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michael-holderreed
michael-holderreed
American
A prima donna dips into candied violets; a poison which brings an understudy to center stage. With the anonymous delivery of the Donna's death done, Jasper stands in the freezing, pouring rain buying a ticket to see the 'new girl' sing. In his way, Jasper loves her. Fantasies feed on the very seed of Jasper's personality. They are torments' larvae wriggling worm-like through his thoughts boring browning holes in a ripe reality his desperate tongue can't taste, and they feed in numbers that would disgust the core of the most rotten apple. His love is left mealy, blackened, and soft; it's a love she wouldn't bite into if offered, or even paid to. It's a truth; Jasper can't have her. Sopping, he enters the hall and falls into his seat. With the Prima Donna's unexpected death, the understudy, on this night, turns Diva and unknowingly into Jasper's private show. Her voice spins sound as a spider does silk, deftly and delicately. Beautiful patterns unseen by this theater of flies capture hitherto buzzing ears calming them into submission. It's an ****** comfort they wouldn't fly from if they could; slumped in his chair like a pile of fresh dung among the swarm, Jasper sits unmoved as no beauty touches such messes. He doesn't hear one note from her. He listens instead from within. To dejected oboes and off tune cellos pulling long bow afflictions across his heart's chamber, as his eyes scrape away scraps of her image lacking all but the lust of love, he pieces together masterful artworks of delusion; a failing attempt to satisfy a sick mind's eye. The show finished to unbridled acclaim. And as the front of the house dispersed, Jasper made his way into the rafters backstage. He moved over the wood beams in the slow manner of growing black mold all the while uncomfortable with the dagger's handle pressing hard into his hip. This discomfort tickled away by the sound of her butterfly laugh fluttering up to join him; a dead limb clinging to felled Sweet Birch. He chased the winged notes down and found himself lost in the chaos of aftershow clamor, and confused by streaks of rosey-faced gaiety mingling freely with the furious movements of stage breakdown work. Jasper stood for some time overwhelmed, numb, and totally unnoticed. A kind of prop no one knew what to do with or why it was there. A pop of a bottle's cork marshaled his attention to a corner where, for a shimmering moment, champagne mimicked the very rain outside. The scene was Jasper's nightmare come real. There stood the new Diva decorated in diamonds and a fancy, fur coat. If she wasn't sipping life's golden bubbles out of a clear crystal flute, she was laughing promiscuously with a throng of wish-to-be lovers all praising their way to the pink center of universal desire. Jasper can't have her for he is a cur. And it is only in the flowering bouquet of his lust and shame that the rose red hue of her face would ever compliment the white fear of his. But he was set to tie this bouquet with a grey blade bow bespeckled with both their magenta blood. Amidst the frenzied bacchus, he drew near her with all the finality of a heavy curtain ending a scene. The closing act, a quick stab to her throat, releasing her final note - a gurgle in G. Jasper loved her, in his way. A swath of flies swooped in to the **** they saw landing too late to stop the tying of the bouquet. As second act of steel in flesh played on the stage of Jasper's heart. He collapsed into his love seeing her frightened face rushing towards his. This view he would take to eternity, escaping his ugliness and that of others to be ****** Here though, through the creation of her end and in the clash of their bodies, he finally possessed all the world's unbearable beauty. Only the acting moment of existence matters and Jasper...was with her in her last.
0
Aug 12, 2013
Aug 12, 2013 at 1:24 AM UTC
An Act Of Love
A prima donna dips into candied violets; a poison which brings an understudy to center stage. With the anonymous delivery of the Donna's death done, Jasper stands in the freezing, pouring rain buying a ticket to see the 'new girl' sing. In his way, Jasper loves her. Fantasies feed on the very seed of Jasper's personality. They are torments' larvae wriggling worm-like through his thoughts boring browning holes in a ripe reality his desperate tongue can't taste, and they feed in numbers that would disgust the core of the most rotten apple. His love is left mealy, blackened, and soft; it's a love she wouldn't bite into if offered, or even paid to. It's a truth; Jasper can't have her. Sopping, he enters the hall and falls into his seat. With the Prima Donna's unexpected death, the understudy, on this night, turns Diva and unknowingly into Jasper's private show. Her voice spins sound as a spider does silk, deftly and delicately. Beautiful patterns unseen by this theater of flies capture hitherto buzzing ears calming them into submission. It's an ****** comfort they wouldn't fly from if they could; slumped in his chair like a pile of fresh dung among the swarm, Jasper sits unmoved as no beauty touches such messes. He doesn't hear one note from her. He listens instead from within. To dejected oboes and off tune cellos pulling long bow afflictions across his heart's chamber, as his eyes scrape away scraps of her image lacking all but the lust of love, he pieces together masterful artworks of delusion; a failing attempt to satisfy a sick mind's eye. The show finished to unbridled acclaim. And as the front of the house dispersed, Jasper made his way into the rafters backstage. He moved over the wood beams in the slow manner of growing black mold all the while uncomfortable with the dagger's handle pressing hard into his hip. This discomfort tickled away by the sound of her butterfly laugh fluttering up to join him; a dead limb clinging to felled Sweet Birch. He chased the winged notes down and found himself lost in the chaos of aftershow clamor, and confused by streaks of rosey-faced gaiety mingling freely with the furious movements of stage breakdown work. Jasper stood for some time overwhelmed, numb, and totally unnoticed. A kind of prop no one knew what to do with or why it was there. A pop of a bottle's cork marshaled his attention to a corner where, for a shimmering moment, champagne mimicked the very rain outside. The scene was Jasper's nightmare come real. There stood the new Diva decorated in diamonds and a fancy, fur coat. If she wasn't sipping life's golden bubbles out of a clear crystal flute, she was laughing promiscuously with a throng of wish-to-be lovers all praising their way to the pink center of universal desire. Jasper can't have her for he is a cur. And it is only in the flowering bouquet of his lust and shame that the rose red hue of her face would ever compliment the white fear of his. But he was set to tie this bouquet with a grey blade bow bespeckled with both their magenta blood. Amidst the frenzied bacchus, he drew near her with all the finality of a heavy curtain ending a scene. The closing act, a quick stab to her throat, releasing her final note - a gurgle in G. Jasper loved her, in his way. A swath of flies swooped in to the **** they saw landing too late to stop the tying of the bouquet. As second act of steel in flesh played on the stage of Jasper's heart. He collapsed into his love seeing her frightened face rushing towards his. This view he would take to eternity, escaping his ugliness and that of others to be ****** Here though, through the creation of her end and in the clash of their bodies, he finally possessed all the world's unbearable beauty. Only the acting moment of existence matters and Jasper...was with her in her last.
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88
I walked alone on a quiet day with only the sound of the trees that sway Along came a girl so sweet, so fair, Singing a song I'd heard nowhere I stopped in my tracks and I did stare my heart it beat, my mind it cleared She kept right along, so unaware her beauty had stunned a man unfair I watched her go and felt my heart grow to fit all the pain of a life unknown now she's a girl that's gone for me the trees, they sway as I'm humming.
0
Jul 29, 2013
Jul 29, 2013 at 1:19 AM UTC
A Lullaby
Wires & walls rats in bathroom stalls strained sinews drag a Camel into my lungs as I walk  over asphalted hills. Bridges span seas, but to no memories of a life unguided by highways' helping hands; all adventures are planned ahead. Cities grow as cameras roll to capture the movements of every breaking soul. Wires & walls rats in bathroom stalls beasts in a zoo which we all walk through, how miserable we have to be to lock up all as we do. Eyes to the night sky avoiding neon lies seek soothing drops of moonlight trickling down our crystalline, steel caves. Killers and lovers walk the parks together. Knife in hand, hand in hand all hope to find what they need. Cities grow as cameras roll to capture the movements of every breaking soul.
0
Jul 9, 2013
Jul 9, 2013 at 3:56 AM UTC
Wires & Walls
Soundless, black seas, out of which all cold comes, suspends serpents in what would be mid-air if the water weren't there. Souless, dark thoughts, out of which all evil comes, holds horrors in what would be paradise if my mind weren't there. I think to the nature of my thoughts and then to the origins of man. Out of black waters come dark thoughts; slithering serpents now roaming the land.
0
Jul 6, 2013
Jul 6, 2013 at 4:25 AM UTC
Black Waters
We grow in a ragged garden whose caretaker no longer cares for himself except to prune back only the most strangling branches of his mind's miseries. Effectively, we are left to our own wild ways. In all directions, time's vine sprawls unnoticeably slow in its natural haste to overtake every creature. We are the berries strewn along this vine. Our thin skins stretched and aching around poisonous pools of bitter juices, desperate for a touch, a cause to burst, a moment in which our existence is fulfilled. To die in defense of the vine is why we are here. Most of us will never do but rot; stuck to a stem that roots us in idle uselessness. It is my brightest & deepest, berry blue hope not to rot here with the lot of you. So, with great want I watch the passing birds fly in the sky and seethe in need for the little hoppers who come so near just to tilt their tiny heads and maddeningly flutter off. There must be one who makes the mistake of choosing me. One who plucks me right off with its beak and bolts to dine in some high, safe place. It will die for its hunger, and so too will I for satisfying it. But, for a moment between boredom's end and attaining purpose, I'll see the garden from a different view; a bird's eye. I'll see the entire vine for what it is, and hopefully; finally, know why it's worth protecting at all. BURST
0
Jun 30, 2013
Jun 30, 2013 at 1:46 AM UTC
Berries On The Vine
What is it, exactly, that you don't get? It has become apparent that I, maker of all, which includes, unbelievably, you too, must put all of my work on hold just to come and check-in on you. I have listened to you vehemently beat with such astonishing regularity the dead horse of your, lets say discomfort (?) over your time alive being finite, that I actually drew up plans to wipe out of existence totally, all horses ever just so you'd be forced to find a new topic. I threw out those plans of course. I decided instead to come directly to you and ask, What is it, exactly, that you don't get? Are you aware, last Tuesday, for example, while you were writing that miserable little poem, you know the one, you kept rhyming 'die' with 'Why? Why? Why?' Gahh. What a horrible read, are you aware, that while you spent four hours of your finite life unhappily writing on your fears of death a man much more adjusted to his mutual, unchangeable lot took out the very girl you write all your other poems about? If you're curious, they had a great time. Does that help clear things up? If you're still confused, please, tell me while I'm here, What is it, exactly, that you don't get? Oh, how we both know that you have your words. So ordered are they in your head. So active in breaking life's happenings down in a useless obsession to understand even the tiniest subcategories of meaning found within larger, though still insignificant meanings, all of which you broke down before, forgot, broke down again, forgot, repeat into ∞. I'm amazed you ignore the one word which silences all others. You act as a fool who refuses a warm blanket on a cold night out of a dumb idea of strength through suffering. You ignore the only word which covers all who are confused; accept. Accept. I can tell you with some humor, that most of life is not for thought to poke at like a sexually incompetent lover getting a chance at the town's ***** Which you'll remember didn't go so well for you either. I think Kim was her name? Anyways, still, you have your words, so I'll ask you again, Maker to man, What is it, exactly, that you don't get? Perhaps, a simplified picture will help you get an idea of my disappointment here. Lets see, how to make this really basic for you...ah! For me, you give off all the excitement of a cat staring at a limp string on the ground, occasionally patting it with its paw, claws retracted. But I want you to be like a dog who ferociously bites down on the rope I hold the other end of and pulls with all his strength against me! For fun! For life! For a right he assumed all on his own to have what he wants and works to make that true. But you, you just sit there pawing listlessly at all I hold out to you. So I ask you again... No. No. Never mind. You're done. Come with me.
0
Jun 25, 2013
Jun 25, 2013 at 2:51 AM UTC
A Simple Check-in
What is it, exactly, that you don't get? It has become apparent that I, maker of all, which includes, unbelievably, you too, must put all of my work on hold just to come and check-in on you. I have listened to you vehemently beat with such astonishing regularity the dead horse of your, lets say discomfort (?) over your time alive being finite, that I actually drew up plans to wipe out of existence totally, all horses ever just so you'd be forced to find a new topic. I threw out those plans of course. I decided instead to come directly to you and ask, What is it, exactly, that you don't get? Are you aware, last Tuesday, for example, while you were writing that miserable little poem, you know the one, you kept rhyming 'die' with 'Why? Why? Why?' Gahh. What a horrible read, are you aware, that while you spent four hours of your finite life unhappily writing on your fears of death a man much more adjusted to his mutual, unchangeable lot took out the very girl you write all your other poems about? If you're curious, they had a great time. Does that help clear things up? If you're still confused, please, tell me while I'm here, What is it, exactly, that you don't get? Oh, how we both know that you have your words. So ordered are they in your head. So active in breaking life's happenings down in a useless obsession to understand even the tiniest subcategories of meaning found within larger, though still insignificant meanings, all of which you broke down before, forgot, broke down again, forgot, repeat into ∞. I'm amazed you ignore the one word which silences all others. You act as a fool who refuses a warm blanket on a cold night out of a dumb idea of strength through suffering. You ignore the only word which covers all who are confused; accept. Accept. I can tell you with some humor, that most of life is not for thought to poke at like a sexually incompetent lover getting a chance at the town's ***** Which you'll remember didn't go so well for you either. I think Kim was her name? Anyways, still, you have your words, so I'll ask you again, Maker to man, What is it, exactly, that you don't get? Perhaps, a simplified picture will help you get an idea of my disappointment here. Lets see, how to make this really basic for you...ah! For me, you give off all the excitement of a cat staring at a limp string on the ground, occasionally patting it with its paw, claws retracted. But I want you to be like a dog who ferociously bites down on the rope I hold the other end of and pulls with all his strength against me! For fun! For life! For a right he assumed all on his own to have what he wants and works to make that true. But you, you just sit there pawing listlessly at all I hold out to you. So I ask you again... No. No. Never mind. You're done. Come with me.
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72
The world isn't real to me, it's outside a thick skull. It's my muted screams you hear coming from inside this bone brazen bull. The body pursues pleasures while pleading to me "Be happy! So that I... so that we may find love." The nerve. The nerve! And trust you me this bag of bones, this lustful flesh has too many nerve ends firing. And they all want something, all demand my attention for even the most mundane events of their spoiled lives of experience. Thank you, nerves, for sharing how a cool, spring breeze blowing lightly over you feels. Thank you too, way down there, for making me aware of the soft grass sliding taught between your toes. How special for you, no jealousy here. Now, lets bring this mess to order, would somebody please go ask the warden when visiting hours are over? Because, you see, The world isn't real to me, it's outside a thick skull. It's my writhing & thrashing you mock twisting within this bone brazen bull. "Be happy" it tells me. To better pursue it's goals! It has clearly never even once tried reversing roles. Well, I have. Many times. For, I've the time to think, believe you me. I would stuff the body in a box barely big enough to fit it, and add within the 'creature comforts' found in my abode which you'll daily find me in abidance. Inside would be dark, hard, and for reasons still unexplained somewhat sticky... Would somebody PLEASE! tell me why it's sticky in here?! Excuse me, moving on... I would taunt it then: "Let's go for a run." I'd say, "The breeze caressing my grey matter sure is nice." I'd add, "Why aren't you happy in your dark, dank, brain-box, body?!" I'd shout. Between you and me, I only smoke because I know it makes its lungs all sappy. Why aren't I happy, body? I'll tell you. Because delusory images drafted from incomplete, tainted, sensory data, diluted of any real, exciting experience are all that make up my world; my life! It's as boring as drinking a ladle full of water Jesus made out of what was once wine and then added fluoride to. I'm like your shut in grandmother you write home to in brief, lying notes about your travels abroad. "Amsterdam was nice STOP" So, body, excuse me for taking pleasure in unhappy things such as smoking, or hating. Excuse me for my spite. But, for me and my experience these are the things I find tickling my quote unquote toes. And...I'm all too mad to say, are the closest I'll ever come to 'feel'. Because, you see, The world isn't real to me, it's outside a thick skull. And it's my muted screams you hear coming from inside this bone brazen bull.
0
Jun 23, 2013
Jun 23, 2013 at 2:03 AM UTC
A Mind's Rant
The world isn't real to me, it's outside a thick skull. It's my muted screams you hear coming from inside this bone brazen bull. The body pursues pleasures while pleading to me "Be happy! So that I... so that we may find love." The nerve. The nerve! And trust you me this bag of bones, this lustful flesh has too many nerve ends firing. And they all want something, all demand my attention for even the most mundane events of their spoiled lives of experience. Thank you, nerves, for sharing how a cool, spring breeze blowing lightly over you feels. Thank you too, way down there, for making me aware of the soft grass sliding taught between your toes. How special for you, no jealousy here. Now, lets bring this mess to order, would somebody please go ask the warden when visiting hours are over? Because, you see, The world isn't real to me, it's outside a thick skull. It's my writhing & thrashing you mock twisting within this bone brazen bull. "Be happy" it tells me. To better pursue it's goals! It has clearly never even once tried reversing roles. Well, I have. Many times. For, I've the time to think, believe you me. I would stuff the body in a box barely big enough to fit it, and add within the 'creature comforts' found in my abode which you'll daily find me in abidance. Inside would be dark, hard, and for reasons still unexplained somewhat sticky... Would somebody PLEASE! tell me why it's sticky in here?! Excuse me, moving on... I would taunt it then: "Let's go for a run." I'd say, "The breeze caressing my grey matter sure is nice." I'd add, "Why aren't you happy in your dark, dank, brain-box, body?!" I'd shout. Between you and me, I only smoke because I know it makes its lungs all sappy. Why aren't I happy, body? I'll tell you. Because delusory images drafted from incomplete, tainted, sensory data, diluted of any real, exciting experience are all that make up my world; my life! It's as boring as drinking a ladle full of water Jesus made out of what was once wine and then added fluoride to. I'm like your shut in grandmother you write home to in brief, lying notes about your travels abroad. "Amsterdam was nice STOP" So, body, excuse me for taking pleasure in unhappy things such as smoking, or hating. Excuse me for my spite. But, for me and my experience these are the things I find tickling my quote unquote toes. And...I'm all too mad to say, are the closest I'll ever come to 'feel'. Because, you see, The world isn't real to me, it's outside a thick skull. And it's my muted screams you hear coming from inside this bone brazen bull.
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71
Just look at all the faces we don't want to be and never want to see. Is yours uglier than mine? Whose will age worse over time? Emotions, the masters of sinews, move muscles like puppets on string. But, they're always adjusting. Never leaving be. A puppet must dance it seems, though they never get it quite right. It's always a face I don't want to be and never want to see. But, I flail it around town, worked over by, and out of time, hoping pathetically, desperately, reasonably, to crash it passionately into a face as off beat as mine.
0
Jun 22, 2013
Jun 22, 2013 at 2:20 AM UTC
Face Me
Under the rug where it's darker than light rumbles & tumbles a beast born of the night. What is it you ask? Well, to know that one must be brave and one must also crave to place a face to all fears looming. So, go on, lift up the mat's edge... Sneak a peek at darkness booming. Close the cupboard doors for from far in the back lurches & lumbers forth the most frightful roars. Your ears can follow your fear to the space just farther than the longest arm's reach, past the jar of pickles, and through the forest of forgotten spices, even beyond the lost boxes of instant mashed potatoes which don't grow old for eternity. It is this lightless den that's home to scores of tiny T-rex looking creatures called Boomasaurs. They spend their time noshing & munching gobbling & gurgling snacks of all kinds; including grazing fingers. You don't need to know too much more about them, of this I'm sure, just go close the cupboard door. Do you trust your boomerang? There's nothing under your bed, as sure as there aren't bats in my head, and I write this in a room where laces can't be in shoes, so, you better check under your bed. For beneath your pillowy paradise on which you wish to float in a dream of candies 'n cream shuffles a shadowy blob; dark, as though made of demons' truffles. And being a black mass of a mess it moves beneath your boxspring in a roll-flop manner. The sound of which when heard lulls the tired & weak, meek, children & adults alike into a nightmare's pleasures. shha-boom   shha-boom shha-boom   shha-boom shha-boom   shha-boom shha-boom   shha-boom shha-boom   shha-boom shha-boom   shha-boom
0
Jun 21, 2013
Jun 21, 2013 at 2:41 AM UTC
The Booms
Under the rug where it's darker than light rumbles & tumbles a beast born of the night. What is it you ask? Well, to know that one must be brave and one must also crave to place a face to all fears looming. So, go on, lift up the mat's edge... Sneak a peek at darkness booming. Close the cupboard doors for from far in the back lurches & lumbers forth the most frightful roars. Your ears can follow your fear to the space just farther than the longest arm's reach, past the jar of pickles, and through the forest of forgotten spices, even beyond the lost boxes of instant mashed potatoes which don't grow old for eternity. It is this lightless den that's home to scores of tiny T-rex looking creatures called Boomasaurs. They spend their time noshing & munching gobbling & gurgling snacks of all kinds; including grazing fingers. You don't need to know too much more about them, of this I'm sure, just go close the cupboard door. Do you trust your boomerang? There's nothing under your bed, as sure as there aren't bats in my head, and I write this in a room where laces can't be in shoes, so, you better check under your bed. For beneath your pillowy paradise on which you wish to float in a dream of candies 'n cream shuffles a shadowy blob; dark, as though made of demons' truffles. And being a black mass of a mess it moves beneath your boxspring in a roll-flop manner. The sound of which when heard lulls the tired & weak, meek, children & adults alike into a nightmare's pleasures. shha-boom   shha-boom shha-boom   shha-boom shha-boom   shha-boom shha-boom   shha-boom shha-boom   shha-boom shha-boom   shha-boom
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57
When a barroom filled with laughter can't lift your head, even momentarily, from your sad, soggy plate of nachos-for-one... When passing girls in narrow hallways flash the fires of passion from their eyes into yours simply to be smothered under a heavy, wet blanket stare; a cumbersome quilt of all your yesterdays' shame... When the supernal opportunity to live for another 24 hrs is met with all the ambition and grace of a house cat forced into a cold bath... You are used up to this world. You are lost to your purpose of being. You are dropped to the dirt like a flower whose spiked stem pricked the caressing fingers of it's holder. Hold no expectation of a familiar, loving hand to reach down, relieved to pick you up and reunite you with what you wish to be; or to place you where you belong. Look around, The ground is littered with us unwanted things. We've all seen that ***** pair of disregarded underwear, miserably caked in rainwater mud, laying on the side of a road or under a bridge somewhere. Whose hand is reaching down for that? But, I won't compare myself to a bum's forgotten underpants and neither should you. I'm sure the universe views us differently than that. It will soon pick us up, wash us of all those grimy wrongs and wear us out anew. Yes, that has to be true.
0
Jun 16, 2013
Jun 16, 2013 at 6:44 PM UTC
The Unwanted Things