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JDK Mar 2021
I find myself longing for something I used to be able to do when I was half my age. Something that now seems way more complicated than it used to be.

I miss lying on the floor of a dark bedroom, staring up at the ceiling while listening to songs on vinyl.

Such a simple recipe,
one would think it'd be pretty simple to recreate,
but they'd be mistaken.

I miss lying on the carpeted floor of my best friend's bedroom, listening to beautiful songs while watching her ceiling fan spin slow circles in the dark.

Sometimes, we don't realize how rare certain ingredients are until we find ourselves without them. Something that used to seem so abundant, so easily accessible - now gone. Long gone.

I miss lying on the carpet next to the one I thought I was in love with, the tips of our heads nearly touching, feeling tempted to just move my hand over ever so slightly to grasp hers, while listening to her records in the dark.

Such simple things that used to seem so close.
Now, so far away.
"What if I thought these next thoughts real loudly, would she be able to hear what I was thinking?"
- 16-year-old me
JDK Mar 2021
___
1. Verb
2. Adverb (must end in "ly")
3. Adjective
4. Noun
Most things in life (1.)_______ me,
which is why I've always endeavored to live life (2.)________.
Although, lately, I've been feeling a bit more (3.)________.
And though it may sound strange,
it all turns out the same when you're just a (4.)_________ like me.
JDK Mar 2021
A day full of retail therapy
punctuated by anti-capitalism posts on facebook propogated by a person I've known since kindergarten.

Life can be funny in a way that doesn't make you laugh,
but at least it tries.
Isn't that enough?

I got mean-mugged by a stranger's bulldog through a window-front while folding my laundry on top of a surfboard that'd been repurposed as a table.

Purposes can be rearranged.
Full moons can rise over days that were strange, only to turn them into stranger nights.
But the strange can make things interesting sometimes.
That's got to count for something, right?

First day off after a month and a half of long days at sea.
I blew off every single plan I'd half-heartedly committed to on the smoke deck without feeling the least bit guilty.

Feelings can be unfriendly sometimes.
Sometimes you just have to choose "Me."
When I was in 3rd grade, my girlfriend from 2nd grade threatened to throw herself off of the tallest point of the tallest jungle gym after she'd found out that I'd gotten a new girlfriend. Unless I professed my undying love to her and only her, she was going to do it, she was going to jump. So I did, but only to spare her "life." You see, I didn't actually mean it. It wasn't until later in that week when I'd heard the song "You Gotta Be" by Des'ree while on the way to a restaurant in the family car that I actually decided to live up to the commitment I'd already made. I resolved to break up with my new girlfriend the next day, but she beat me to the punch. She broke up with me first, right before we lined up for lunch.

As I sat there eating alone, perhaps I'd thought to myself something along the lines of, "life is funny sometimes in a way that doesn't make you laugh."

Or perhaps not. But it's a story, right?
And stories shouldn't end before they're finished.

I want to see the rest of yours.
JDK Jan 2021
Some people are so egocentric
that you have to knock them down a peg or two before they'll be your friend.
Humble the vain for friends that stain*
JDK Jan 2021
Some of us are too stubborn to acknowledge when we've got it all figured out.

Knowing what's best for you doesn't always mean you know what the next best thing to do is.

Some of us know too many words and not enough meaning,
and we get all tripped up on the semantics.

If I could, I'd stop writing stanzas that begin with ******* like,
"If I could,"
or
"Truth be told,"
or,
"Truth is."

Because **** me dude.
Seriously, I'm the worst.
Maybe I'll find a random group of skater kids and ride up on them like,

"Y'all bozos want some ***** though bros?"

(There's no non-creepy way to get rid of this thing, basically, is what I'm trying to say.)
JDK Jan 2021
Poets are sociopaths
masquerading as artists
who've convinced themselves they know how to connect to other people
while having no clue where their own heart is.
I'm just projecting my personal shortcomings onto all of you.
JDK Dec 2020
Distance makes the heart grow fonder,
and proximity can make you wonder how you ever built it up so be some kind of cure-all universal life-problem-solver.
But when reality falls short of fantasy,
that's where all of the life-lessons are found.

The majority of them seem to be along the lines of:
Ha, *******. Figure it out for yourself.
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