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The RunawayMy muse left a noteThe Runaway6 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
in the frost on my window,
saying:
"Call me when your ink runs out."
I imagined her vaulting from the sill
into the freshly falling snow
cocking her hat just so
as she stepped into the East
before it iced over.
She leaves no prints for me to follow,
no re-imagined trail for me to trod,
and I could spend years
tumbling after her shadow,
only to find her
gone.
The Caged Bird ScreamsIt depends on the day.The Caged Bird Screams6 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
Like the weather, it changes
and in my brain, a little man stands
before a green-screen and tells me
the average of highs and lows.
"And today we're looking at
your daily morning low,
followed by forced optimism at noon,
quite possibly plunging into
a long shower later today,
where things might look better
and now back to you, Jim."
Simple as that,
with my feet rubbing on the carpet
and my hands clutching the bed like
it's all that's keeping me tethered.
I open the blinds and know
there's more than this.
I'm just caught in a cold-snap,
and I'm not really myself,
I'm just in there somewhere,
yelling myself hoarse,
'c
I. VoiceI haven't told him,I. Voice6 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
but his name sits on my lips
as a psalm,
and if I say it too quickly,
I've taken it in vain.
And I find solace in his voice,
earthy murmurs,
the cradle of a canyon.
I close my eyes and am
willfully lost.
I have no desire to return,
for this is home.
The DreamingDraw me into a five year kiss,The Dreaming8 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
we are dreaming.
As reality crawls by the digital clock,
you are barely tangible--
though barely is better than nothing at all.
I am content in the six o'clock light
until you vanish behind my irises.
My eyes dilate in the dark,
and you are gone.
Wide-eyed MonsterDon't look over your shoulder.Wide-eyed Monster4 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
You run the water in the bathroom
so they can't hear you panting
and you don't know why
you're checking in the mirror.
So you breathe like they told you
and you sit on your bed
with your spine against the wall
so nothing grabs you by the neck.
Knees to chest
chin to knees
hands to head
you uncurl
and you pace
on the rug.
(There's safety in rhythm
if it distracts you from
the shadow on your back.)
You try unwinding
but your heart's coiled tight
in a small steel ball
you can't untangle by yourself.
Call your love,
'cuz he knows,
and he worries like clockwork.
You feel bad that you can't
pull together for his
Seven O'Clock on a Sunday NightIt's a pinwheel moment;Seven O'Clock on a Sunday Night6 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
everything spins too fast around
This.
One.
Point.
I'm staring down Orion's Belt
and it's twenty-eight degrees,
but I can ignore
the lights,
the cold,
the neighbors,
because the present
is melting in my mouth
and I can't bring myself
to swallow it down.
For now,
I feel all the world
like an empty field on a dark night,
so I close my eyes
and spit my pith at the stars,
because it's too quiet
to scream out everything I feel
when I shut off my sight.
TAKE ME OUT!
I want to call,
but it's a whimper
in the scheme of the universe,
and I don't think I really mean it,
anyhow.
And coal as dark as mine
turns into diamon
Stranger than FictionAll my mind speaks of fruitless unions,Stranger than Fiction6 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
separations.
I am left with needing you but
embracing solitude instead;
staring at the wall
as if I could summon you there...
but you won't come.
I am terrified that we will vanish into
ink and yellowed pages,
become characters who never meet but
brush gazes and swear by everything they have
that it will never be enough.
I could ask you for promises you don't have,
times and dates you can't find,
anything to bring peace to my trembling heart
because sometimes I drown in the space you leave,
choking on your absence.
MetempsychosisLift your spirit to your lipsMetempsychosis5 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
and kiss it.
That's how words are born.
They fly into this world
messy and covered in
the dust of forgotten wisdom.
They are yours.
They move with you,
so gladly step
in the syllables of
every thought you've owned.
Treat them well.
For when your voice
turns to rust,
and your bones clatter cold,
when your name is buried
with the last man you knew,
hanging in the wind
are your words.
In some old dog-eared book
are your words.
And when its pages stir
in younger hands,
they will
lift your spirit to their lips
and kiss it,
re-birthing you in
words their own.
Film NoirPaint me greyscale.Film Noir4 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
Words hang thick like
cigarette smoke and slow jazz.
Turn your collar to the rain
and follow me into a 3 AM cab.
Give me your gritty romance,
Eyes flickering like
neon-signs
half past the red-light district.
Oh, you can touch,
my dear detective--
just don't leave any fingerprints.
Between the CreasesFolded in the bathroomBetween the Creases4 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
is a note in the shape of a bird.
I’m convinced you’d miss me better
if I up and sailed away;
my body a paper crane.
Hanging from a string
In the bedroom.
Little wings dangling.
Cut me down.
Month FourYou were standing in the kitchen,Month Four5 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
washing dishes that your brother should've
and you talked in funny voices
meant to make me smile,
and the pride in your eyes when they did
was unmistakable.
You're special.
And I don't mean the
I-say-that-because-I-don't
wanna-call-you-weird-special,
because we both are,
outwardly.
We do strange math,
figuring out the caloric equivalent
of a Girl Scout cookie overdose,
wondering how people who
are geographically closer in love
have lasted half as long and
why you don't like omelettes
(but you should!)
And if that isn't love,
don't tell me what is because
things are great how they are.
Willfully LostIn these whispering moments,Willfully Lost8 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
I take your heart in mine
and hold it fast.
You make me forget
things like flower names
and cloud shapes,
where I came from
or why I'm going,
as my thoughts are filled with..
you.
Every crack in the sidewalk
carries your name,
and the grass rustles soft your wishes
to tangle your fingers in my hair.
My breathing drops
like the autumn wind,
would that I could,
I would throw myself into it,
will myself towards your southwestern
heartbeat,
your dusty mesas abutting
my mountains green.
Kitchen HeartI am the center of your home,Kitchen Heart6 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
so much traffic through me,
and your
words words words
fill me up.
Toss your flour in the air,
it hangs and lingers in the sun.
Pretend it's remnants of some
fairy dust or
ancient ashes in your lungs.
Stir me up,
catch my drippings in your pan
the silent thoughts that never
fell all the way into my mouth.
And clean my inner ovens,
with all the fire you've got--
'cause I work best when my brain is clean,
and better when running hot.
III. LaughTumble out!III. Laugh6 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
This feels like dancing,
a fast-paced,
grab-my-hand, spin-me-close
two step.
Through this,
you weave a tapestry,
you paint it gold as your grin
broadens into sound.
Two-TonedSepia,Two-Toned8 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
like you,
it's pronounced two ways.
Seep-ee-ah.
Long, slow,
a sleepy murmur drawn.
It reminds me of your patience
when you held me
as I sobbed into your scarf,
your voice leaving me warm,
brown along the edges.
Sep-ee-ah.
Short.
Curt.
A sterner picture
of soldiers long dead,
a reprimand.
A glare.
This is how you tell me
I'm wrong--
sharp as a bayonet,
the edge of your mouth
a gun.
Warm.
Sharp.
Tight-eyed.
Welcoming.
I could hold it
in my mouth either way,
and you are both.
Level with the SwordI am a pen cap with the end chewed off.Level with the Sword8 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
Gnawed to a stub,
pocked and bent,
stabbing into pockets--
incomplete.
And perhaps my ink has burst;
blotted and blotched on my person,
smearing what I touch in black and blue,
rorschach patterns on my palms.
How do I breathe as a broken pen,
when all my voice is dried and leaking?
Footprints in the SnowThey're meant for melting,Footprints in the Snow1 year ago in Free Verse More Like This
and someday all this ground will hold
is memories of walking together,
and walking away.
We will not forget.
Time will do that for us.
AgedThere's a picture of youAged10 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
in your tuxedo,
new wife on your arm and
you're only nineteen and
I am ashamed but
I wonder if she's pregnant.
And you are twenty two,
clothed in your bridal halo,
with a new-found surname
I can't pronounce.
We don't talk much but
I am happy for you.
You are headed towards fatherhood
and I've never met the mother, but
once you took me for a date and
things didn't click.
I can't help but wonder
if things were different,
if I would be
staring down that plus sign,
asking what the hell I was going to do
with two lives.
Even I am moving forward,
one year closer to the real world and
Thousand-Mile LoverEverything feels likeThousand-Mile Lover5 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
I'm wading through water.
Falling into blue,
my heart is calling.
It sounds like you.
Kissing in summer downpours,
as if the weather mattered.
I feel you on my skin,
although you've never touched it.
You're indescribable,
somewhere past comprehension.
Promise me you'll be around
to pull me close before the years get shorter.
And the distance is a bitter pill,
but your voice cancels it out.
MuseMy muse is a shadowMuse5 months ago in Haiku & Eastern More Like This
licking at my heels, curled up
in the back of my mind.
Photo boothLet’s get lost in a photo booth. We’ll spend ten years making silly faces behind the curtain and emerge from the other side as serious adults stuck in black and white stills that get stuffed into wallets and forgotten about, never looked at again until our hair is as grey and faded as the photograph.Photo booth4 months ago in Flash Fiction & Vignettes More Like This
A time before sunriseOut here on my own,A time before sunrise4 months ago in Visual & Found Poetry More Like This
this crushing weight,
lifted,
for a moment.
The burden of a secret
at 4 am,
like a ten minute dream
six feet underwater.
And from our window,
900 million years later,
the last seconds of light
conjure storms
at the end of time
where secrets are told.
Burnt EdgesCrumple like the letterBurnt Edges4 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
you threw into the fire.
Curl up at the edges,
you feel the ash inside your chest.
You ache to ember
and glow into an open flame,
but your chimney is too dirty
to give your smoke away.
So you burn her out of the picture
but the memory is a phoenix
and it roosts inside your hatred
of everything she represents.
You curse every broken matchstick
that left her gazing from the frame.
And did it always look so grey
Before the fall?
Wistful ThinkingThe world is a wall of whistling white,Wistful Thinking6 months ago in Free Verse More Like This
so we pick up heaven's cast-off snow
and laughing, hurtle it at each other.
When our panting breaths catch
as clouds in the air,
we'll stop to be children again
at the top of the hill,
shrieking down slopes as if
we weren't one decade past innocence.
And when we lie breathless at the bottom,
joyously frozen,
we'll hold hands the whole way back
before we shed winter from our skin.
Glad will I be to share my hearth with you,
to kiss the warmth into your lips
as cold becomes
no more than a word.
Sta.sh
