<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Speak_Moore</title><description>Poems by Wahid Moore.</description><link>https://speakmoorepoems.com/</link><item><title>The Danger of Shallow Water</title><link>https://speakmoorepoems.com/poems/shallow-water/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://speakmoorepoems.com/poems/shallow-water/</guid><description>There’s an ocean inside me
but you only see the surface.
You think you know me
because you can count the ripples
on my skin.</description><pubDate>Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>The Physics of a Near-Miss</title><link>https://speakmoorepoems.com/poems/near-miss/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://speakmoorepoems.com/poems/near-miss/</guid><description>Our hearts collided like comets,
but our orbits were all wrong.
You were racing towards the future,
while I was still decoding my past.
We tried to synchronize our clocks,
but your seconds were my hours,
and my days were your heartbeats.
Time became a language we couldn&apos;t translate.
I wanted to build castles in the clouds,
you needed roots in solid ground.
Our love was a beautiful impossibility,
like trying to catch starlight in a jar.
Now I understand why they say
timing is everything.
Because loving you taught me
that &quot;everything&quot; can still mean &quot;not enough&quot;
when the universe&apos;s gears aren&apos;t aligned.
I&apos;ll carry this almost-love like a pocket watch,
ticking away the what-ifs and could-have-beens,
always wondering if somewhere,
in a parallel world,
our timelines finally intersect.</description><pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Thorns That Teach Me How to Hold You</title><link>https://speakmoorepoems.com/poems/thorns/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://speakmoorepoems.com/poems/thorns/</guid><description>She stands in front of that mirror like it&apos;s a portal,
painting on yesterday&apos;s face, trying to rewind time
to the girl she thinks I ordered off the menu.
Concealer thick as secrets she buries deep,
lipstick bold as the lies she tells herself in the dark,
foundation layered like walls around a heart that&apos;s already open
wide open, baby, and I&apos;m already inside,
living in the rooms of your chaos, your contradictions,
the places you hide because you think they&apos;re too loud, too much.
You treat love like a runway,
strutting polished, filtered, flawless,
thinking only the pretty ones get chosen, get kept.
But I&apos;m over here, addicted to the way you argue with your reflection
voice cracking like thunder before the rain,
your laugh a shattered chandelier still sparkling as it falls,
the way you hold grudges close,
pressing them to your chest like unsent texts
that say I still care too damn much.
You&apos;re trying to be the sunset everyone photographs
soft, fading, safe.
But I met you in the eye of your hurricane,
winds rearranging my whole damn world,
furniture of my ego flying,
and I never wanted shelter.
I fell for the storm that loves like destruction and rebirth,
the kind of disaster that leaves you breathless,
alive, begging for more warnings I ignore.
You keep handing me the answer sheet,
perfect scores, no mistakes,
when I&apos;m in love with your questions
the ones that linger, unfinished,
your ellipses pulling me in deeper...
You warn me your edges are sharp,
that they&apos;ll cut if I get too close.
But I&apos;ve been writing in blood since the day your thorns met my skin,
learning how to hold you without bleeding out,
how to grip beauty that bites back.
Your sharpness isn&apos;t danger
it&apos;s the way you carve space for yourself in a world that tries to sand you down.
Stop blooming just for their vases.
I&apos;m not here to pick you clean.
I&apos;m here for the entire garden
roots tangled in dirt, weeds fighting for light,
thorns guarding the roses,
the whole wild, unapologetic plot of you.</description><pubDate>Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate></item></channel></rss>