Silent
Still
Dark
The faraway, rhythmic jiggle of a dog’s collar
The arrival of a soft breeze and the pull of its departure
The deep pink roses standing out like secret beacons in the corners
Stop and smell
Nose damp
Free rose water
Grin
You could skip if you wanted to, and sometimes you do
You could sprint like a child
The exhilaration of running on carpet indoors
No elements to stop you
And you’re outside, even better
Dirt
Grass
Tiny wildflowers
A stick
No moss
Put it in a jar and label it
Dickinson Square Park
Then
Jun 12, 2022
Jun 12, 2022 at 4:31 AM UTC
I wish that I had
given love more freely with
no fear of shortage
Aug 23, 2021
Aug 23, 2021 at 9:57 PM UTC
I stepped outside and
the world greeted me as if
to sing, _welcome home!_
Aug 23, 2021
Aug 23, 2021 at 9:45 PM UTC
It was hot today.
I sweat putrid droplets of misery.
Everyone around me could smell it -
apathy, fear, and disgust;
otherness.
I wish that I didn’t have to speak at all.
It rained,
but I wasn’t washed clean.
I went to the bathroom.
I couldn’t stay there,
so I tried blotting them off with a paper
towel.
They stubbornly clung to my surface like oil.
I joined the others.
We went back to the crowd.
I waited for the music to wash over me, but I felt nothing.
Aug 21, 2021
Aug 21, 2021 at 5:08 AM UTC
I felt fake,
so I stopped trying to be
anything.
Now, I feel like I am
nothing.
Dec 19, 2017
Dec 19, 2017 at 9:02 PM UTC
love me, love me, please just love me...
i promise that i will love you in return! (this is true)
i can find unique beauty in everyone and everything
i'm not asking you to fill this ragged hole within me. it's been patched up before
you don't have to do anything really (am i lying?) but your love is enough (is it?)
i'm sorry, maybe i'm just making excuses
maybe i'm just needy- but this love, this love is genuine i swear
my love is always different; everyone[thing] is different
(does that make it the same?)
scratch that
i can't expect this from anyone but myself, or maybe mom and dad (why am i cringing)
...that ship is still at sea
you're just so beautiful to me (or do i need to be told that i am?)
Dec 19, 2017
Dec 19, 2017 at 7:09 PM UTC
Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?
Jun 19, 2017
Jun 19, 2017 at 8:12 PM UTC
I was going to write a poem
about how I stood on the corner after
work, gripping a squishy handlebar with
my left hand and holding K’s flip phone
in the other.
My stomach flip-flopped across JFK blvd, down 20th street, and to that little alleyway where I stood alone for a while.
An old lady stared at me...
did I trigger a happy memory of her
youth,
or was she just smirking at the beads of
sweat on my forehead and disintegrating
soles of my ballet flats?
My black dress slouched over my body
like I was going to a funeral.
And even though my acro class was yesterday, I still felt upside down. There’s no way I could stay in a handstand that long, but I would’ve done it if it gave me a different explanation for why I was so sick.
Inside of me were those cropping rainbow scribbles that I used to make on Paint, you know, the ones that seemed like they could create a picture but ended up turning into shaking lines?
I could feel the lack of your presence, I could FEEL your not being there. As the minutes passed and I kept standing and waiting my face drooped and it was hard not to cry right there on the spot.
It was just past lunchtime but there was still a steady flow of businessmen filling the sidewalk.
They glanced at me but I just looked
away because they were my father's age
and gave me familiar half-smiles.
I said that I was going to write a poem because I didn't have enough energy to do anything but list words,
but I guess this just turned into a ******
one.
Jan 11, 2017
Jan 11, 2017 at 12:56 PM UTC
and i have never really understood why i hate luggage.
why i barely own handbags,
and would much rather fit the necessities in my purse.
why school didn't seem so bad if i had less books on my back.
i had never really understood why i hated so much baggage.
until i realised that it was because i already had all of me,
to carry.
Jun 6, 2016
Jun 6, 2016 at 1:26 PM UTC
i.
when will my hopes
become existent enough to pour out
words of sincerity
to speak of a genuine warmth filling my chest
instead of the lines full of teenage angst
and the desperate cries of prisoners inside me
who are trying to escape
all I can think of are cliché sayings
that tell of gloomy times
occasionally ending with half-hearted
attempts at optimism
does that please them?
ii.
I give enough of myself away
that I am kept from prevailing
but keep enough behind my dialated pupils
and shaky hands
to never be trodden on or crushed to dust
I sometimes murmur the thoughts that
clamor my mind
but barely above a whisper because they will be misunderstood
iii.
reflections hit me seemingly everywhere I turn
the images on the water’s surface
the gaunt faces that stare back at me in the
broken glass
when I look into my sister’s eyes they
slap me in the face
these are the many people I used to be
iv.
I want to be that person
that soul
who filled me to the brim
when I was shaking remains of
mulch out of my scuffed up sneakers
and running off to seek boundless amounts
of a word that never escapes my mouth anymore
I don’t want to be known for
spewing out pink pieces of pathetic misery
onto the white carpet
No one truly wants a sad girl
the reality is that they are not mysterious and full
of dark beauty
at least I am not
v.
I carry an expertise
of driving myself into a dark hole
making it powerful enough to either
drag others in or ****** them out
someone gets hurt either way
I leave the classic images of sorrow
and dark-lined eyes
for my own destiny
I consist of burrowing under my covers
Laying unconscious until the sun disappears from my view
Nov 10, 2013
Nov 10, 2013 at 3:44 PM UTC