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30.5k · Aug 2019
For What It's Worth
Luke Aug 2019
I went out to find
Some value in me,
So I sold what I had
For little a fee.

My eyes for a penny
I sold to some fools,
They're blind and useless,
Mistook for jewels.

My lips for a nickel
To the sweetest sin,
So they'll know the love
That has never been.

My ears for a dime
I sold to a lover.
To hear sweet nothings,
And silence uncover.

My hands for a quarter
I sold to a ghost,
So that she might feel
What I've wanted the most.

Finally my bones for a dollar
I sold to the earth,
But as for my soul-
There was found no worth.
2.2k · Oct 2018
Inside A Poet
Luke Oct 2018
My dear miss Able asked me about a hidden place.

A place where words go to find lovers.
A Tinder for f̶o̶r̶e̶p̶l̶a̶y̶  wordplay.

Where "She" swipes right on "Him" to create "Them".

Where "Un" and "Faithful" got together and made "Faithfulun"
Because "Faithful" is also seeing "Dyslexia"

Where my friend "Alone" swept left on "Everybody"
And never changed.

And "In" became "Indecent" when he, infatuated,
Increasingly indulged
Into "Inappropriation" while dating "decent" and then Indiscreetly descended into "Insanity".

Where "Baby" got "Back" after "Laid-Back" split when "Laid"
got "Off".

Miss Able doubted this place even after her first son,
"Question" who took her surname.



But this place does exist-

Where gold is mind inside a poet.
819 · Nov 2018
Rise
Luke Nov 2018
Misery grows tired.
In these seemingly endless nights
We find a poor home for eternity
Caged upon our mattress
Damp from the night sweats

We wake now to a different sky
So make your bed
Take a breath
Be the sun and


Rise.
592 · Nov 2018
Parmesan
Luke Nov 2018
I sat to end a day dragged on
Spaghetti topped with parmesan.
When the plates found clean, I let out a yawn.
And my pillow I placed my head upon.

In my dreams God had drawn
Back curtains to reveal the con;
A sky deceptively white as swan,
Found only as melted parmesan.

Again in morning I released a yawn,
Through my window I greeted dawn.
But found my dream all but gone
As the sky still smooth as parmesan.

And the day drags on.
And on.
My friend told me to write 14 lines all rhyming with Parmesan, this is what I came up with.
508 · Oct 2018
She'll Read This
Luke Oct 2018
She'll read this as proof of my thoughts when she's away
That my mind never drifts, or heart ever sway,

And this beautiful ache I know as space
Is just another way to know her grace.

So I'll wait.

If only for a moment of her time,
I'll take what she gives,
A minute, or lifetime.
485 · Aug 2019
Lips Of Ash
Luke Aug 2019
Lips of Ash,
Charred and cracked,
Carry my words to a god who's never cared.
Let her find them unbeautiful,
Not worship, nor prayer.
478 · Oct 2019
Proof Of Nonexistence
Luke Oct 2019
Don't you dare tell me Heaven exists,
The closest I've ever been were those nights that I felt loved.
The closest I've ever been were those lips-

They tasted like Heaven,
But the after taste is wanting,
The after taste is unloved.
The after taste is regret for falling in love again.

Don't you dare tell me Hell exists,
Because I've had those nights where only love remains.
I've known those lips that strip hate from your tongue.

I know of love,
I know of it's wake.
I know what I would die for,
And what would bring me back to life.

Love and hate remind us of what it means to be alive.
And I know neither.


So don't you ******* dare tell me that I exist.
462 · Oct 2018
* * * *
Luke Oct 2018
The words I want to say
remain unspoken.
censorship keeps them choked within,
gagged on rags of impoverishing self-hate.

How could I ever tell you?

I  * * * *  you
445 · Sep 2019
Another Dream Ends
Luke Sep 2019
Another dream ends,
She died as the sun rose.
And I; sleepless again,
Never what anyone chose.
420 · Aug 2019
Temporary Antidote
Luke Aug 2019
Translucent eyes I look to thee,
And to the sun I emerged from sea.
Your shallow gaze I never loved
Was but to save from the depths in me.
403 · Dec 2018
If Ever I Were Loved
Luke Dec 2018
If ever I were loved
Perhaps then I'd sleep
My dreams found clean
The ledge unleaped.

My hunger sated
And thirst quenched
Misery faded
Noose uncinched

My lungs a new breath
And ears a new song
One not of death
But of gentle tongue

If ever I was loved
Surely I would know
How to see the best
Inside of my soul

But here found the truth
In miserable heaps
My soul uncouth
Worthless it keeps

If ever I were loved
I might let it slip
Then god up above
Would tighten his grip

So I'll lay here forever
Until she comes along
love found never
And hope found wrong.
371 · Oct 2018
Bitter Love
Luke Oct 2018
Sweet aroma of arabica
Gentle growlings of a brew
Warm comfort in the morning
Well, at night too.
367 · Oct 2018
Passive Descent
Luke Oct 2018
Sweet Gravity

For you I've fallen

At first resisting

But now in passive descent
365 · Jun 2019
Just, not now
Luke Jun 2019
I believe in the sun
And arrival of light
I believe in dawning
But **** this long night.

It comes and goes
With more give than take.
Exit smile,
Enter ache.

One day someone will accidentally love me
Though I could never see how
And we'll finally be happy
Just, not now.
365 · Nov 2018
Upon Your Wrist
Luke Nov 2018
Of all the places to find my name
None of these upon your wrist.
A year has passed and all the same
All the lovers remain unkissed.

Of all the places to find my name
The most of these upon the stone,
"here lies" to pretend some shame,
For what sins did I atone?
358 · Oct 2018
The End Of Paradise
Luke Oct 2018
I closed my eyes to finally dream
But found less than what's before me.
So I gazed through the night
And part of morning's dawning.

If no tomorrow should ever bring
The bliss I knew that night,
I'll remember it with all my heart,
All my soul, and mind

As The End Of Paradise.
356 · Oct 2018
Secondary Sun
Luke Oct 2018
In God's yardsale
The sun he sold

He caused the night to linger
Long and cold

Our fragile globe
The light did shun

'Til you smiled
Our secondary sun
349 · Oct 2018
Toxicity
Luke Oct 2018
This toxic air
Exists to fill omissions
Between my fingers
And in my chest

I am home
333 · Jul 2019
Dear Gentle Breeze
Luke Jul 2019
Dear Gentle Breeze, of you I'll forget

Of how you passed through
The ugly places that I lived

And of these it's true- vacant and stale

But born anew, upon the coming gale.
305 · Oct 2018
Cold Coffee
Luke Oct 2018
Sippin' coffee
My mind adrift
Which moon should take you?

And I
Left alone
With cold coffee
And a memory.
303 · Nov 2018
How to measure time
Luke Nov 2018
In their minds you were found absent
This is just another way to measure time

And as it passes

Once again ****** to memories
then to a lonely ache
And finally-

Nothingness.
278 · Jun 2019
Rapid Unmovement
Luke Jun 2019
Within your phantom hands
I found the noose
Only to die again today

Sweet allure of almost
Can't you hold me tonight?
It's been 23 years since I've felt loved.

Why is my mind like a subway?
Crowded
Filled with every pretty face
That couldn't give a ****

Amongst them the worst
That I would settle
And I, still found less than the tiles
Stained with last nights bad decisions.
Another step upon me, I hope you get to go where you long to be.

I'll be here. Like I always have been.
256 · Dec 2018
Player Two
Luke Dec 2018
To the one who won, player one, the spoils.
And to you, too bad, player two, mere scraps.

Thorns of lust entangles hearts, and coils
****** into a void, accept the collapse

This story has a hero already, player two.
The princess in another castle; saved.
Not by you.

And so the question remains Player Two
Second best is in your fate, you'll always lose, can you still-

Continue?
247 · Oct 2018
Unrequited
Luke Oct 2018
Make me smile
Or take it away

Give blue skies
Or turn them grey

Wish me well
Or curse my name

I'm in love but not loved
So it's all the same
243 · Oct 2018
My Headphones Died
Luke Oct 2018
The sudden death of my headphones
Means the collapse of my well being.
Met with the suffocating white noise of reality,
No more delays.

It's time to face the music.
241 · Nov 2018
Childish Dreams
Luke Nov 2018
In adolescence I dreamt amongst friends
What we might become,

"The President!" Said he,
"A Princess!" Said she,
"Happy."  I said.

Reconvened as adults we discussed
The likelihood of our dreams,

And found mine least of these.
238 · May 2019
Fire Inside
Luke May 2019
The amber glow of dawn
Has entered to purge the night.
To sleep your fire stole,
But once again ignites.

You feel it burning in your body,
Your weaknesses pick you apart,
But where did this fire come from,
If not the flames spilling from your heart?
I wrote this as motivation to run a marathon.
This is meant to remind us how unpleasant growth can be, that to become more we have to outgrow ourselves.
235 · Dec 2018
Untitled
Luke Dec 2018
Unravel my heart
These knots made of
Coarse twine
Unforgiving, and hard to hold.

Escape.

You deserve a better home
You were never meant to be here.
231 · Oct 2018
Mysterious Works
Luke Oct 2018
God works in mysterious ways,
Or not at all.
I feast on apples all day,
Only to trigger a fall.
Condemned homeless veins take needles to stave,
I, amongst these souls profane
weighed less than what God might save.

Did our savior turn his eyes from us
As Satan spewed miasmal wretchedness?
Rancidity overwhelmed the Heavens
And scorn fell like rain
drowning streets, ***** houses and churches,
and from these oozed the truth of our existence.
Birthed in this putrid slime
we crawled, and struggled, and ached,
and cried, and prayed to whatever god might listen-

Of course,
none ever did.

So we waited,

And waited,

And waited,

For nothing.
231 · Oct 2018
Everheart
Luke Oct 2018
Everheart,

Fragmented
you give yourself away
and lose another piece
While you starve
these beasts will feast

Disconsolation proves
Rejection causes collapse
Wretchedness moves
To reside in these cracks

You've been here before
Far from tomorrow
Where promises live
And happiness borrowed

You cry to stop the beating
You scream for an end
But the cycle keeps repeating
And you'll start again
226 · Oct 2018
Spoke In Heart
Luke Oct 2018
I could speak my mind in a thousand different ways,

And find these all insufficient.

But a single word spoke in heart,

And the world forever better.
221 · Oct 2018
Resilience
Luke Oct 2018
What is the burning in your chest
But your heart outgrowing its cage

Or the resilience in clenched fists,
Your coming of age

Through mistakes the universe says "you're getting in the way."

But undeterred you take a seat, and promise, "I'm here to stay."
221 · Oct 2018
An End
Luke Oct 2018
Invited up
on boards creakier than my bones

Steps lead me to heaven, to hell- no, just an end

And you
my dear friend
have misplaced the rope

No matter, pull my heart strings once again, darling, you know the way

Love is a nuisance.

Vacant space of what used to be now gives way for busy hands.

bend and break, mend and splice.
Now fasten it well, and fasten it tight

Before my feet fell, my final thought:
A recollection of our days together.

"Love is a nuis-"
220 · Nov 2018
Goddess
Luke Nov 2018
Through my eyes
A dismal grey,
Until my Goddess
Smiled.
Finally
I see the day
And in me
Beauty riled.

In my chest
Cobwebs grew,
Until you breathed
In me.
You began inside
Something new,
Beautiful and free.
195 · Oct 2018
Baleful Night
Luke Oct 2018
Beasts of the deep,
Caged and asleep,
Arise tonight,
To haunt the street.

Flesh turned pale
From sheepish fright
Seeping ****,
And brackish blight.

Gnawing, chomping,
Devour, consume.

Phantasmal creak,
Lurid gloom.

These vile abominations
Licking flesh from the bone,
Creatures ripe with predation,
Deathly snarl and groan

Cloaked they hunt,
Looking to feed,
Lust and want,
And gluttonous greed.

Venomious eyes in your direction,
Monstrosities infected with disease,
But cower upon inspection,
And recognize you worst of these.
My contribution to Halloween this year. Hope you enjoy!

— The End —