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joshua-lederman
joshua-lederman
American I look better in black-and-white anyway...
I thought about killing myself today... again for the ump-teenth time this month. I was wearing that yellow polo and thumbing through the pages of a book of poems by Bukowski if I could only write like him, I thought -- then I’d be somebody. I don’t even like that shirt but I wear it anyway because it’s comfortable. maybe that’s exactly how I feel about my on-again-off-again relationship with my suicidal thoughts –- I’d never actually do it, I tell myself *I just like to think about it because it’s comfortable*. oh -- we’re such silly creatures of habit aren’t we?
0
Jul 17, 2014
Jul 17, 2014 at 7:41 PM UTC
browsing the poetry section of a local bookstore
this is the shard I’ll use. it’s just a small, broken piece of glass, but I figure it’ll do just fine. there’s nothing particularly special about it, aside from the fact that it broke off a picture frame -- a picture frame that you gave me. a picture frame holding a photograph of us together. I look at it, and while I remember it well, it still feels like it was another lifetime ago. why is it that when I think of you during the day, when I’m straight, the David Bowie song “Queen ***** immediately comes to mind? can it simply be because you became a tremendous ***** near the end? no, that’s too easy. cheap shot. of course it wasn’t all bad. we were good, you and me. and when we were good, you know, it was... we had our moments, as few and far between as they may have been. ...and they were fleeting. no matter how hard we tried to hold onto them, they would drift away and then we'd forget. that was the hardest part -- the forgetting. it always was. it still is. but when I think of you now, late at night, when I’m like this, you’re still so ******* perfect. you were always perfect with the lights off. away from the world. maybe it was selfish of me to want to keep you there away from the world. uncorrupted. perfect. maybe once again, I’ve just got infatuation all confused with love. maybe that’s all it is -- all it ever was. can you blame me? it seems like that’s what always happens right before a crush becomes a grudge. and boy, do we really know how to hold onto those. at least we have something to hold on to. yes, this is the shard I’ll use. I figure it’ll do just fine.
0
Jan 28, 2014
Jan 28, 2014 at 10:31 PM UTC
you're still the reason i get depressed when i drink alone
this is the shard I’ll use. it’s just a small, broken piece of glass, but I figure it’ll do just fine. there’s nothing particularly special about it, aside from the fact that it broke off a picture frame -- a picture frame that you gave me. a picture frame holding a photograph of us together. I look at it, and while I remember it well, it still feels like it was another lifetime ago. why is it that when I think of you during the day, when I’m straight, the David Bowie song “Queen ***** immediately comes to mind? can it simply be because you became a tremendous ***** near the end? no, that’s too easy. cheap shot. of course it wasn’t all bad. we were good, you and me. and when we were good, you know, it was... we had our moments, as few and far between as they may have been. ...and they were fleeting. no matter how hard we tried to hold onto them, they would drift away and then we'd forget. that was the hardest part -- the forgetting. it always was. it still is. but when I think of you now, late at night, when I’m like this, you’re still so ******* perfect. you were always perfect with the lights off. away from the world. maybe it was selfish of me to want to keep you there away from the world. uncorrupted. perfect. maybe once again, I’ve just got infatuation all confused with love. maybe that’s all it is -- all it ever was. can you blame me? it seems like that’s what always happens right before a crush becomes a grudge. and boy, do we really know how to hold onto those. at least we have something to hold on to. yes, this is the shard I’ll use. I figure it’ll do just fine.
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70
Today –- I think I’ll go play in traffic like I used to when I was a kid ...just for old time’s sake. I wonder without my wide eyes bushy tail and dimples will the headlights even bother to swerve this time? the underside of a ******* prius being the last thing I’ll ever see at least it gets better mileage than I ever did my guts spilled out across boiling asphalt they belong there they were wasted inside me someone should waste me too
0
Jan 10, 2014
Jan 10, 2014 at 6:28 PM UTC
today
Every New Year’s Eve I make the same resolution: “Come next New Year’s Eve, my life will be better than it is right now.” It has not happened yet. And I see no reason why it should happen this time either.
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Dec 31, 2013
Dec 31, 2013 at 3:07 PM UTC
a resolution
One-fifty-two a.m. Eleven beers. Almost a liter of ***** I really should be going to bed. **** I should have gone to bed hours ago... Maybe one more beer will help me hold on. Does this couch just feel that much better than my bed? Or maybe it has something to do with these antibiotics I’ve been mixing with excessive amounts of alcohol? Maybe? Just maybe I don’t want to get better -- -- to feel better. Maybe I want this flu to consume me and swallow me whole. If that won’t work perhaps I really do want to drown in distilled potatoes and fermented wheat barley hops Is it possible –- isn’t it? What the hell do I want? Do I even know anymore? I know I wanted you. I wanted you more than anything. You were wearing a real short skit, and I had a real short fuse. For sure it was a bad combination... ...but that don’t make it a good excuse. When the dust settled I guess we both realized that neither of us would ever see the sun again... ...not as long as we were chained together. God-fucking-dammit! Why does everything I write turn out to be about you? Why? Why do I still think about that one night when we were outside in the rain, when you told me that I looked just like James Dean? Why? I wish then I would have told you that it doesn’t mean a ******* thing... ...because with the lights out babe, every girl is Marilyn Monroe. Not just you. I used to hope that when this was over you’d still remember me. But now that it’s over I can’t stand the fact that I can’t stop thinking about you. Two-oh-nine a.m. Christ, I really should be going to bed. Maybe I’ll be able to forget you then -- -- maybe you’ll stop polluting every decent thing I try to write. I doubt it though. I get the feeling you’ll be sticking to my ribs and hanging on my heartstrings for a while to come. Hopefully one day someday soon I’ll finally be done with you. And at last I’ll finally see the truth -- We were just two dumb kids with jealous hearts that ******* fell apart when bombs explode.
0
Dec 30, 2013
Dec 30, 2013 at 8:31 PM UTC
bombs
One-fifty-two a.m. Eleven beers. Almost a liter of ***** I really should be going to bed. **** I should have gone to bed hours ago... Maybe one more beer will help me hold on. Does this couch just feel that much better than my bed? Or maybe it has something to do with these antibiotics I’ve been mixing with excessive amounts of alcohol? Maybe? Just maybe I don’t want to get better -- -- to feel better. Maybe I want this flu to consume me and swallow me whole. If that won’t work perhaps I really do want to drown in distilled potatoes and fermented wheat barley hops Is it possible –- isn’t it? What the hell do I want? Do I even know anymore? I know I wanted you. I wanted you more than anything. You were wearing a real short skit, and I had a real short fuse. For sure it was a bad combination... ...but that don’t make it a good excuse. When the dust settled I guess we both realized that neither of us would ever see the sun again... ...not as long as we were chained together. God-fucking-dammit! Why does everything I write turn out to be about you? Why? Why do I still think about that one night when we were outside in the rain, when you told me that I looked just like James Dean? Why? I wish then I would have told you that it doesn’t mean a ******* thing... ...because with the lights out babe, every girl is Marilyn Monroe. Not just you. I used to hope that when this was over you’d still remember me. But now that it’s over I can’t stand the fact that I can’t stop thinking about you. Two-oh-nine a.m. Christ, I really should be going to bed. Maybe I’ll be able to forget you then -- -- maybe you’ll stop polluting every decent thing I try to write. I doubt it though. I get the feeling you’ll be sticking to my ribs and hanging on my heartstrings for a while to come. Hopefully one day someday soon I’ll finally be done with you. And at last I’ll finally see the truth -- We were just two dumb kids with jealous hearts that ******* fell apart when bombs explode.
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87
There was this girl -- she wasn’t just a girl not just any girl She was the girl who looked at me different She looked at me unlike any other person looked at me Friends, strangers, my own parents no, she looked at me differently Not with disapproving eyes not with disappointment no contempt no shame no regret Not even with wonder or amazement or excitement When she looked at me she didn’t see what I once was or what I could one day be She didn’t see past mistakes or wasted potential or squandered talent She didn’t see goals that were too great to achieve or dreams that were abandoned and never to be realized She didn’t see the boy that grew up too soon or the man that didn’t grow up fast enough She didn’t see me lost in the wilderness of my own doubts my fears my demons She didn’t see me drowning in the sea of my own self pity my apathy my bottles She never saw any of those things When she looked at me all she saw was me just me as I was naked and bare skin and bones and hair and nails She saw me open and empty waiting to be filled and then emptied again Somewhere in there she saw a soul or at least the small spark of one a soul that must have meant something that must have been worth sticking around for It must have meant that I was there that I was present at least in some capacity I cared cared for her for something anything Now I sit and wonder what happened to the soul I wonder where it went where it could have gone I wonder why it left how it went away what I did to destroy it I must have destroyed it because she doesn’t look at me anymore there’s nothing left for her to see those eyes are gone and I miss them I should have appreciated them more looked into them reassured them I should have figured that one day they wouldn’t be there to look at me anymore I just didn’t see how tired they were her tired eyes tired of me What I wouldn’t give for someone to just look at me like that again if only just once just for a second She never saw any of those things when she looked at me and neither did I when I looked at her
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Dec 30, 2013
Dec 30, 2013 at 1:25 AM UTC
her tired eyes
There was this girl -- she wasn’t just a girl not just any girl She was the girl who looked at me different She looked at me unlike any other person looked at me Friends, strangers, my own parents no, she looked at me differently Not with disapproving eyes not with disappointment no contempt no shame no regret Not even with wonder or amazement or excitement When she looked at me she didn’t see what I once was or what I could one day be She didn’t see past mistakes or wasted potential or squandered talent She didn’t see goals that were too great to achieve or dreams that were abandoned and never to be realized She didn’t see the boy that grew up too soon or the man that didn’t grow up fast enough She didn’t see me lost in the wilderness of my own doubts my fears my demons She didn’t see me drowning in the sea of my own self pity my apathy my bottles She never saw any of those things When she looked at me all she saw was me just me as I was naked and bare skin and bones and hair and nails She saw me open and empty waiting to be filled and then emptied again Somewhere in there she saw a soul or at least the small spark of one a soul that must have meant something that must have been worth sticking around for It must have meant that I was there that I was present at least in some capacity I cared cared for her for something anything Now I sit and wonder what happened to the soul I wonder where it went where it could have gone I wonder why it left how it went away what I did to destroy it I must have destroyed it because she doesn’t look at me anymore there’s nothing left for her to see those eyes are gone and I miss them I should have appreciated them more looked into them reassured them I should have figured that one day they wouldn’t be there to look at me anymore I just didn’t see how tired they were her tired eyes tired of me What I wouldn’t give for someone to just look at me like that again if only just once just for a second She never saw any of those things when she looked at me and neither did I when I looked at her
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94
why don’t you go for a swim in the river wearing concrete shoes? something to do to **** some time a good way to **** your lover too surprise, surprise I couldn’t find a bar tonight at least not one that would have me or fulfill my dreams now I’m sobered up and looking for a fight so tell me... have you ever heard the sound of raindrops on the rooftops? or a heartbeat in the backseat? it's hard to see the car crash with your hands over your eyes so keep off my doorstep stay away from my soul you can’t have this one I’ll save it on my own but it doesn’t really matter: I’m already dead. so I guess the only question is: a bullet in the kneecaps? or this cigarette I swear will be my last?
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Dec 30, 2013
Dec 30, 2013 at 1:22 AM UTC
decisions
I told her I had a good time last night she said I drank a lot of beer as usual my eyes were bigger than my liver does she ever want me to call again?
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Dec 30, 2013
Dec 30, 2013 at 1:21 AM UTC
a french girl in an irish pub
where were you when they were taking hostages? where were you when my life fell apart? where were you when they decided I’d gone far enough? where were you when I was broken? you were only there when I was whole I was only whole because you were there where were you when I was bleeding? where were you when it hurt like hell? where were you when I fell off? where were you when I needed you most? you were only there when I was clean I was only clean because you were there where were you when I was making mistakes? where were you when they had it in for me? where were you when I lost all hope? where were you when the voices ******* tore me apart? you were only there when I was alive I was only alive because you were there where were you when they were taking hostages? where are you now? you were only there because I was there I was only there because you were there I’m only here now because you’re not
0
Apr 14, 2013
Apr 14, 2013 at 7:18 PM UTC
where were you when they were taking hostages?
sometimes love is like having your heart ripped from your chest forced through a meat grinder and fed to a pack of wild dogs but sometimes it’s all worth it for the times it’s not but sometimes...
0
Apr 14, 2013
Apr 14, 2013 at 7:15 PM UTC
sometimes