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1.2k · Dec 2022
Despite
JR Taveras Dec 2022
And despite the swelling and bruising,
We move forward
1.0k · Apr 2023
The Stainless
JR Taveras Apr 2023
Endless envelopes of paper mail
But hands tremble at the presence of one unaddressed letter,
The card stock glances around, tantalizing to Whomever is caught by its wandering eyes,
As they gently reflect the suns bright glare

As if tempting each of us to open it,
A letter with no return address and no destination simply sits,
With it’s stainless skin—like freshly fabricated silk,
Pleading for a curious soul with whom to share its contents,

Its slight edges sit and yet intimidate
They must surely pack a sharp punch when provoked,
No one dares step to the unaddressed letter,
Fearing that one droplet of our unworthy burgundy blood may be enough to permanently stain the stainless
1.0k · May 2023
A Most Necessary Drink
JR Taveras May 2023
She is a tall glass of water on a summer’s day
She sits in the sun and condensation only amplifies her glow

Full of character, despite her titillating transparency
For every cold cube of ice, is one who took her for granted

Some try to drink her all at once, but
Such a fine glass must be sipped from before it can be drank from
993 · Feb 2023
Tick Tock
JR Taveras Feb 2023
We move across time together,
Constantly, with no change in velocity

Yet the days without you feel long
And the days you are here are the shortest

I know I love you,
I can feel it in my pale rigid bones

I still hate that you left me,
I feel the aches with every pulse of my deteriorating crimson heart

Now, I move across time alone
With only sorrow to offer my grieving soul company
948 · Aug 2021
I hate you
JR Taveras Aug 2021
I hate you.
Not because of what you did to me,
But because of what it turned me into.
846 · Feb 2022
How I Loved You
JR Taveras Feb 2022
I won’t ever love anyone how I loved you,
You lit my days the way the moon does the night,
You fell into my hands and I fell into yours and
holding each other—we promised to never let go

And yet I fell,
My heart erupted. Broken
Blood gushed over my intestines until I ceased to exist

Except that I did exist,
I felt it all for months,
even now I feel blood leaking through the wounds that will never completely heal
803 · Jan 2023
The Road
JR Taveras Jan 2023
I drive and drive and drive
Down this dimly lit road everyday
My tires anxiously roll down the poorly paved asphalt

I never know what’s ahead of me until it’s arrived
And when it does, I steer through and around the perilous obstacles
Obstacles that never seem to cease or give me a break

Fear is constantly in my ear, pleading for me to pull over
But there has to be light at the end of this dim dim road
So I drive and drive and drive
701 · Jan 2023
Gravity
JR Taveras Jan 2023
We are planets
stuck in each others gravitational pull

But we are small planets
And our gravity can only do so much
666 · Mar 2023
To Those Who Have Lost
JR Taveras Mar 2023
When he arrives in his long dark cloak
It’s always a suffocating surprise
No matter how long you’ve been watching him
inch closer and closer to someone you love

But this is a time of peace for your dear friend
And the only way forward is through
So we will mourn your early departure
and later we will celebrate your beautiful soul
To Bobby, Tyson, and Yasmary.
606 · Jan 2023
Before you
JR Taveras Jan 2023
I used to wonder how someone could
Ever be so stupidly in love
Silly, I thought it was

That you could feel someone’s absence in your chest
From when the roosters let out their caws
To when the sky becomes littered with stars

That someone could completely captivate you
Becoming the utterly undeniable center of your universe
Entrancing you in visions of what could be

The rest of your life
592 · Dec 2022
Distractions
JR Taveras Dec 2022
They’ll never understand me
My words are spoken but not heard
I wonder if they can see
I wonder if they realize that for some reason-
I can’t stop moving forward.
Practice healthy healing habits, not this one
565 · Apr 2023
Green and White
JR Taveras Apr 2023
The trees have begun to fill
Every morning I see
more miraculous
Green and white
A new beginning
483 · Jul 2023
Communicate
JR Taveras Jul 2023
Conversations
Create
Clarity
Talk about it
425 · Jan 2023
Why do
384 · Apr 2023
You
JR Taveras Apr 2023
You
Rare are the nights that your smile doesn’t tread  my mind,
That I don’t smell your perfume within a scentless room,
That your skin doesn’t trigger the nerves at the tips of my fingers,
That with silence doesn’t come the voice to which I was destined to succumb

I miss you
375 · May 2023
In the Midst of Battle
JR Taveras May 2023
I was born at war
They hid it from me at first
But I could see the wounds lingering
After each and every one of the ****** battles

They didn’t have to tell me
I saw the coldness of soldiers in their eyes
Stranded on a battlefield
Alone with the enemy

But they weren’t alone—I was there
What they don’t know is that after all these years
I have battle scars too
Because I spent my childhood in the midst of battle
363 · Oct 2023
The Place I Called Home
JR Taveras Oct 2023
The house is enormous now
Riddled with stones, cobwebs
and dreams ended too soon

The ceiling doesn’t hold my conversation
So I just stare at it, blankly
And it stares back, a brightly beaming white

In only a few seconds I start to see those little spots
Six of them, moving across my vision as my
Eyes fill with tears and my heart refuses to let go
361 · Apr 2023
Patience
JR Taveras Apr 2023
Be patient with yourself
Be patient with others
Because no one has it all together
Forgive
358 · May 2022
Nights
JR Taveras May 2022
When the moon shines its subtle glow over our heads,
thoughts race through my mind like the greatest of Grand Prix,

The distractions of the day are gone
And contemplation rules these hours

Memories, speculations, future scenarios,
All that exists converge within my mind

I lie awake, unable to drift into the calm waters of sleep,
Instead, I find myself in the volatile winds of a natural disaster,

Chaos consumes me as I long to find the bliss
Of the glistening diamond on its pedestal

Completely and utterly
untethered to the outside world
288 · May 2022
Versions
JR Taveras May 2022
I may love a version of you for the rest of my life,
But as long as you keep showing me that you’re not that person anymore,
Then it isn’t you that I’m in love with
233 · Oct 2023
Rebirth
JR Taveras Oct 2023
Waking with you in my arms
Like being reborn
With everything I would ever need
196 · Sep 2021
I
JR Taveras Sep 2021
I
I not them.
I hold the secrets to all that is,
I hold the power to decide what is,
I am everything and everyone.
141 · Jan 2021
Untitled
JR Taveras Jan 2021
Once more I tread this course,
One I know far too well.
I enter with hope as well as caution,
For I hope to know your beauty as well as I do your horrors.

I am soaked in the overwhelming need for you,
Yet I still feel the burns from our last encounter,
So why do I still long for you?
Is it truly in search of your beauty?

Or maybe it’s something a bit more selfish..
Maybe I don’t want to be alone any longer.
Maybe I’ve gone insane.
But if so, then haven’t we all?
117 · Dec 2021
Romantic
JR Taveras Dec 2021
Even now I remain the hopeless romantic I was all those years ago,
The only difference is that I now know how much weight the word hopeless holds
114 · Feb 2022
You and I
JR Taveras Feb 2022
You and I
stars amongst the sky
Beautiful from afar
yet burning inside

Long are the nights we spend together
I remember how they sped by,
fast
as fast as a blink of an eye

I do not want to let go,
but I feel something building inside of me
Growing larger by the second
And I am afraid of supernova
101 · Dec 2020
Alone Again
JR Taveras Dec 2020
I wish I could start anew,
But with silence comes the thought of you.
The lost boy who lost his partner,
Searches all over, here and yonder.
She left so fast, left him to ponder.
Is there anyone who’s seen my partner?

Blood is red and the sky blue,
There is no length I wouldn’t go to,
If it meant that I could see my partner.

Snow days in nor Christmas joy,
There’s nothing that can please this boy,
All I want is to see my partner,

Eight years young or eighty old,
The winter nights are awfully cold,
Especially when I’m all alone,
I still have yet to see my partner.

My brother’s arm, my sister’s hand,
I forgot all about my siblings.
My mothers love, my fathers pride,
You cannot say I didn’t try,
I never did find my partner.

— The End —