OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  oOOOO OOOO.       OOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
    OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" .OOOOOO OOOOOo      OOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
           OOOO          oOOOOOOO OOOOOOO.    OOOO          oOOOO
           OOOO        .OOOO OOOO OOOOOOOOo   OOOO          OOOO"
           OOOO       oOOOO  OOOO OOOO "OOOO. OOOO OOOOo   .OOOO'
           OOOO     .OOOO"   OOOO OOOO   OOOOoOOOO  "OOOO. oOOOO
           OOOO    oOOOOOOO..OOOO OOOO    "OOOOOOO    OOOOoOOOO"
           OOOO  .OOOO"""OOOOOOOO OOOO      OOOOOO     "OOOOOOO'
           OOOO oOOOO      ""OOOO OOOO       "OOOO       OOOOOO

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|                                                                             |
|                            There Ain't No Justice                           |
|                                                                             |
|                                     #71                                     |
|                                                                             |
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                           Poetry Interlude 06
                     - by the AC908 Poetry Society -

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                           Hiding in the Corner
                            -by Natalie Pinero
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                  I'm sitting here in the corner hiding,
                Hiding from the future because it's scary,
                       I can't wait for it to come,
                      But I don't want it to get me.
              Who knows what it might have in store for me?
                   I know it's out there waiting for me
                              in the shadows
                 I think it wants my youth and optimism,
             Only to replace it with heartache and wrinkles.
                  I know the future is inevitable and it
                    will bring great sweeping changes.
                   But I'm not ready yet, and I'd like
                   to stay in the present for a while.
                   So I'm sitting here, in the corner,
                                 Hiding.

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                                   Epic
                              -by Ironhorse
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                             Here is a tale,
                            of my deadly life,
                           of horrific nature,
                           and terminal strife.

                             Bid by the king
                          to search a new land,
                            I joined some men,
                           an adventuring band.

                          We ventured to coasts,
                            of bays of green,
                            battling enemies,
                         and creatures we'd seen.

                       "Do not harm the Beholder!"
                       One brave sole had screamed.
                     Plucked out the creature's eye,
                          with a sword I reamed.

                         Then the land grew dark,
                            death grew 'round.
                        The cause was my actions,
                      and the results will astound.

                           I set off the land,
                            tried to run away,
                   yet a terrible storm we encountered,
                         that dreadful dooms day.

                            We lost a few men,
                          we lost many to most,
                         soon I sailed on alone,
                              a lonely host.

                          A vision came to bear,
                        on the rocks to the port,
                          a vision so beautiful,
                        I stopped the boat short.

                        Of flaxen hair at the top,
                       to her mid-section just so,
                         no clothes, just scales,
                        from her waist to her toe.

                         Blood ran from her face,
                        and stained all the rocks.
                           Her once flaxen hair
                       bled red through the locks.

                         The boat I had anchored,
                        despite the violent storm,
                            I fled to her aid,
                          that late summer morn.

                              I cradled her
                        as her life slipped away,
                        then her mouth fell open,
                         as if something to say.

                          "The Darkgate is open,
                            the evil is loose,
                          only you can save us,
                             oh mighty Zeus."

                          The words I had heard
                          came not from her jaw,
                           but from all around,
                            yet no one I saw.

                           "Who bids me a god?"
                   I asked. "You're sorrowfully wrong,
                          'tis back in my home,
                           where I do belong."

                          "You opened the gate,
                            you where the one,
                           if you now retreat,
                          the darkness has won."

                            "But I am no god,"
                              I had to say.
                          "Couldn't you stop it
                             some other way?"

                          The voice was no more.
                         Did my question offend?
                        In my lone mind I thought
                            this was the end.

                            A seaman I'm not,
                           by trade or by gene,
                            my crew hired on,
                       for the riches they'd seen.

                         This quest was not mine,
                             Nor did I want,
                         as I looked to the ship,
                        the sails then grew taut.

                          The boat 'gan to move,
                           the anchor gave way,
                           yet a moment I wait,
                        the dead mermaid had say:

                           "Trust in yourself,
                           trust in your goal,
                         to your pilotless craft,
                            I offer my soul."

                         And her body fell flat,
                            as an empty sack,
                          I jumped to the boat,
                          I dared not look back.

                                   ---

                           The ship sailed on,
                          of direction it's own,
                            in minutes I knew
                        I was not bound for home.

                          As the sun fell down,
                           and darkness set in,
                              I saw another,
                           a ship in the wind.

                           No water it's base,
                           nothing to compare,
                      'twas a beautiful golden ship,
                             floating on air.

                         It rode through the sky,
                          as if some great bird,
                           'twas many a moment
                      before it's passenger I heard.

                            "Are you the rider
                         of the seawoman's ship?"
                          He knew of my answer.
                           He knew of my trip.

                           "I too was selected
                         by the voice of the sky;
                            an odd trade-off,
                            my ship can fly."

                            "Indeed, I agree,
                          your flight I can see,
                           my ship is sentient
                         of the ways of the sea."

                          "Our forces will join,
                          we'll battle together,
                           though not just yet,
                            we wait another."

                     "How, I ask, did you know of me?
          And how, is my question, did your boat leave the sea?"

                            "Floating a river
                             an eagle saw I,
                             Went to his aid,
                         and heard from the sky."

                             "And so the bird
                    is now one with your ship, I see,
                           just as the seawoman
                             is one with me."

                        "You are quick, and wise,
                       just as the voice had said -
                           'a leader of people,
                         on a ship of the dead.'"

                                   ---

                         Before I could question
                            more of the voice,
                          our parlay was broken
                         with a thunderous noise.

                         From the water had risen
                             a ship of black,
                           both I and the eagle
                            were taken aback.

                         "The last of our party,
                           as you may so wish,
                            the warrior woman,
                        on the boat of the fish."

                          "You are our leader?"
                           The new woman asked,
                        a finely built compliment
                        to her sex and her class.

                           "The command I take,
                         though with some dismay,
                             hurry, together,
                          let's get under way."

                           So onward we sailed,
                          an odd stack of three,
                          one above, one below,
                          one on top of the sea.

                         Our destination unknown,
                 despite all the information that passed,
                          we knew of each other,
                           we knew of our cast.

                              The flier was,
                                by nature,
                                a cleric,
                            a man of religion,
                      from the land of the Wherewik.

                         His skills were defined,
                          in healing and grace.
                          Though, for protection
                            he carried a mace.

                          The swimmer a fighter,
                          as the flier implied,
                           a fierce combatant,
                       with two swords at her side.

                            And I was a lowly
                            man of the magic.
                             Often my spells
                          were less then tragic.

                                   ---

               Hours later the flier was the first to call,
                              being on top,
                        he was the first that saw,

                            Ahead was a hole,
                         a sheer pit in the sea,
                         I called forth to stop,
                        and we stopped, all three.

                          "It is the Darkgate,"
                           the flier had cried
                             as the two boats
                          came to be by my side.

                           "This is the battle,
                        and it's right to the end,
                           life as we know it,
                          on us three depends."

                             Forward we went,
                             on into mystery,
                            a battle for good,
                          a battle for history.

                             Inside the gate,
                         no light could be seen,
                         except for the cleric's
                           radiant holy gleam.

                            Outside the light
                          the evil had cowered,
                           fearing the cleric's
                            newly found power.

                          The warrior got testy,
                          and ran to the field,
                        a demon devoured her leg,
                        and fast stole her shield.

                          Bravely she fought on,
                        as we tried to reach her,
                            blood running down
                            her every feature.

                           With a mighty swing
                      she took two demons surprise,
                          beheaded in one blow,
                           before our own eyes.

                      The flier screamed in terror,
                              I in disgust,
               as the remaining demons devoured the warrior
                          in blood-thirsty lust.

                         Before we could control
                         the emotions we'd shown,
                ahead in the gate roared a horrific groan.


                          The cleric fell down,
                            his robe all red,
                          if not for his faith,
                         he would had been dead.

                            His organ of life
                           had up and exploded,
                         tore through his chest,
                         his clothes had eroded.

                         The evil was too great,
                         for the cleric to stand,
                          as death came his way,
                          he held out his hand.

                     He offered to me a golden charm,
                  expected to save him from evil's harm.

                           I took it in honor,
                          of a dying man's will,
                         and I felt in my heart,
                      I would be the next evil kill.

                          The medallion I took,
                           and mounted it then,
                           I fastened it here,
                         to my staff at the end.

                          And as I had finished,
                            the evil arrived,
                          so grotesque a sight,
                            my eyes had cried.

                            Yet I stood fast,
                        awaiting time to command,
                        a demon rose from the side
                       and tore 'way my right hand.

                       In the seconds before death,
                         I held my staff up high
                     and called out the command words
                          as I prepared to die.

                      The great evil took no notice
                         and swallowed me whole,
                        I fell into it's stomach,
                            as black as coal.

                     As I fell in I was burned alive,
                   stomach acid eating all my outside,
                   and when I was finally ready to die,
                  I laid my head down and shut mine eye.

                               Next I knew,
                       I was awake in my homeland,
                       though everything grew small
                           as I began to stand.


                          I caught my reflection
                         in the pool by my ho'e,
                           I had taken the body
                            of my hideous foe.

                             And being alive,
                          to serve an evil way,
                          caused me much panic,
                           had nothing to say,

                          And so my last action,
                        after relating this rhyme,
                            is to end my life,
                           self-judge my crime.

                        So the world may live on,
                           with this evil gone,
                              and as I die,
                       I hear the seawoman's song.

                          "Blessed are you now,
                        as you took your own life,
                        perchance here in Heaven,
                           may I be your wife?"

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         These last few poems are all the work of Lupus Yonderboy
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                        i'm falling into the music
                        it's tough to get back out
                        that's a nice shade of red
                        i'm lost inside your mind
                          you look so good to me
                              so good to me

                       i think i understand it now
                             why we do things
                               crazy things
                          it makes us feel good
                          you look so good to me
                              so good to me

                        that's a nice part of you
                 the part that enjoys what you really are
                          the part that accepts
                           the part that i love
                          you look so good to me
                              so good to me

                                   ---

                             i don't mind it
                               just looking
                                  at her
                                every day
                            it gets me through
                               just looking
                      but please don't take her away

                                   ---

                   it is possible for a most ugly flask
                    to contain the sweetest of nectars
                    and the most beautiful of flowers
                         may even repell the bee
           but is it not true that she of such beautiful flesh
                       have an equaly as sweet mind

                                   ---

                          you may feel the heat
                        of that fire without flame
                         you want so much to meet
                        and you know not her name

                                   ---

                         the stuff that is in me
                    what is at the core of my me-ness
                       cannot be described in words
                     or i have yet to find the means
                   can only be expressed in it's truest
                                 richest
                             most 'real' form
       it is that very same stuff that wanders through infant minds
        before words were introduced to further complicate things
                                  short
                                  quick
                        thought spurts in patterns
                            patterns of light
                                and sound
                                and energy
                      if only i could express myself
                                  fully
                              and completely
                             i'll find a way

                                   ---

                       let me experience your mind
                          to be you for a moment
                          to know your realness
                                to be one
                           just for an instant
                  i want to know what really drives you
                 i want to know what really turns you on
                        i want to crawl inside you
                   roam within the boundlessness of you
                                 to learn
                              more than that
                            i want to share me

                                   ---

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�����                  Phoenix Modernz Systems: 908/830-TANJ
������                      The Syndicate: 908/506-6651
���������                Another Bloody BBS: 61-3-754-3599
�����������             First United Church Kalisti: M.I.A.
�۱���������                    INFoMoDiTiES: M.I.A.
�۱���������              Earth's Dreamlands: 313/558-5024
�����������                    RipCo ][: 312/528-5020
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