the violin
Released in anguished anger
Produced in trembling pain

The lyrics straining the words
Why do you take me for granted
The lyrics screaming the words
Please remember me

And the violin struggles to keep its composure

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Posted 1 year ago Comments

Edge of the Earth 
By: ©Melissa Calvert 

The Aurora Borealis sets flame in the kaleidoscope
In the folds of my ever-bleeding, crimson heart
I can feel the blue fire rushing through my veins
And as my soul sprouts wings, the fire turns red.

Not a scintilla of doubt lingers here
Glimmer. Whisper. Breathe. Release.
I awoke in the pools of your eyes
And there my soul died and came alive.

Dearest Luna watched it all, deeply
Filled with benevolence like no other
The waves collapsed upon the distant shores
And I fell into euphoria.

I do not need rose-colored glasses
This world can radiate without them
Release. Breathe. Whisper. Glimmer.
I’m standing on the edge of the earth.

I am not afraid.

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Posted 1 year ago Comments

Already Free 
By: ©Melissa Calvert 

We want to be classic
Built in black and white
We hide the paint brush from our hands
Tuck the colors from our sight

We find safety in the past
And fear in the future
Taking our hearts
To mend with a suture

We cry tears in the night that make no difference
Hold onto things we know won’t change
Reminisce on experiences we know are gone
Sometimes lose more than we ever gain

We live life looking for a magic tunnel
Yet fearing what we cannot see
What we don’t know is we’re walking that path
We just have to realize that our souls are free.

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