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Odin odin@aflx.com

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Books
· Perceptions

· ECHOSIS

· Prosetry at Work

· Said and Unsaid - Vol 1

· 3 WAY MIRROR


Short Stories
· Patience Waning

· Ladle Lines (A prosetry memory)

· A Gentle Man

· Pacing Love's Journey

· Gratitude

· A Sticky Conversation

· Blazing Now and Then

· Vulnerable Captivity

· The Kite That Would Not Bow

· Time


Articles
· War and Peace

· Desperation Breeds Desperation

· Preference Manifest

· Innocent Guilt

· Barbed Isolation

· A Place...

· Sanity's Loss

· Organs Anonymous

· Fatuous Beyond Absurdity

· Truth is One


Poetry
· The Life-long Pernicious Evil

· Cherishing Sounds of Silence

· Understanding the Unexplainable

· Reality of Another Kind

· Finding Trust Again

· Aromalicious Memories

· A Jungle-rain Pastorale

· Sediment Within the Soul

· Life's Enormous Green Chest

· Roadkill Memoriam

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Survival

by Odin odin@aflx.com — Read all 3,869 poems by Odin odin@aflx.com

Many see mankind’s survival as an endangered species for multiple reasons. Perhaps the most threatening topical reason might be AI. Hal in 2001 Odesey was fictitious then. Now… ? Might survival be plagued with too many what ifs? Below is a view of how to see becoming an endangered species in a somewhat historical possibility. (Image by Odin AI)

Monday, February 9, 2026


Poem Artwork

 Survival

A carousel spins in the core of thought,
horses carved from bone and breath,
their eyes like shattered mirrors
reflecting the carnival of our contradictions.

We sip clouds through straws of glass,
tongues blistered by the sweetness of illusion,
while shadows braid themselves into fences,
no hinges, no locks, just the ache of belonging
fused into the vibration of air.

Ants march like black commas
punctuating the sentence of eternity,
each crumb a syllable of survival
while we scribble manifestos on sand,
knowing the tide edits without mercy.

 

And yet…

imagination hums like a skeleton key
hidden in the throat of silence,
while the cockroach,
armored oracle of dusk,
carries the gospel of decay in its lacquered shell.
It drinks from shadows,
feasts on the glue of forgotten dreams,
and dances in fallout like a priest of ruin,
its hymn a whisper:

Survival is not conquest,
but the art of becoming dust,
a sibling of eternity.



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Reviewed by Diana Legun
Reviewed on March 4, 2026
I’ve been away too long because you are in a literary orbit that I admire immensely. What vitamin supplements are you taking? I need to get some. Haha….crack on! ~~ djl P.S. — It would serve me well to lighten up even in my comments here…I’ve become spirit-heavy and sternish. Time for me to make up some fabulous vocabulary words and post something myself. I get fixated on the minotaur of ruin barreling down upon us all in every nation on earth. I’ll go work on a jingle right now. To be continued….. ~~ djl

Reviewed by Richard Cederberg
Reviewed on February 10, 2026
A Daliesque assortment of images to support your premise. The balance (between human beings and the planet) is off, way off, and each day it seems to be getting more unbalanced. It seems as though humanity is becoming like a cancer on our beautiful Earth, especially in the management of it. I am so thankful Michele and I have been watching the 'Winter Olympics', it is certainly helping restore our faith in how beautiful and healthy and gifted human beings can be. Thank you for sharing, and thank you for always encouraging this reader to think. Sending much goodness to you. Continued inspiration. Peace.

Reviewed by Ronald Hull
Reviewed on February 10, 2026
You describe much in few words. Certainly, the "ache of belonging, ”and our tendency to “march like ants“ to our doom while, the waters rise along our coast, and the “tide edits without mercy."

Followed by the ultimate survivor, the cockroach. Brilliant.

In 1979, I asked my students in an MBA class to describe what might cause our demise. They had trouble thinking of any. But we eventually came up with about eight or nine. About half of them were caused by the action of business and industry. Hoping to instill upon them the need for restrictions on capitalism for the inherent tendency to march until there is nothing left to survive on except bloated money.

Ron

Reviewed by John Herlihy
Reviewed on February 10, 2026
Feels like a journey through the fragile architecture of human existence, in images that are both unsettling and strangely beautiful. I was struck by the contradictions and the ants as “black commas” marking eternity—such vivid metaphors for how small we are against the forces that shape us. The cockroach as an “armored oracle” is stunning. The closing insight—that survival is less about dominance and more about learning to live alongside decay—lands with quiet power. A compelling and thought-provoking effort.


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