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Working: Vol. 4, No. 4 - Issue 16 Winter 2025

These Three Dreams Remain​

Issue 16
Part One: Creatures Dream

Healing our coin-operated sorrow
Sorrow replayed when the lands are barren
Barren like waters where whales burst and pose
Breach in the sky where birds could know freedom 
Freedom we hold tight when the seas are dry
Dry seabed that appears to be sleeping
Sleeping in nature is a shifting state
State of a deciduous vigil  
Vigil for the unappreciated
Unappreciated Dreams will vanish


Part Two: Birds Dream

Unappreciated dreams will vanish
Earth's polluted air and dirty water
Water from a comorbid vanity
Vanity of a bird that flies above
Above where they pose in the lift of winds
Winds where they wait like drafting gliders
Gliders, silent, in search of a small slice crack
Crack of light splicing the verve to escape
Escape the comorbidity of earth
Earth, our earth, too long you rest unaware


Part Three:  Mothers Dream

Earth, our earth, too long you rest unaware
Unaware of our trespass on God's forms
Forms and images seen as gifted jewels
Jewels to Titans, singing of the elements
Elements conspiring at rest and run
Run with Terra, the goddess and mother
Mother Terra, sing for fruit and flowers
Flowers to inspire oratorios
Oratorios sung in shrines of trees
Trees aspiring to immortality

Kenneth Boyd, winner and judge of the Royal Palm Literary Award (RPLA), is a neurodivergent poet and former jazz musician. His poetry appears in Wayfarer Magazine, Unlost, Flora Fiction, Of Poets & Poetry, Viewless Wings, The Ekphrastic Review, and elsewhere. His collection, Grasshopper Dreams, was released in 2023. Kenneth is a graduate of the UCLAx Creative Writing Program and an Assistant Editor of Poetry at Southland Alibi Magazine. He enjoys life in the South with his wife and dog, Stella. 

Copyright © 2025 Empyrean Literary Magazine, L.L.C.
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