VERSES

Monday, February 23, 2026

1373

[image from Pinterest]

Gnawing hunger was eating

Away at her being

He left her oh too soon

Blame it on the moon

She didn't deserve this

Unkindness clouded like mist

She should try to move on

Maybe it was put on

Like a curse

Couldn't be worse.

© gillena cox 2026

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Q242 Hunger Makes the Best of Poetry

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Thursday, February 19, 2026

1372

Women in Carnival TT🇹🇹

Are we courting fire and brimstone?

Or, how deep are we into Hades?

Toe deep, ankle deep, knee?

It worried me for a while,

My masquerading sisters,

Playing mas so bare.

I pondered and contemplated.

You know, there was a time,

When women did not play mas,

Even though there were female roles

Men played them,

As i ponder, present day, women in mas,

Could it be, we are poems of protest?

Our energies are varied:

You know how recess time at school,

For some kids was play till you sweat,

While some more reserved will,

Go back to class intact,

Shirt in pants blouse in skirt.

So the way some women plas mas today,

Is our mind set recess time?

Then what of the spirit,

Because some folks cannot,

Look at these (ob)scenes,

Remember The Garden of Eden?

Remember how innocent we were,

Before that bite of the apple?

Then what happened?

God fashioned clothes

From fig leaves for us.

Are we poems of protest?

Is it recess time?

Will we get enough clothes sewn?

Do we need clothes in our sunfest?

© gillena cox 2026

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MTB: Poems of Questions (No Answers)

Challenge:Write a poem built entirely (or mostly) from questions.

Guidelines:

Begin with a question but don’t answer it. Let it breathe.

2. Continue with more questions that deepen, pivot, or expand on the theme.

3. Pair each question with imagery and metaphor. Let the image do some of the work of meaning.

4. Use at least two other poetic devices:

*personification
*alliteration or assonance
*contrast or paradox
*repetition for musicality

5.End on a question and resist the urge to resolve.

Let curiosity guide your lines. Let questions feel as powerful as answers.

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Tuesday, February 17, 2026

1371

THIS POEM IS A GLIMPSE, A SMILE AND A KISS

This poem is a glimpse

This poem a smile

This poem is a kiss

This poem is a glimpse as of

Strangers, but not so at all,

It is you, full of mischief

After our recent tryst

This poem is the smile you

Toss, at my greedy heart,

Wanting more, so much more

Of you, i swear i will swoon

This poem is a feather light kiss.

The kind that tingles and awakens

Desire, seeping through bones, to soul

Correct in effervescence

This poem is that glimpse of you, hours after

This poem is your smile, lingering through my day eternalizing minutes

This poem is your kiss, light enough to stir my soul.

© gillena cox 2026

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Poetics: The Evolution of Love

Challenge:

to write a poem about love as something quietly sacred — not just roses and hearts, but the small, unseen ways someone stays. Maybe it’s the way they remember your silences, or how they feel like warmth in winter.

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Monday, February 16, 2026

1370

[image courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

It is disgustingly disturbing the way lips forget. What they have kissed, become not sacred but obliterated and the taste of desire lingers like a gnawing hunger, biting into the secrets of night.

How many days must traverse one calendar before, feelings speak their truth. Before moons ripen bright in night skies for lovers to swoon over, with future promise.

The blue moons, the black moons, the super moons, all with their lights of varing orb. When is a kiss sealed, to tomorrow, still lingering in the now

© gillena cox 2026

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Prosery: Toni Morrison

Challenge: To use the line "Lips forget what they have kissed"

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