Retreat without a sound
Lycanthrope (returns)
Lycanthrope
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Darting furtively through the mist,
Cursed under lunar brightness,
The valiancy of my heart,
Slashed by razor teeth,
Became my darkest side.
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Evil enclosing,
My nocturnal lair,
Mud tracked prints,
Find me sprawled,
In the dawn of twisted sheets,
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Like tormented trees,
Gnarled from remembering,
What blackened life,
Is forever gone.
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But only the music,
Of wind and owls,
And the crackling rain,
Had abided my incessant howls,
Until yet another night,
When gliding clouds,
Reveal another full newness of moon.
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-Poem by Sanford Ross Bender
Visiting wind
Tiger Lilies
Spinning Islands
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I am going down to the Florida Keys,
Where hurricanes abound,
Spinning islands like a string of pearls,
Wind sweeping waves into the sound.
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Mangroves and hardwood hammocks,
Encircling the reef periphery,
Moonshine turning turquoise tides,
A wind quartet in lunar synchrony.
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I am not searching for sunken treasure,
In the deep blue depths, divers plumb.
I am looking for seashells that sparkle,
Along the shifting beaches, I comb,
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We could share a pail of whelks and cowries,
That drift in with the evening tide,
Gaze into conches and mother of pearl mollusks,
Discovering the sea, side by side.
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Lyrics and music – Sandy Ross Bender, June 14, 2026
My lawnmower stopped working
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My lawnmower stopped working,
So, I let the grass grow high.
My neighbors are complaining,
That it would soon touch the sky.
I always wanted a forest,
And the birds that it would bring.
The minstrels will follow,
The troubadours will sing.
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The lawnmower was the pushing kind.
Like the mower that my father had.
He liked the clinking of the blades,
Without the fumes and noise that was so bad.
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Never had I thought of ghosts before.
But now I am in belief.
My father appeared to mow the lawn,
And now, I can sigh in relief.
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Lyrics and music by Sanford Ross Bender
Sunnier days
In my own time
Odyssey
Time is running out
