# August Challenge: Compassion



## Fin

Click here for the workshop thread


* Chosen by escorial, this month's prompt is "Compassion"*


You're free to interpret the prompt in any way you wish, though site rules apply. The winner will receive the Laureate award, a free month of FoWF, and will get to choose next month's prompt.

You may have your entry posted in the *workshop thread* if you wish to protect your first rights. Note: If you do so, you must post a link to it here in the main thread or risk being disqualified.

Please send your entry to *Fin* if you wish to enter anonymously. If you would like it to be posted in the workshop section, then say so within the PM.

You have a ten minute grace period to edit your work after posting. Anything after that and it'll be discounted. So make sure it's as finished as it can be before entering.

Do not post comments in this thread. It's for entries only. If you have any questions or comments, please post them in the *Bards' Bistro.*


*This challenge will close on the 14th of August at 6pm EST.*


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## toddm

*Teddy bears nailed to a tree*

The day was hot and moist, like a dog's breath.
The smoke clung close to the ground,
blue and pungent, under a dream of swinging leaves.
The banshee voices echoed down the clapboard corridor,
and deep into the ocean of August sky.

The day is cold and brittle, like broken glass.
The traffic stirs the weathered plush.
The stitched faces are ever smiling but never happy,
amid the faded polyester flowers
and colored ribbons fluttering there.


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## Firemajic

*M.I.A>*

Just a drugged out bum
down on his luck,
holding a small sign,
can you please spare a buck?

Quickly turn your head,
as you drive on by,
he could get a job,
if he would only try...

Over there--he was a hero,
held in high esteem,
fighting for their freedom,
protecting their dream.

Unwanted wounded soldier,
returning home to hostile place,
no medals, no speech--
saw not one welcoming face.

He bought freedom,
and he paid the cost.
Another soldier wounded,
someone's Son is lost.

You can't see his scars--
they are hidden deep inside,
and you don't know the pain,
he has learned to hide.

In the great U.S.A.
he stands alone on the street,
just the clothes on his back
and the boots on his feet.


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## Pidgeon84

Singularity

Lucid sky
Everything here
Right before our eyes
Electric love
Dance with me now
In this one moment
Of complete compassion

Pulsing together
So careless
Dripping with sweat
Get closer to me now
We are a singularity

It electrifies
It builds you up
It drops you down
Falling through the clouds
I need you
To stay with me now


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## aj47

​The Gift of Self

The world has left you troubled;
I'll give what help I can.
Though I can't heal your sorrows
nor even feel your pain.

I'll give you food and shelter
and chase away your blues.
I'll offer second chances--
because I know the truth.

You did not choose your burdens;
they found you on their own.
And it's within my power
to ease what life has done.


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## Ethan

*The invisible.*

He stands on the corner and watches the crowd
From a distance with safety in mind
He smiles at their antics and applauds when it’s time
though he knows he's not one of their kind

Then he pulls up his collar, turns sadly away
stepping back into obscurity
Hands thrust in his pockets he hunches his back
and trudges away wearily

He follows the pavement avoiding the cracks
oblivious to life passing by
then he opens the door of his one bedroom flat
and wonders is this how he’ll die

He turns on the telly and watches the news
and comments with world weary sighs
At eleven o’clock he gets ready for bed
another numb day just passed by

Then he turns out the light and the loneliness comes
his constant companion and pain
and  silently weeping he dreams the same dream
for tomorrows just more of the same


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## midnightpoet

The neighbor

The sun shines today
now that you are here.
Although the weather 
is gloomy and cold
your help warms my soul.
I rise from my bed
to greet you, 
neighbor.  
My own daughters have
abandoned me.
They will be happy
when I’m gone.
I remember our days
together, haunting 
garage sales and
looking for bargains.
You were there when
my husband died. 
You are my surrogate daughter, 
filling my lonely and 
bitter life by simply
being here. 
Even as breathing is labored
and pain blocks
my words, nothing matters
now that you are here.


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## Nellie

*Pretend*

There is a game we all play
bit by bit  every day,
we all act out until the end
then we realize, it's pretend.

We hide our fretful faces
lacking in the social graces,
but in the storms of life
we face realism in our strife.

Realizing life is never fair
we can take time to care
for our own next of kin
without needless chagrin.

Offering love with liberty
instead, without wasteful pity
for life may be ending
so, please, let's stop pretending.


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## Theglasshouse

Compassion

A heart sounds like a song, and music box
Has its unique beats and meanings.
A sound like horns, and an alarm,
Brings rage, theme, and feelings,
of someone broken,
Because their world has changed.
Like people,
Tricked by our minds
Our eyes are mirrors.
When people live in a world that owns them
And not backwards.

Healing like a monk
Like a salty essence, and with a salty attitude, and poised at a high altitude,
We give up our salty resolves:
Charity, compassion,
Picked up every season.
Like flowers picked on holidays’ seasons.

A trap is set.
Humans think rottenly breaking like porcelain dolls and china,
And a mind of a person, to whom
A heart is a piece, like a  bitter fragment that remembers a camera moment or a camera obscura,

Invisible and hidden from sight.
Compassion is in blood and heart.


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## NickWolfe

*Feelings Not Returned*

She slaps me across the face,
I don't mind it,
She spits at me and calls me a disgrace,
I don't mind it,
She threatens to kick me out of my own place,
And I don't mind it.

For Love is tricky in many different ways,
For it blocks your other senses with a haze.
And though only you can feel it,
It can be shown, and I really mean it.

I open the door for her,
She doesn't mind it,
I buy her the expensive clothes made of fur,
She doesn't mind it,
I am her personal chauffeur,
And she doesn't mind it.

For Compassion is devious in many different fields,
For to everyone but you, it is revealed.
And though you cant see it,
Others see your compassion, and I mean it.


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## Gargh

love, self


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## thepancreas11

IN A WORLD SO DARK.

In a world so dark,
why do we go about
putting out flames?
I don't know love
As well as I should
But I wont take it away.

I see hands in hands,
lips upon lips,
eyes connecting with eyes.
The only thing,
I want to know
is how to make that mine.

Whether death or taxes
War or famine,
Oppression, illness, or strife,
I would trade them all
if I could have
that someone in my life.

So in our daily
going if we could
recognize that plight
Why would we
not go about
distributing the light?

To you and yours
the one you love
whomever that may be,
hold their hand
kiss their lips
love them eternally.


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## Gumby

*Mom's New Bag*


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## Chesters Daughter

*Dromedary Down*

The little pixies
who dole out the foul
chaff of fate
made me a favored date
until we were going steady,
whether or not I was ready.

With my bio memorized
from cover to cover
to better mete out misery,
in a giggling circle
around me they'd hover
haggling over
whose turn it was to place
the next straw.

Day after day,
they'd pile the hay,
each so malcontent 
with mere handfuls, 
they'd stuff their glittery 
skin to the gills.
Tiny bulimic scarecrows
obsessed 
with weight loss
at my expense.

Until yesterday,
when this camel's back
abruptly snapped
leaving me a pile 
of useless limbs
with a naked splinter of spine
poking out
like the flagless pole 
of the defeated.

Relationship severed.

They sprinkled me
with sparkles
so headlights will hit me
before any car does.
There is no joy in victory
if the object of their derision
is dead and buried.

There are brigades of them, 
and mine's been reassigned.

Abandoned here 
in a helpless heap
I never sleep
for praying for the soul
who comes next in line.


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## Pandora

*Shine*

_

Shine . . . 

I happened upon a woman with wildly golden hair
spun in curls and waves.

Seeming lit from the inside.

Her tears, fell on

fields of green
specked gold and brown.

They reigned. 

She smiled at me. I
gazed in glass,
I knew I had been blessed.

Her lips moved with words of
Love,

'Warm and soft, gentle
Be

__Shine . . .__

heavenly on our Path.'_


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## PiP

*Street Life*

Lifeless eyes
Mind elsewhere
Dirty clothes
Matted hair
Empty bottles
Plastic bags
Outstretched hand
Begging bowl
Nothing there.

Child stops
Throws coins and bread
Eyes meet
Child shakes his head.
Removes his coat
“Mister, you’re cold" he said.

A starving dog
Matted hair
Sunken eyes
Rack of ribs
Wags tail
Waiting…
“You ‘ungry?”
Dog barks
Decision made.

“See yer tomorrow, mister.”
Eyes meet
Child shakes his head
“You’ll be wanting more food
if you’re to be fed”


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## Mutimir

SELFLESS SAPLINGS

Craving it, a bit more each passing day,
But it's rare and seldom seen.
A little thing called civility,
Not found in this meat grinder, labeled society.

Wise and wondering, why stomach fails to churn,
Numb to the strife and embracing saturation.
Blood, it seems so generic,
Death, it's a cheap gimmick.

So come, watch the bombs and watch the skies,
Listen to the sirens and hear the cries.
Ask who will answer to the call,
And who's to pay the hefty toll.

These answers, they become history,
Our traditions, become bitterly written.
How to change, embrace civility,
Find disgust in gimmicks and humanity.

Deep down, the cycle breaks,
As a seed pushing, climbing from the filth.
Absorbing warm hope, this precious gift,
Within youth, our fate sits.

That tiny sapling, it yells out,
Silence now and hear the shout.
Feed my desires, that is all,
But help my dear friends, if they fall.


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## Chesters Daughter

Link for *Fats Velvet's* entry posted in the workshop:


*let alone*


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## Chesters Daughter

This challenge is now closed.


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