Desert Dweller

a drink of the wind
a taste of the rain
heals the wound
dampens the pain

© 2025 Bruno Talerico
Stafford challenge 207/365.

Big Words

mind full to overflowing with
reveries of intimate pleasures
fantasies of containment and struggle
feelings of helplessness and ecstasy
dreams of kisses and soft caresses 

breath coming fast
lace panties dampening triggered
by the powerful embrace of a
massive throbbing
vocabulary.


Sesquipedalian Translation

consciousness abounding with
preoccupation of intimate entertainments
hallucinations of predomination and skirmishes
dispositions of powerlessness and euphoria
delusions of osculation and delicate endearments

insufflations forthcoming hypersonic
openwork undergarments saturating
by authoritative entwinement of a
monumental oscillating
terminology

© 2025 Bruno Talerico
Stafford challenge 206/365.
Just goofing off with a new word.

Regardless of who you are— 
powerful politician, reclusive trillionaire,
pious pastor, or unemployed laborer—

if you die in some horrific , ridiculous way,
like drowning in a cesspool
or blowing yourself up
while building a pipe bomb,

that will be your life’s legacy,
that is how you will always be remembered.

“He was a great chef, 
but forgot to turn off the gas,” 
is probably not what you want
on your gravestone.

So pay attention to detail,
and never forget:
the Grim Reaper is always lurking,
waiting for a good laugh at your expense.

Live long and prosper!

© 2025 Bruno Talerico
Stafford challenge 205/365.
Images found on the internet.

How do you know which side
of the line you are on,
that very thin line
that divides wisdom
from nonsense,
and who draws the line?

© 2025 Bruno Talerico
Stafford challenge 204/365.

I begin this day in goodness
I begin this day in kindness.

Oh! Good kind star!

Just the right size, just the right distance,
to warm this wonderful world, just the right amount
at just the right time to foster life.

Oh! Radiant wonder!
I begin this day in gratitude.

Thank you for this beautiful morning!

© 2025 Bruno Talerico
Stafford challenge 203/365.

You lost your life and
like  an amputation,
I lost part of my self. 

I still feel pain 
in the part of me 
where you reside.

Each day I bleed 
invisible droplets
onto pages of my life.

They say time heals,
and it is true.

There is no longer
a need for a tourniquet
to stem the flow.
Although a band-aid does the trick, it is still blood.

© 2025 Bruno Talerico

Is it true that Canada plans to annex
Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Maine?

Is it true that Panama plans to take control
of the canal that traverses their country?

Is it true that Mexico got Trump to build the wall
to keep the gringos out of their beautiful country?

Is it true that Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
will become the United States of the Caribbean,

and Colorado, New Mexico, California, and Arizona
will be the Affiliated States of Sonora?

Is it true
that pink elephants are protesting in the streets
and pigs are flying over the white house?

© 2025 Bruno Talerico
Stafford challenge 202/365.
Image found on the internet.

In the sleepless hours,
unresolved worries act as beads
in the insomniac necklace.

Like movies at the drive in, needles-in-haystacks,
misplaced keys,
unwarranted fears
and unearned trophies
get projected inside our skull.

Things that don’t quite fit, 
haunting questions,
existential confusions,
sneaky suspicions
and imaginary insults 
expand exponentially into
a self-important möbius band
of non-precious stones
pretending they are rubies and sapphires. 

Random concerns
fixate our attention
until, before we know it, 
the sun is lazily creeping over the horizon,
signifying the end of another sleepless night.

© 2025 Bruno Talerico 
Stafford challenge 201/365.

What is the destiny of Gaia’s children

Waves of potentialities collapsing,
bundles of imperturbable criticalities.
Placid animal urges.
Pastward convergences.

Frogs croak
at the edge of the pond,
as catfish soak in the deep,
near the green meadow
carpeted with grass,
trees cloaked in velvety moss.

What is the destiny of Luna’s offspring?

In a gradualist creeping way
its possible to know a lot
and still be unable to draw
a conclusion.

The deer watches frozen in place
ears facing, curious yet wary.
Black birds land
in a shrub near the horizon,
dark dots flopping, then settling,
gossiping in bird talk.

What is the destiny of Sun worshippers?

Each day has similar actions.
Rituals to ward off temporal progression
fail to remove particulars, simply polishing them. 
Each day is a new adventure.
Nothing ever repeats.

Our story
goes on for a while
a few genes, a few words
persist for a while
then off we go.
Nothing ever repeats.

© 2025 Bruno Talerico
Stafford challenge 200/365.

at the 180th meridian 
the international date line, 
an imaginary line
divides yesterday from tomorrow.

walking east,
i lean into the future,
heading west,
i recede into history.

only when
i straddle the line
am i grounded
in the imaginary present

© 2025 Bruno Talerico
Stafford challenge 199/365.

International Date Line trivia:
Fiji is the only place in the world where one can walk across the international date line without snowshoes.
Image generated by AI.