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The Last Lie of SummerQuiet days, the overcast sky keepsThe Last Lie of Summer8 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
to itself, ignoring the living for weeks
at a time.
From half a state away-
you could hear trains roll through
towns like mine.
There is peace
and it can't be trusted
Undeserved suspicion
given to the first
fallen leaves.
This was the calm before the calm.
The man that is seen, but
nobody knows.
Promise yourself:
"Tomorrow I will say hello to him."
But we are all too busy dressing healed wounds.
Vie NoirYou were the promise of regret,Vie Noir7 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
destiny wrapped in an egg shell,
something that temperance would not allow.
And you looked at me with cloudy eyes,
sipping your excuses while choking on tomorrow.
(We were the privileged few that God chose to endure the hopeless)
And you cursed my name while confessing every lie.
My borders grew as you clawed for the limits of absolution.
(We were the privileged few whose skin was hard to pierce)
And you loaded that gun with false bravado and ill intent.
The world was watching as you aimed it at the future.
(We were the privileged few who never forget to empty the chamber)
And you stared into the no
Bad Mouth Habitsi.Bad Mouth Habits2 years ago in Free Verse More Like This
I carry God around in my lip like he's chew,
spitting his name out in poems like potholes,
I make everything a simile
for the hold he has on me.
ii.
When it comes to men,
I've the appetite of a Roman housewife,
I take, I taste, I tear,
swallow and then then toss up
for the next course.
iii.
I don't kiss anyone so dearly
as the glass pipe bridged between lips
and fist.
iv.
Jameson, you're an Irish Lad,
a young ram of bucking proportions,
I let you rattle around my mouth
til I herd you in
and down.
v.
Sometimes there's nothing so sweet
as the jack-hammer of angry words
or the steel trap clamp of silence.
I exercise m
There's Something Wrong with Norman BatesLoving you was like seeing absent color,There's Something Wrong with Norman Bates7 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
the unforgiving grays of a poet's December,
waking from a nightmare to a sky devoid of
stars and the moon sunk in the ocean.
The moment I laid eyes on you was the epoch
of my detachment…the collapse of all serenity.
You told me that your parents were dead and buried-
But sometimes they called your name from the wine cellar.
I begged you to haunt me when the lights were off;
"Ghosts won't bother other ghosts." I said
You went to the other side of the room and stared
at a fly dying on the windowsill. When the creature finally
stopped moving, you looked at me with e
for nothing or nobodywiden your life.for nothing or nobody1 year ago in Free Verse More Like This
the organ fails.
the monk lifts his fingers.
the water falls thru,
the light betrays.
but still.
things get returned to:
windows & dying plants,
the place of the buried animal,
the couch of the magnified christmas.
sometimes faithfully,
sometimes in unexpected ways.
widen your circling
flowered
self.
light a candle,
indicate your life
by the act.
daybreak undresses
in your room
while you sleep.
the light waits
for nothing
or nobody,
like music of the hands,
of ocean currents.
the w
JazzAn ambulance flies down the empty streetJazz4 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
It's siren's wail becomes a saxophone
Playing cool beneath the blue moon
Flags wave in the darkness at half-mast
Hospital lights are white and cold
An IV in the ICU for cocktails
Play it, brother, play through the rain
Birthing notes as lost as our souls
Gin and a Pall Mall in the morgue
PixieI never had enough faith in you,Pixie8 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
my best postmodern pixie friend,
who presses herself against my shoulder
killing her fall with leaning.
You taught me something new
about anxiety today:
how to wake
up when it's morning, how to miss
dactylic illness with the parched
indelicacy of a crinkled sun.
In the eternal rendition you say
your name is always in the vocative
case, and only vocative:
says the girl
who taught a smaller girl to sing,
a girl of thirteen, with the same
nimble character we shared, the same
calderical eyes we shared.
The girl's voice
tumb
When the Mountains Turn BlueThe nights you spend alone feel theWhen the Mountains Turn Blue2 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
most familiar, but you can’t define it.
Intangible, like the way a field of cotton
breathes before a rainstorm, or those
pieces of yourself, left behind on the
far away sidewalks of your childhood.
One day it will be the hottest summer
recorded in fifty seven years.
Your wife and children will be somewhere
without you so you’ll sit on the porch and
sweat out the memories.
You’ll think about the time your father
took you on a road trip to the Rockies.
The only time you ever spent alone with the man.
You’ll also think about the nights when he slept
on the couch and how your br
The Daily Sentence ProjectShe shifts her thighs to the same anglesThe Daily Sentence Project3 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
where tectonic plates exchange glances.
The infant in her arms coos in haiku,
the phone crouching on her shoulder
barking in blank verse and bank terms;
where has the affection been displaced?
Perhaps the both of them are three full-
time jobs past romance and two cases
of chickenpox past the seven-year-itch
to be able to tell that dishwater softens
and oatmeal baths becalm their hands.
The kitchen tile is a haphazardous haven
for cloven shoes. She prefers slip-ons.
Stepping StonesI rip pagesStepping Stones8 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
out of poetry books,
the titles of
Shakespeare
and Plath
and Dickinson
littering the floor
like trash,
and I wonder
if we don't all
wind up stepping stones
in the end.
MelancholiaSoothe and subdue me,Melancholia8 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
overthrow the ferocity
that harrows me nightly,
and all through the day,
when I should be
happy with you.
Say you will slay
all of my fears
and the forces that drive me
always to tears,
or this intensity
will surely devour me.
You won't escape its teeth, dear,
because you love me so.
You stand by your woman,
even when the wind is blowin',
threatening to tear our house down.
And the colder the winter,
you just hold me tighter,
vowing nothing
will tear us asunder.
Golden-hearted you,
bravest of lovers,
have withstood all the tempests I bring,
but together we will drown,
stuck in its
Before The Stars FadeThe world has grown smaller, more insignificantBefore The Stars Fade6 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
Little men run about in the darkness, screaming their inanities
Quiet listening is abandoned in favor of shouting louder
over the top of one's neighbors
Dreams once soft and sweet have become meat for them
to tear apart and grind with their teeth, demanding recognition
But no one is ever fulfilled, untiringly grasping at shadows
The world shrinks a little more, and children grow up fast
I can hear the screaming and shouting from my bed, through
closed windows, all want to make their presence known
Seeing like a cat, hearing like a bat, I feel the need to go out and
shout with them, t
diluted evanescencebreezes are fickle things, you saiddiluted evanescence8 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
when your eyes were somewhere far away
the wind danced in the narrow expanse
of all our waning hopes and desires,
and something about the way the air grew static
made me remember a time when
inexperience was still a virtue.
sparks go out, you said
as the discord dimmed
(glossy eyes weren't always
made of glass, but they became
along the line of desperation)
I truly believed the world pulsed somewhere
in the cadence of your voice,
because in your breath- earthquakes would
break and oceans would crash and I always
came up short.
we're living a borrowed life, you said
but no one ever taught u
Springfield, MO1991Springfield, MO9 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
In my father's house there are many rooms
(Only one gun cabinet)
A cross hung over my grandmother's
bedroom door for thirty two years
Her phone rang late on a Saturday night
She was the last person he called…
The sun rose early the next morning
The cross was taken down
Achromatic Dreamstoday, god gave me present.Achromatic Dreams1 year ago in Free Verse More Like This
-
i.
stilted windows, white bones
decaying lungs and my mind races
at the rate of a lone moth's jaded wings
we taste better alone
ii.
clemency is earned
by the damned, by the damned
arbitrary sacrifices
we belong to nobody
iii.
and she bowed with artless grace
kissed the sky, shed stardust tears
choked on angelic moonshine
we draw our own constellations
-
today, i gave god presence.
Pirate RadioI found your number on the bathroom stall.Pirate Radio1 year ago in Free Verse More Like This
It said you might have answers.
Please call me back if you get this message.
I got your address from a box of Captain Crunch.
It said to write a letter for a prize surprise.
I could really use one about now.
I heard your name on pirate radio,
In a very intellectual sounding conversation.
I saw your face on a stranger's back.
He got the tattoo when he was in the service.
He was getting it removed when we met.
He told me he lost the faith.
He told me crosses are instruments of torture.
He told me he used to burn them in his neighbors' front lawns.
I felt your fire in the constellations,
ThursdayRumors of tumors, chatty neighbors, the grateful deadThursday5 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
A broken swing on a deserted playground
And bones; oh, the bones that pile up, more everyday
Thursday I had nothing to say
A weak and pale moon glares down at the snow, impotent
Stars in motion whisper my star-name, calling
Tiny spiders build homes in my beer-soaked brain
Thursday I had nothing to say
Pizza or Chinese for dinner? I can't hold a thought
Craftsmanship went out on a three-hour cruise
Through the swamplands of South Carolina in the rain
Thursday I had nothing to say
A brass-toothed journeyer shines a light in dark corners
Nudges and pokes at the beasts sleeping t
He Remembers 1961He always puts extra steaks on the grill,He Remembers 19612 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
in case the neighbors stop by.
It’s not that kind of world anymore.
The wind was the only visitor that night
and it assumed an odor of burning leaves.
He thought about all the funerals he had
attended and he thought about Hurricane Jenny.
The sun’s last breath felt like thunder.
A child yelled “Olly olly oxen free” but
to him it sounded like “All your friends die in Spring.”
Alone With St. JosephThe shell was pale- an afterthought of heat lightningAlone With St. Joseph1 year ago in Free Verse More Like This
Every night the sun attends its own funeral
Days slowly die like the sparrow egg you found
underneath our favorite oak tree
You buried it in the dirt and said to me;
"The earth will make a perfect mother."
(Silence and a weakly nurtured glance)
Every time I think about failure, I picture
the crib in my tool shed
The opportunities we could have given it
Every time you think about me, you picture
sweat dripping into the ocean
And you wonder why I visit that tiny grave,
for no apparent reason
StainsI.Stains1 year ago in Free Verse More Like This
You burned the eggs and wrote scripture
in the shadows of a lunar eclipse.
I haven't slept for years, but it took the far away
scream of a siren to convince me that
the moon is a liar.
Body bags are filled with better men.
There are rivers of oil where I can't seem to break
The mirrors that flaunt your reflection.
II.
You couldn't dare me to walk across that bridge.
You couldn't ask me to sit through a full sermon
and still remain humble.
I'll never be home before the street lights come on and
you'll never hold my hand in the day time.
We're both clinical fools.
"The only difference between poison and medici
I Do Not Resist: A RevelationUnderneath the wonder willow, music holds meaning in its hands. Underneath the wonder willow, the heart nudges its nerves into the ocular cavity, takes to bloom, and lets you believe me when I say: They're hiding dreams for us on the dark side of the sun. Silhouettes of sound like windows breathing in the world that we will become.I Do Not Resist: A Revelation1 year ago in Flash Fiction & Vignettes More Like This
Something Scorching, Something Smallerthe universe lines up her billiardsSomething Scorching, Something Smaller1 year ago in Urban & Spoken Word More Like This
but i'm going to thieve the blue one
jump the felt
and make for the wide open floor
when we broke our yoke
it wasn't fire we stole
but something scorching, something smaller
i hid it in a key and forgot the green place it came from
let it drift out to sea
while i collected diamonds from the sky
dew from the lips of lizards
and suns from the earth's center
but the pebble stirred to waking
resounding the heavens and echoing through hell
deafening as a gong with only a vibration
medusa could identify
levinbolts spark and char, cracking my skin
thunder shaking my writhing hair to bits
wrap tig
Sta.sh
