r e a d s a l

Longevity curbed

per effulgence’s vertex—

we sit, sulk & sweat;

Envy acclaim’s lank marrow,

char under 1000 suns

Flagrante | Sal Ortiz | 2026 🌺

Bereft of quiver—

Archers miss no impetus

to fell, cordially

Pied pride, root to bloom

shows the world they’re worthy, too;

Homely street bouquets—

scarcely dwelling in mind’s eye,

ever vivid when we’re low

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Elongated rays in cutoffs

strut up and down the neighborhood

on varying degrees of leash,

oblivious to my anti-thirst

Whenever taints may call,

it’s always better being sticky alone;

to carry your groceries neat,

long past noontide’s snarl

each yawn swallows further youth;

Moon watches, renews

Flag Day | Sal Ortiz | 2026 🏳️‍🌈

All while engaging in various types and degrees of BDSM along the way:

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But it’s such a fervent, potent wish that her dreamed-up, would-be hero becomes sentient, with a flawed agenda. Cooper begins informing and over-complicating her dream state with his often inadequate methods, actions, and questionable history.

The “angel meant to help” Laura is not the literal one she sees at the end of FWWM; it’s Cooper standing right next to her. He meant to help her but obviously couldn’t because everything had already happened when he arrived on the scene. And then, 25 years later, he crosses time to prevent Laura’s death and bring her to her still grieving mother who has been consumed entirely by regret, guilt, sorrow, and loss (not simply inhabited by a demon; those are the real demons).

Laura is “saved” but then displaced and forced to remember all of her pain, all at once. Her mother doesn’t even exist, but Laura hears her.

Cooper fails. Not because you can’t undo the past—IT’S NOT ALLOWED.

Halcyon future—

turn out more than each rider’s

lost & passing scene...

Cycle ’way caution instead,

faces embracing all wind