#PoetryAcrossTime They found this written in the hollow of a beam, tucked where pitch met timber - a place no officer would bother to look, a place meant for secrets, or prayers, or the kind of truth that stains. They found this written by a hand salt-burned and trembling, ink thinned with seawater, letters wandering like a man who has forgotten the shape of home. We came on a wooden belly lashed together by men who never sailed her, chasing a dream sold by those who never meant to follow. The storms took our sleep, the hunger took our softness, and the cold - the cold took the rest. They told us the Cape was a jewel, a place where a man might rise if he worked hard, prayed harder, and kept his head bowed to the right kind of king. But when the shoreline rose like a dark shoulder against the dawn, we saw no jewel - only a wildness that breathed, and watched, and did not care for our arrival. The wind spoke first, then the surf, then the silence of those who had walked this soil long before empire learned to spell its own name. We stepped ashore with pockets empty and promises heavy, chasing fortunes minted in rooms we would never enter, for men whose boots never touched the mud that swallowed our own. They said we were pioneers. But pioneers are only pawns with better stories. We feared the storms at sea, but we feared the storms on land more - the ones made of muskets, and hunger, and the quiet knowledge that we were building a world for someone else's sons. Still, we hoped. God help us, we hoped. For a patch of earth, for a roof that didn't leak, for a life not borrowed from the ledger of another man's greed. If you read this, know we were not blind - we knew the empire fed itself on the backs of the ordinary, and called it destiny. So let this stand as witness, as warning, as the quiet truth beneath the louder lies: We came seeking fortune, but found only ourselves - and the long shadow of those who profited from our belief. They found this written. And now so have you.

Double Meanings!! Have you ever noticed how one thing can mean two things at once? Like in Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick The Masks They seem to hide identity.But they actually reveal the truth at the masked ritual, no names, no roles.With faces covered, desire, power, and vulnerability surface.The mask doesn’t conceal the person it exposes them. Or in The Shining, also by Kubrick The Twins They seem like just two girls.But they represent repetition.A cycle that doesn’t end.A pattern that keeps returning. One image - two meanings Write something simple that secretly means more Your Prompt 🧃 Write about a food or drink you didn’t like at first, but later started to enjoy or ask for 👀 Describe it simply (taste, smell, texture, moment) 🔁 Show changeYou once rejected it. Now you want it 🎭 Give it a second meaningLet it become a symbol for something deeper 🏠 Create a small world with rulesWho decides? What must be finished? What isn’t allowed? 🫧 Keep the surface simpleLet the deeper meaning sit underneath 🔓 End with a revealThe last line should make the real meaning clear Example: My first sip of Diet Sprite burned sharp but regaled my fright You said it was better, you said I’d learn to like The sour flavor and soothing life Hate the taste as it dissipates Aches and ailing pains disintegrate Till it becomes my everyday My acquired fate My love and my restraint By Nikki J Double Meaning: It is a soothing drink, but it also reflects an arranged-type love affair. Someone “good” is chosen for the writer by someone else. At first there’s resistance, then adaptation, until it becomes something accepted, even loved. Ok your turn Quick Steps 1. Choose a food or drink you once rejected 2. Describe it simply with sensory detail 3. Show how your feelings changed over time 4. Turn it into a symbol for something deeper 5. Add “rules” that hint at control or meaning 6. Keep the surface simple, don’t explain 7. End with a line that reveals the true meaning

Lost On Purpose Let me feel the subtle slipping, soft as breath against a seam, Where the self I thought was solid fades to something less extreme. I have stood inside these moments, felt their quiet, pulling sway— Every time I call it ending, something in me leans to stay. Not as I was formed to hold it, not as I was taught to be, But as something far more patient, loosening its need to see. There’s a strange and tender absence where the edges used to start, Like a question left unanswered pressing gently at the heart. I have tried to name the feeling, tried to anchor, tried to bind, Built a thousand careful structures just to steady what I’d find. But they faltered—not in breaking, more like softening their claim, As if form itself grew weary of pretending it was frame. And it found me—every time—quiet, unannounced, and clear, Not a force of devastation, but a presence drawing near. Not removing, not unmaking, only asking me to see What might happen if I loosened what I thought I had to be. There’s a crossing in the silence, there’s a thinning of the thread, Where the past becomes a language I have long since learned and read. And I linger there, suspended, not in absence but in trust, As the shape I wore so tightly turns to memory and dust. Still I’m here—though something shifts me, still I’m here—though something’s gone, Not diminished, not divided, but continuing as one With the quiet, constant motion I once struggled to oppose, Now a rhythm I surrender to, a current that I chose. I have lost myself so often that the word has come undone, For there’s something in the losing that returns me to the One— Not a place and not a purpose, not a fixed or final form, But a deeper kind of knowing I have always carried warm. So when once again it finds me—that familiar, sacred blur—I don’t reach for old defining, I don’t ask it to defer. I allow the gentle shifting, let the boundaries release, And I follow where it takes me—not to find it, but to cease into something vast and quiet, something patient, something true-

Work is over for another day Now I get to enjoy life my way Outside on my back porch Sun going down light tiki torch Outdoors my favorite place As long as warmth shows grace No noise well maybe my tunes Relaxing under the nights moon Come, pull up a chair and enjoy Flirtatiously acting coy. CDK 4-14-2026

Tell me secrets Only for my ears Tell me desires You keep hidden Tell me lies So I can evolve Tell me riddles Keep me guessing Tell me fears Buried deep within Tell me joy So I can share Tell me jokes Make me laugh Tell me fantasy Allow me to dream Tell me it all Fill my pages Chapter by chapter Page by page Tell me stories I can journey Use my imagination Tell me more CDK 4-19-26