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Justin S Wampler May 2024
Listen to how they speak,
the faces on all the screens.

Words blend,
incoherence.
No one is
making sense.

It's not just a hiccup,
not just a cough,
it's a death rattle
and it's clear to us all.

Listen to how they speak
and you'll hear
the blatant fear
of their imminent defeat.
Justin S Wampler May 2024
Some day maybe
you'll sing to me.
Not necessarily
to me specifically,
but I'll be
listening
and you'll be
singing.

Maybe in the shower,
maybe pulling in
the driveway
on your way home
from work.
My ear pressed to the door.

I want to see you
in the shower,
singing along.
I want to reach out
to the clear lining
and press it against
your naked, wet body.
I want to wrap you up
in that protective plastic,
and you won't miss a single note.
You'll keep singing and I'll caress
your every curve and mole.
My hands gliding up against
the smooth refined finish,
so gingerly sweeping
across all your bits.
Soapy and slippery.
So close but not.
Not quite touching.
Not quite real.
My skin isn't
something
that you'll
ever feel,
or feel
feeling
you.


Beauty encapsulated,
preserved in time and space.
The sound of falling water.
The blurry look on your face


is telling me to
Stop.


Your voice in my ears,
my make-believe dream.
You'll sing that you love me
and I'll wake with a scream.
Justin S Wampler May 2024
We all ignite,
the only difference
is the fuel.
Justin S Wampler May 2024
One day you'll wake up,
the sun will be bifurcated
by the Venetian blinds,
and it will be in your eyes.

You'll blindly reach across the bed
and touch only faintly-warm sheets.
The expectation of skin, of kin,
of the person who helped build you a family.

After all these years
how could he leave?
No, you're just being silly.
He's just up early,
making coffee.
You'll pry open your eyes
and gaze into the hall,
scanning for movement.

Scanning for anything at all.

Low beams of morning sun
cut through the room,
and the only things moving
are gently wafting motes
caught in it's brilliant web.

You'll want to call out,
maybe make a silly joke.
Ask him if he's making breakfast,
ask him if he broke the yolk,
but instead you say nothing
because at least with the silence
you can still cope
and the sound of your loving call
falling flat on the hall walls
will be enough to drive you mad.


A car drives off in the distance.
The sound is clear as day.
Clear as day.
Clear as the slatted sunlight
strewn across your face.
Clear as the last time.
Clear as the first time.
Clear as it ever could be.
A window to forever see through,
a door just for you.
Justin S Wampler May 2024
Listless veil,
dancing in the wind of causality.
Covered, yet you translucere
in the faint light of another day.

What is real, is not.
There's a fire
growing hot,
kept fed and fanned
by a facade's rot.

There's no phoenix here,
just a life left
steeped
in ashes.

Oh whispering, listless veil;
behind you hides the tale
of what the truth entails.

Do not part, it won't be missed.
Bury it, cover it,
obfuscate with bliss.
Justin S Wampler May 2024
I wear my watch;
all of the time.
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