Kindness Knows No Devils

“Sometimes a smile will topple over a mountain; most times, instead, will desire to heal the heart within it.”

“If you leave without them after being chosen, you leave without a soul.”

ad09.26.2025.1435odrising

Denial is like a moth to a flame; no matter what you try, you become lured into the illusion of it’s beauty; all the while, making your demise real, like a ball of volatile flame.

::Epictusz Salvatore::

~Epictusz Salvatore

ad06.21.2025.09.08odrising

::Epictusz Salvatore::

ad06.14.2025.19.39odrising

I have loved so passionately, enough to sink the hearts of poets.

I have longed so fiercely to relive my moments, pain and smiles; tears and laughter; worth reliving yes, immeasurable times over.

But, now, to cling to those moments, feels I’m grasping a razor’s edge…

even then, is time well spent.

::Epictusz Salvatore::

What you don’t realize is, once your eyes are opened, I am the cosmos.

You get no second chances.

The core within this shell inevitably will wither to crumbled ashen bone;

collapse with nothing left, but dissolving memories which time that too will steal.

My bleeding heart leaves words behind shall never again will feel.

No dynasty.

No progeny.

Misfortune wealth by thrice.

Life’s real treasure is love and pain just dancing on thin ice.

::Epictusz Salvatore::

aka A.I.Plata

ad01.07.2025.10.30odrising

I stand, yes

at a pit base

reaching, hoping, striving

Like a flame rising;

an ember, a minute piece

Of a star with no direction.

My road is blocked.

The caverns I walk

have paths leading to nowhere.

Some would say it’s somewhere, but they are not here.

They are nowhere to be found.

In hopes of great floods.

I anticipate my breath, I can only hope to hold for a moment.

I know I have buried strength.

I know there is something else above me, yet, I fear to look upon.

You cannot know what it is.

You cannot see what I have seen.

You cannot breathe without choking.

My heart and soul is in between, smothered with weight of memories;

Suffocating with thoughts.

Reaching for a greased hand at best, I can slip into an even further pit.

I stand, yes.

I stand with no room to reach now.

You cannot help me.

You don’t even know me.

It’s a risk like anything else.

I stand, and I’m not worth saving.

I weep, and I am alone.

No one can see me.

No one cares the attempt

to see the pit.

I can say, I don’t blame you.

Don’t worry, I blame myself.

I stand, but…

I might as well sit.

I don’t need to be found.

I don’t need to be heard.

I don’t need to be at all…

and I’m ok with that.

I wake,

I wake amidst the roars of

raging storms.

Piercing, prodding, prickling rain.

Stabs and stings

of droplets dance,

be might as well

of wasps and thorns.

I despair,

I despair of what comes next.

I fear,

I fear a foreboding flood of fury;

the dreaded, daring ire

drops me to my knees.

My fists,

My fists they bleed.

Clawing, clenching, I cease to find

what little courage I thought I had; slipped through my fingers.

I rise, I stand,

I rise to find

the storms submit to whispers; exhaling the waning thunder.

I am breathless.

I am beaten.

I see the ruin.

I see my littered remains;

dismantled, dissolved, destroyed in its wake.

I assess the dust, the fragments.

Sprawled is my courage.

Spilled is my will.

My passion pulverized

to ash and ember,

lofted by flame.

I see the ruin.

I see me.

I see…me,

amidst the wind.

I lost.

Epictusz Salvatore was here,

In thought;

In storms;

In ash and ember,

and now he’s not.

ad07.31.2024.09.27odrising

I was certain

it wasn’t a dream

last I saw you.

My heart pounded

as rapid thunder.

My palms clammed

as young first love.

My eyes fixed

on your lips,

nervously anticipating

a kiss that would

deliver me on

a cruise deep

beyond the nexus

of cosmic starlight.

I was certain it wasn’t

a dream.

I thought I was certain.

::Epictusz Salvatore::