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 Feb 2015
Adam Struble
how we dress up the imperfect parts of ourselves
presentable flowered smile.  lies
cracked porcelain good morning
in a broken jaw breakfast line
barefoot pipeline running the secret underfoot
the railroad's coming and ain't nobody talking
no, ain't nobody telling a soul

sell off the parts of you that you have no use for
but where does it stop sticking to you?
memories, residual dew of choices and transitions
clarity of the third person, but who is that?
wandering the sleeping shores of Sunday
on cracked feet and torn sails flowing strong
in the strange wind blowing through the trees.
sail my ship to shore by candlelight
reflected endlessly across the water
cavernous echoes echoes in the depth
don't lose your heart in the caves of tomorrow
searching for sunshine again
with a lingering song in my heart
 Nov 2014
unwritten
she was a poet,
and he was her pen.
in him,
she always found words to write,
songs to sing,
thoughts to think.

he'd smile,
and kiss her softly,
and say,
"write me a poem."

and she would.
she'd put poe,
and whitman,
and shakespeare to shame,
and she'd write a poem that made his eyes water.

she'd compare him
to a rose with no thorns,
a book with no end,
a world with no poverty --
the things we all wish for,
but can never attain.

//

he asked her one day,
"what am i?"
and so she picked up her pen,
and began the usual:
you are the shining sun after a hurricane,
with rays that open the eyes of the blind.

but he stopped her after those two lines,
and said that this time,
he didn't want any metaphors,
or similes,
or analogies.
he wanted the truth.

and so on that night,
as he slept,
the poet picked up her pen,
and she wrote.

she wrote,
then thought better of it,
then started over again,
and this cycle continued well into the early hours of the morning,
until suddenly,
she wrote, frantic,
if i can't love you for what you really are,
have i ever really loved you at all?


this, too,
she thought better of,
condemning it to the trash.

the next morning the poet was gone,
her final work a mere two words:

i'm sorry.

(a.m.)
this is more of a story than a poem but i like how it came out so leave thoughts & comments please
 Apr 2014
Adam Struble
professional thieves and lunatic royalty
rule the alleys and burned out geniuses collecting cans
to earn the morning's medicine
fighting off last night's tremors
vampyre women that eat men alive
and live in darkness and
nobody's ever seen the forest
central park predators
Mad Hatter transplants
and eternal sages who stay drunk by being interesting
and getting good at giving tourists a smooth line of *******
(you can always spot the tourists in new york.  they are the only ones wearing bright colors.  in portland, they can be spotted by similar means, but the eye must be trained.  the city abounds with sprouts)
always looking up

eternal chatter of madness from corners,
doorways, windows, liquor stores
*** barrels floating on tears
with a police state terror squad
2 floors above
killing justice and truth
black ties jumping out windows of Wall St.
cracked by pressure and greed and ego
street hustlers retiring at 35- or dead at 13
the street musician dying from apathy
he is a withering poppy flower
cut and bleeding
 Apr 2014
Adam Struble
!
we yearn for the country but we stay in the city
too wound up
not ready yet for the great country slow down
waiting behind- 2 cars stopped beside each other
bullshitting in the middle of the road
nobody in any kind of hurry
going out of your way to let someone in
even this city has some residual slow down-  echoes
after the great iron jungle-
dc city tenements
New York
Babylon in neon
soul dancing soul
vertacle spectacle -  never sleeping
never slowing
unforgiving
blood splattered on the sidewalks
dried ***** on park benches
rats drenched in oil and filth
feeding on the bloated underbelly of the machine
Moonlight reflected off of the bright red smile
of murderers enveloped in the womb
of anonymity.
the faceless rooftop ******
 Apr 2014
Adam Struble
0
the crimson arc
follows gravity
always seeking centre
splattering messages that
speak to self indulgence
pulsing with deviance

carnal crimson fountain
feeding the death in me
i'm all out of credit, you see
its blood or tears or atrophy

carnal crystal fountain
tastes like a memory
caught in the act
 Apr 2014
Adam Struble
city in the shadow of a mountain
like denver on vacation
shady and deep
flowing down like the river
seeking centre
houses cling to the crags like barnacles
inverted ship cavity
jutting out of the rainforest

paradise of truants and travellers
eternally in transit to islands and misfit fringes, cold floors and warm couches
and displaced ***** enthusiasts
sailors without floatation
treading land and bills and PTA meetings
cast off travellers on their way to golden gates or northern lights
rivers under troubled bridges
fish suffocating underwater
living on the refuse of the nuclear generation
transmuting the lead into sustainable energy
recycling the atmosphere into breathable air
apathetic anarchists return from extremity
living on the dole
or working for the man
we are building something greater than this
 Apr 2014
Adam Struble
Through the haze of memory

circular analog- closing in to center
cardboard jacket sound of childhood
visceral fun- flashbacks- trials at night
campfires- flashes from a country concert i am told i never attended
blue grass in the mountains. in utero
second sight memories- past flutterbyes
another pair of shoes for the spirit
birth the vessel of a star

fighting survive in insect humanity
dance of smile and jazz
i love the daytime
free of the moon's inertia
the tidal grip of weakness
cup of giving in
and a lady with a bow
a staff and a white bear
art is the dance of life
spilling out
truth in matter and motion

— The End —