Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Hands that eagerly grasped
Emptiness
Now clutch dirt beneath
Our feet
Because no one gave them
Something to hold
This one sat in my notes for ages.
I see you walk towards the door, mama.
You have some bags. You seem like
you're in such an awful hurry.
I lift my little hands up to you,
the person who I love most in the world,
but you seem so distracted.

You tell me that you'll be back soon

The door closes.

I wait.

I distract myself with the few toys
that you've left me.
The TV is on Sesame Street
as Elmo teaches me about love.

I see a beautiful leaf flutter outside the window.
I can't wait to tell you about it.

It's been so long mama.  

Where are you?
My stomach is growling
but the snacks you left have run out.
I try to open the door but my little fingers
don't yet have the dexterity.

I hope you bring blueberries home,
You know they're my favorite.

I'm starting to get scared, mama
my stomach hurts so much.
I wish you were here to cuddle me
and make me feel less alone.
I whimper.  I miss you.

I've made a mess, mama.

I'm so sorry, it was an accident.

The first time, I tried to hold it in
but I couldn't.  I hope you're not angry.
I have nowhere else to go.
I didn't know what else to do
so I took my pants off and put
them in the corner.

It's been so long, mama

Why haven't you come home yet?
I'm screaming now, my tiny body
wracked with sobs.
I'm angry and confused.  
I don't understand why you left.

I'm terrified and alone.

I'm so tired, mama
my lips are dry.
my stomach is empty.
my eyelids are heavy.
I am inconsolable,
but I'm too weak to even cry.

my heart is broken.


You were supposed to protect me.


It hurts so much.

I'm closing my eyes, mama.

I hope that the next time I open them
You'll be there to tell me
Everything is going to be alright

I still love you.

Goodbye mama.
This poem is born from a story I read awhile ago where a mother left her 16 month old child at home alone while she went on a vacation, during which time the child died of starvation and dehydration.  

It made me absolutely livid reading about it, and thinking about how terrified the child must have been up until their final moments.  The betrayal of that mother haunts me to this day.

This is all I could do with my sadness
 Jan 20 Esperanza H
rac1
President Donald Duck
The USA has run it's luck
He says he will bring us back
But all he'll do is quack & quack
Your body will never speak
the same language.

No one will ever be the tongue
of you at my root
drenching up
to the tip.

An act of supplication
and worship
that has left me
an atheist.
Hello?
Are you there?

Did I write this?
Do I care?

My brain is gone
and I don’t know where

My creative spark
My unique flare

Hello?
Are you there?
How can I
love someone new,
when you kiss
my soul
so true?
For the blurred-faced man, who comes in my dream-

Are you real, or am I lost in the feel?
One day, you'll calm down,
Look back on your story as if through a stranger's eyes.
A quiet smile will escape, a gentle shake of the head—
Life, after all, is but a fleeting dream.

Someday, you'll release today’s struggles,
With only a whisper of regret in the air.
Clarity will dawn, illusions will fade,
And the weight of the world will dissolve in stillness.

In that moment, you'll find the truth—
Not in gaining, nor in losing,
But in the quiet harmony of a peaceful heart.
For 576
 Jan 18 Esperanza H
Alexis
I fell for him, not in whispers or sighs,
But in crescendos, in rhythms, in skies
Painted with notes that danced in the air,
Each song a thread of the love we’d share.

He wasn’t just music—he was the sound,
The hum of the earth, the pulse underground.
A genre, a chord, a tune soft and true,
Would echo his soul, would carry his hue.

But now he is gone, and silence remains,
A hollow refrain, a ghost in the strains.
Yet when music plays, I’m drawn to the year,
I search for a sign he might have been near.

Did he hum this tune? Did he hear this beat?
Did it brush his soul? Was it his retreat?
The thought is a comfort, though bittersweet,
A harmony bridging where life and death meet.

For love like this does not fade away,
It lingers in songs, in chords that replay.
So I listen, I wonder, I dream him alive,
Through melodies where his spirit survives
 Jan 17 Esperanza H
Germaine
it will be engraved
in my brain,

like the tracks
on the train,

and they’ll call
me insane

but at least I’ll exist without the pain,

in my veins.

I’ll restrain,
I’ll maintain,
I’ll regain.
i dont know how to
be better than i am now
but i got to try
Next page