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The Highest Resolution Color Image of Pluto Yet Released

[alicenamster]

I see the world

in all colours of my sins,

every season tinged by memories

of love, lust, heartbreak and independence.

James Jean ~ “Seasons”, 2014

[alicenamster]

Chains of Smoke

It was the year of baggy pants and stolen kisses,

When lessons came from blackboards filled with chalk scribbles.

Days were defined by the space inside pencil drawn lines,

Faded memories of notes exchanged in classrooms left behind.

I was riding on a chariot of privilege pulled by the reins of poverty,

Painted with faces, contrasting colors of fantasy.

With faces painted in hopes of gaining popularity - emulating ideals of beauty - the cover girls of glossy magazines.

The dust was rising up from the concrete,

Sparking in the sun, filtered Sepia by the afternoon heat of summer.

Drivers were honking their impatience - at the traffic cops, the beggars, the peddlers and the pedestrians.

There were no rules at this intersection, no respect or right of way.

No signs to guide me through the chaos, no lights to turn green or red.

The wheels kept turning round and round, like hands of clocks

Every second, to your last breath - counting down.

When the White Rabbit appeared, that moment still haunts.

As fate beckoned me to jump right in down the hole in the ground.

He said to me, “this one time won’t hurt, come on, just give it a try. Everybody does it, just relax, it will be fine, don’t be shy, it’s only this one time.”

“I really don’t want to do it, but that logic does seem to make sense. And if I seem too goody-goody, they’ll all think I’m a bit dense. It’s only this one time”, I lied to myself, “the repercussions can’t be too intense.”

So many rules I had broken already that day, having stolen away like a thief.

Vanished into thin air,

without a thought or a care

But Karma would bring no relief.

A curse of Murphy’s law, that would pry the truth from my jaws,

Freedom came at a cost - a price I would come to pay.

Can’t get back the time lost because of what happened on that fateful day.

Unaware of this unpleasant surprise,

I was welcomed home by the glare in her eyes and the stern look on my mother’s face.

“Where were you?” she asked. “I thought you had class.”

And just like that, my carefully prepared lie, fell flat.

Broke no ice or “No cigar,” as they say.

“You silly girl, haven’t I told you before?Why do you lie? Mother always knows. Every step you take, my eyes follow. You can’t escape your own shadow.“

Too stubborn and defiant, to fall for her bluff.

I stuck to my story and to my guns.

There’s no way she could have found out that I had taken one puff.

She looked straight at me, and all that she said, was "let’s confirm your story”.

A rabbit in the headlights -

My heart filled with dread.

She picked up the phone and made a few calls -

Piecing together the truth that was to become my downfall.

A crossing of paths - a coincidence supreme

Or mother’s intuition that worked on the same team -

And all my best laid plans and my elaborate schemes -

Had just come apart, right at the seams

- as my grandmother had been parked, right on the scene

Where I had my very first taste of nicotine.

“That boy is bad news. Trust me I know. Why else did you smoke, you never wanted to before.”

“It was only this one time”, was my weak protest. “It’s only this one time,” I promised myself.

Little did I know, I had built my cage

Mounting pressure to fit in had set the stage,

For self-restraint to fly out the shelf.

What happened next, isn’t too hard to guess.

Played once with fire to be turned to ashes.

An ashtray full of dreams - was the price I had to pay.

“It’s only this one time”, I wish I had not lied to myself that day.

by Namira Hossain

[alicenamster]

Love is a satellite

An elemental dance in the dark That must have forced creation's hand A cosmic collision, not by chance  To find -  A certain kind of romance Sculpted by the thoughts that were Forged from earth, water, air and fire Energetic vibrations which sense All your fears  and your desires. Youthful eyes that smolder  With the glow of hope they burn, slow All through the night - Dust particles of shattered dreams Catch the light, in their intimate dance,  Hidden from your soul's window. Stop the planets in their tracks  at your will, Carve your own fate  Through space and time. The truth is out there - No need to read between the lines; Search the great beyond for answers and just try to read the signs. Transcend beyond meaningless exceptions  You can't bend the rules That govern this vast Universe Find your balance, on this tightrope  Blinded, in our paradise of love's fools.

[alicenamster]

Listen

Who’s listening? Anybody? am I even audible? Is there someone out there? Can you hear me?

……….

As she lifts her chubby little fingers  to swipe across the screen, specks of baby powder dust the iPad; perfuming the air as they settle on glass. She’s two.

and she speaks to hear her very own little self echoed back in her ears. This stupid fucking grey cat. Just stands there and mimics her every word. Her every cadence. And she laughs. Shrieking with her giggles; The mirth almost spilling over. “Amar Naam Bolse!” But somewhere along the way, Talking Tom and a warm iPad just don’t cut it anymore. They can’t really hear her. Can they? Listen.

……….

I don’t know. You tell me?

Would you rather sit here staring at cold steel and glass. or be outside? Listen….

What does your body crave? The body demands it be heard… DING! Another facebook notification aids and abets in orchestrating the continued slumber.

I dare you. I dare you to.. Trade it all in for the scent of trees and freshly-cut grass. Go outside. Fall in love.

Find respite in the rhythmic thuds as running shoes hit pavement. thud, thud, thud.

There’s a beauty in it.

Listen. Allow it in.

The wind is speaking to you. Bathing your face as you cut through it.

Listen….. ……………….

Turn away from the mirror. It isn’t about you, you know?

Listen….

The silver only shows you what you want to see.. The lifeless cheers cascade across the room as a sparkling jewel falls into just the right spot, and resets it all.

The mechanical clicks and whirrs emanating and agreeing with all your thoughts.

Affirming, Validating.

Your endless ruminating.

As your clammy hands religiously swipe away at the screen. This too. is worship. As beads of sweat feed the fear.. The fear within and the fear with out.

Listen…

This, my beloved, this.. is no way to live.

- Ashna

[alicenamster]

Beautiful poem by Samira Sadeque ampersandbd

Defying differences

What if….what if I were a word, and you a paint? I, a crooked crinkled crumpled four-letters, And you a rooked wrinkled rustled red? How would our words collide if our mere existence differed by a difference immeasurable like… like eternity?

Like you a majority and I a minority? Like you from Hinduism and I from Christianity?

Would I be able to bask in your color and would you ever be able to shine in my length? What if the preacher who holds my pen and the politician who holds your brush said “No you cannot.” Would we stop? Would we cower in the face of their demanding degrading excuse of our life? What if we didn’t?

I say we don’t. I say fuck inks that stop halfway and fuck paints that don’t tell the truth. I say fuck religion and politics that limit our desires and separates us with less than an inch of difference in your skin colour and in what I eat and you don’t. Believe, my love, believe in love and desires and rainbows because it is not us that is a product of them but them, a product of us.

I say fuck differences because you and I? I say we paint the world With my word In your red chord spread that word like a wildfire on fire, like a hailstorm on heroine, like a world without limits like a poem without an end.

I say we fuck differences because Tomorrow? Tomorrow is just waiting around the corner - holding its breath - to tell us that it won that it won because it fooled us - and not just you and me - but fooled us all preachers-politicians alike into thinking this was real and the differences were walls not blessings, warriors not prayers and we fell we fell into this deep black abyss of nothingness that history and myth have taught us to fall for and we fell and failed my love because we didn’t have the eyes to look through the darkness, the soul to seek the light, the gods to tell us that there was no light in these beliefs and painted truths that everyone for time immemorial have put in their bags, cages and hearts and walked down with on this path to the 21st century.

And they are winning. For they have tricked us - and not just you and me but tricked us all preachers-politicians alike into thinking this was all real and it was all leading us into the roots of Heaven.

So come my love, let’s paint. You and I. Let’s use your color and the four-letter-length and one-word strength of my meaning to tell tomorrow that it has failed. That we win. For we saw, we seeked, and we soaked. In love.

Defying differences, burying boundaries, preaching poems.

Syeda Samira Sadeque

April 2015

[alicenamster]

I don't deserve you

Your eyes wander everywhere, across the room. 

Everywhere but my eyes, my face. My stomach jumps up to my heart and my heart sinks between my legs, as our eyes finally meet. This isn't your usual meet and greet and I know. Nervous with anticipation, I quiver, as your eyes undress me and with that I shed my cloak of invisibility. 

I see my own reflection for the last time in your bloodshot eyes before it all goes dark and you pull me close and grab me and kiss me. There's comfort in the dark, so I let it swallow me whole as I give in to your kiss.Your lips taste of whisky and your mouth, of abandonment. Served on the rocks.

I know this taste so well. I feel it burn down my throat, my chest. It sits at the pit of my stomach like a wonderful dread - it lingers on my tongue, the taste, of the lies I tell myself, as I drink in notions of you with the whisky. It keeps me warm.

Before I dive in headfirst ready to drown, in the abyss of your bed. 

In the fears that envelope me like a blanket of insecurity. The blanket that we share as you sleep turned over on your side. It keeps me warm - as I lay awake in your arms. I know I am alive as I breathe in the scent of you. In the dark, I pretend it's all real till its' gone.

Till the sun comes up on a perfect love that never was.Till it creeps in through the curtains and into our bed like a stranger. It casts my shadow upon your face as I wake, tangled up in your legs. Naked. The sunrise makes me restless as I count the days till you find another me and I find another you. 

For my heart isn't fragile, you see. No. Not at all. Not like the glass I broke the other night when I fell and we laughed. And I picked myself up, because you can never fix what's broken. Your love is not a glue.

Did you even know? There's too many little pieces of me, you can never put together. And only in the dark, we are whole. 

[alicenamster]

[alicenamster]

Could Possibly Take Over The World Together

♈️ Aries and Leo ♌️

♏️ Scorpio and Capricorn ♑️

♋️ Cancer and Pisces ♓️

♉️ Taurus and Virgo ♍️

♐️ Sagittarius and Aquarius ♒️

♊️ Gemini and Libra ♎️

[alicenamster]

The Signs As Arctic Monkeys Songs

Aries: Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair

Taurus: 505

Gemini: Teddy Picker

Cancer: When The Sun Goes Down

Leo: Knee Socks

Virgo: I Wanna Be Yours

Libra: R U Mine

Scorpio: Do I Wanna Know

Sagittarius: I Bet You Would Look Good On The Dance Floor

Capricorn: Crying Lightning

Aquarius: Brianstorm

Pisces: Arabella

[alicenamster]

Updated June 2015

If you can add to the list, please use the answer function to write the woman’s name and country. Missing countries include most of Africa, most of Central America, most of the Middle East, much of the former Eastern Bloc, Pakistan, Iceland, Cambodia, Greece, etc.

Linked names...

[alicenamster]

[alicenamster]

Ego Death

Angel wings protected me as I danced with the Devil

Found my peace in the dark - pain threshold to the next level

Loved with my heart and sinned with no regret

Let go of my past, turned back time at every sunset

I’ve walked this tightrope in a Fool’s paradise

With freaks all around me, jumped in headfirst with open eyes

Curtains down on bruised ego and false pride

The spotlight is on me now - to take all the lessons I’ve learnt in my stride

[alicenamster]

The zodiac signs as 90′s alternative rock songs

Aries : Blink 182 - What’s My Age Again?

Taurus : Oasis - Champagne Supernova

Gemini : Green Day - Walking Contradiction

Cancer : Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight Tonight 

Leo : Smash Mouth - Walking On The Sun

Virgo : Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me

Libra : Cardigans - Lovefool

Scorpio : Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under The Bridge

Sagittarius : Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly

Capricorn : Radiohead - Karma Police

Aquarius : Dead Eye Dick - New Age Girl

Pisces : Goo Goo Dolls - Black Balloon

[alicenamster]

The Midnight Clown

Today I think I’ll wash you out

The stain you left, with the mask you would flout -

Cloaked in love, put sanity at doubt.

The best of mimes don’t make a sound.

Shoved in gloves, latex bound. 

The naked parade, of the midnight clown

Made up to hide a monstrous wrong. 

No more will those visions haunt

The nightmares and terrors that woke at dawn -

Of imagined walls that came tumbling down

On pieces of me, so tightly wound

They shattered as they hit the ground.

Drowned in the flood of tears never shed -

To be born again from the ashes of a bed

Of lies that I’ve slain dead.

I’ll bury the pain that was shrouded in shame

And the guilt that was never my own.

It’s dead and gone and I’ll move on,

No terror lies where truth is found - 

It paints the face of the Midnight Clown.

[alicenamster]

A Night Of Dancing In The Rain

Living together in the same city means that we share the same environment as a community. Everyone has their own stories of course, but as we all breathe in the same atmosphere in certain ways it means that we are shaped the same experiences - celebrating the same cricket victories, mourning the losses of the same disasters, feeling outrage at the same injustices. Recently, we welcomed the beginning of the year with Pohela Boishakh and whether any of us realized it or not, in some ways we all left old parts of ourselves behind in order to forge on ahead towards hope and new adventures. Pohela Boishakh represents the beginning of a cycle; as new crops are planted and taxes are collected as the krishnochuras bloom and green mangoes grace our trees and tables once more to herald the coming of spring. Our stubborn natures are awfully resistant to change, we become fearful of taking bold new steps to move out of our comfort zones and we find it difficult to leave our pasts behind so that we can strip away all the old debris of experiences collected over the years. Mother Nature provides us with the powerful reminder that we are powerless in the face of change and that death and rebirth are a constant cycle that goes in sync with our earth’s dance around the sun. And so the kalboishakhi storms have been ingrained in our collective Bengali psyche as they bring with their fury, much chaos and upheaval. This year, the New Year celebrations took an ugly turn as women were publicly assaulted during the festivities only to get away scot-free. It is time we start taking responsibility into our own hands  to address the glaring lack of humanity, courage and tolerance in our society in order to bring real change rather than relying on the authorities. But it is also too easy to get caught up in all these issues, which appear as mountains that we need to surmount so we forget to live in the moment.

On the 23rd of April, 2015, Fuad took to the stage for his last show in at The Farmer’s Market in Dhaka, to celebrate the release of his latest album, Hit Factory, and as a farewell to the city before embarking on new adventures in the US. The air was electric with anticipation as the crowds started pouring in around 8 o’clock to enjoy a night of music and food with their families and friends. The Farmer’s Market has hosted many acoustic nights for their customers to eat and savour their food during leisurely evenings spent listening to ambient tunes. However, for their last show of the season and for the very first time, they sold general admission tickets as well for 500 tk each that were not part of tickets for 1500 tk which included table bookings which come with set meals, as the music took precedence. Fuad and his band took to the stage around 9 o’clock to a full house of about 150 people - seated at tables in front of the stage and on chairs under a canopy that had been put up in case of rain. As they played songs from their new album, the crowd sat under the strung up bamboo lamps carrying on their conversations and eating their food, growing slightly listless as the hot air hung heavy on the evening. After about an hour, the band took a break from the performance to grab some refreshments themselves. Then, the magic happened.

As the crowd waited in the heat for the performers to start up again, suddenly a strong, cool gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and stripped off the canopy that covered the night sky. Grains of dust rose up from the air and suddenly the oppressive heat was gone. Lightning and thunder filled the skies just as the band resumed their spots on stage and that’s when the rains came. As Fuad and his bandmates played their hits such as Bonno, Tomake Bhebe Likha, Tip Tip Brishti, the crowd left their days and inhibitions behind and felt the exhilarating effect of the storm as they danced in the rain. As the performance came to a close, and the crowd chanted for “one more”, you could tell that the performers as well as the crowd were feeling the effects of the change that the storms brought with them. The first few tinkling notes of Nitol Paye started up and it truly felt like everyone had transcended all their problems and losses and as they sang along and danced, the rains poured down and washed away all the old dirt and our sins, to leave us with a clean slate for the future.

[alicenamster]

Restless Entanglement

Watchful eyes glinting  masculine pride Gone fishing - In a sea of legs.  The wisest cast their nets out wide Land a starfish On your bed. A row of small fish Strung up beside Lamenting the one that got away.

‘Another catch for another day’ A hunter takes time To know his prey. Push the trigger pull the thread Bait, hook and sinker  Land in bed. Heads bob up Mouths go down Who's the king now? Without a crown? Eyes glazed over An eerie glow; Lined them all up In a row. Barstools filled with sitting ducks A pocketful of one time fucks.