Abuse & Manipulation

A Write-up by Humphery Adun 2018 ©

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Humans are relational beings; and thus, we owe our existence to the ability to cultivate relationships that sustain our mental, physical, emotional and psychological tranquility. In every relationship, there are roles played by each correspondence, and these roles are defined by several factors; age, position, class, family, culture, spirituality, and tradition. This plays out in such a way that it creates dominant and subordinate(dependent) individuals in the relationships. Interestingly, as adults we play both roles of being both dependent and dominant at the same time, across different relationships, and thus there is a diffusion of a learned trait from a relationship circle to another one; and this goes on and on, creating a tangle of relationship traits.

Language Lover

Featured Piece written by Meg Paulsen ©

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I know only how to touch
without hands,
and therein lies the catch:
I’m holding a face I cannot speak to,
tracing a tongue that cannot receive
the gold I grow on my lips
nor taste you in the names I give it.

Words

Featured Piece written by Derek Oluwamuyiwa Fodeke-Rodgers ©

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If we talked…
If we talked and I spoke sweet words…
If we talked and my words cradled your face like they were hands…
If you heard everything you’ve ever wanted will you truly be happy?
Or would you mimic me?
Whisper the words you want to hear to your self.
Cradle your own face with your own words.

Neither This, Nor That

Written by Alex Cue 2019. All Rights Reserved ©

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On the tip of the tongue the ineffable song

From the silence of

Nine billion names that don’t describe it:

“Not this, not this.”