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99 · Feb 2022
Quality house
Justin S Wampler Feb 2022
That familiar dizzy
graces me again.

Tastes like a grimace.
The taste of fate again.

Twelve bucks
is cheap
to feel this
blessedness.
To feel this
sin.

That familiar fuzzy,
vision blurred again.

Tastes like forgetting,
the taste of home again.
Justin S Wampler Jan 2022
I should be going to bed at 8:00,
so I start drinking as soon as I get home.
But the issue is
that I don't get drunk anymore
until about 10:00.

Maybe I'll start leaving work a few hours early.

Maybe I just gotta focus on getting it down faster.
99 · Mar 2021
Repose-ishin
Justin S Wampler Mar 2021
The kind of tired
that sleep don't fix.
Start off on my back,
force my eyes closed,
listen to my heart race,
stare at the ceiling.
Flip onto my side
and slip my arm
under my pillow,
and just listen to the wind blow
the chimes outside of my window.
Maybe lay on my stomach
and hug the pillow tight,
this feels pretty comfortable,
this position might be just right.
That's when the smoke detector
begins to chirp in the night.
I'm running out of time,
God please send me to sleep
because work is gonna ****
if I don't get this relief.
Please give me sleep.
Please.

Visions of guilt
and disappointed faces
are floating behind
my eyelids.
Memories
of embarrassment,
and past bad decisions,
line dance through
my skull.
I'm feigning sleep
while
I'm wide awake
in my soul.
98 · Oct 2021
Cell
Justin S Wampler Oct 2021
The irresistible compulsion.

In my mind's eye
I've already taken my brittle phone,
grasped it longways
and slammed it repeatedly upon the edge of my desk.

My beautiful mind's eye,
It shows me the gruesome satisfaction
of so many bittersweet actions
that I dare not take.

Even as I write this.
As I live
and breathe.
How wondrous it would be,
free of this digital monarchy.
How magnificent a scene;
my cell phone split in twain.
But..
Alas, nary a second would pass,
we're I to destroy this rectangular glass,
without me wondering
if all was well.

Maybe once my family is dead,
Or maybe not so dramatic...
Maybe if I get a land line instead...
Then I could relish the taste
of destroying something
I truly do hate.
98 · Nov 2020
God is love
Justin S Wampler Nov 2020
Ain't much for sermons,
And I don't need a church
To see that it's more than
Just a nap
in the dirt.

Ain't had much thought
On what it means to die,
Too busy living life
One day
At a time.

But I swear I still see
Glints of God shining
In the slats of evening sunlight
Cast through the venetian blinds.
I see God in my brother's
Smiling green eyes,
In my aunt's jubilant laughter,
In my grandfather's volunteering
Of all of his time.
I see God in my Dan,
An admirable man,
I see God in the way
Others see just family.

I pray to my mother
To be the kind of person
That my family may look at
And see a glimpse of God in me.
98 · Jan 2022
gasoline and batteries
Justin S Wampler Jan 2022
Touch tongues with me,
taste the bitter taste of acid.

Shocking how
the tide turns us now,
alight with solemn flame.
Left burning again.
97 · Nov 2021
Monosyllabic
Justin S Wampler Nov 2021
It's true that I'm not there.
I'm not here, nor have I been.
I find that I fade, that I wave
in the wind like a sun dried flag.
I crack on the edge, I chafe and I chap.
The sky shines bright with white light,
and those rays beat me to a pulp.
I am baked, stewed, and steamed.
The crows' caws sound like
an old worn door hinge
as they start to come for me.
The coarse sound of rust.
Their beaks tear and gnash,
my crisp skin must be good.
They save my eyes for last,
on a mere whim.
Now I soar with them,
my dark wings spread.
I am not here, I am
not there.
Yet.
97 · Feb 2022
Eyes don't matter.
Justin S Wampler Feb 2022
There's a sinking ship
beneath our feet.

We don't notice it though,
we can't see.

Busy playing in the metaphysical dirt,
busy tumbling gravel and stones from our shoes.
Busy. Too busy.

What do you notice
first thing
on a Sunday morning?

That's all that
ever really matters.
96 · Jun 2020
Divorce
Justin S Wampler Jun 2020
Where did I go
When I stopped saying hi
What did you do
With these years of your life
You happened along
Like a subtle love song
And went and became someone's wife

Now with a child
And seldom a smile
You crawl through life
Like a soldier
I'm grateful for your thoughts
96 · May 2021
What ain't it
Justin S Wampler May 2021
It ain't the trees,
ain't the grass either.
Ain't the cityscape
or the skyscrapers.
It ain't the movies
or the fancy music.
Ain't the games
or any gadgets.

It's the sky.
That's what I'm in it for.
The blue
and the white.
Fluffy and infinite.
Gradient and stolid,
whether rain or shine.
Vast and welcoming.

She's the sky.
She's the blue,
the infinite.

She's the,

the...
well...

She's the sky.


I wander in her.
Adrift upon golden rays.
96 · Jan 2021
Mind of man
Justin S Wampler Jan 2021
I wanna buy you ****,
Yeah I wanna build you **** too.
Build you **** outta ******'
wood and metal and whatever.
Yeah I wanna *******,
wanna make you make noises.
Wanna hear you make noises
that no one else gets to hear.
Yeah I wanna *******,
and buy you ****,
and build **** for you,
Yeah.
95 · Dec 2021
Personally.
Justin S Wampler Dec 2021
I am not my words.

I am my behavior,
I am my actions.
My decisions.

I am not these words.
The person I appear to be
to you, dear reader,
would be a complete stranger
to my family.

The me that is seen by a lover
would be an unknown to my friends.

I am not these words,
for there is no true me.
There are only the different shapes I take
to more effectively make
my way through life.

I change in the blink
of your eye.
Don't you recognize me?
Look again.
How about now?
95 · Jun 2021
Driven
Justin S Wampler Jun 2021
Where do the lights go
when they leave your eyes?
Do they waft along through the rafters,
do they linger on long after
love has come and gone?
Do they illuminate darkened rooms
with a subtle radiance,
like seeing heat on the horizon
that sunny afternoon I spent
speeding down I80?
I saw a mirage mirroring your vestige
and my flesh rippled with goosebumps,
my thoughts had been on the lines
right as they began to blur.
95 · Mar 2021
Internet syndrome
Justin S Wampler Mar 2021
Even poetry
ain't about poetry no more,
it's all just for likes and reposts.
94 · Feb 2021
Former only child
Justin S Wampler Feb 2021
I spend a great deal of time
alone.

I just won't think about it for now.

Maybe tomorrow.
Ah,
tomorrow.
94 · Aug 2021
Untitled
Justin S Wampler Aug 2021
Conscious is deafening
as the sun sets.
Sleep, please.
I beg of it.
Hide my head
under my pillow again.
I'll do it tomorrow.
I promise.
93 · Dec 2020
Two only children
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
You'll look up one day
And be almost seventy,
I'll be eighty-eight.
93 · Jun 2022
Speak
Justin S Wampler Jun 2022
Sometimes those words left unsaid
go on chasing their tails in my head
until I finally get to spout them out
to anyone who happens to be around.

They'll look at me with a questioning eye,
so exquisitely curious as to precisely why
I felt that they were the one with whom I'd share
the fact I **** my pants and ruined my underwear.

"I was going mad!" I'll say with a glare.
"I had to tell someone, I suppose...
You just so happened to be there,
and so that's just the way it goes."
93 · Apr 2020
Leaving winter
Justin S Wampler Apr 2020
Shallow pools of rainwater
The sound of an engine running
Blue and bright
Between light and lofty whites
Wafting tendrils of steam
Curled and unfurling
Like fresh april blooms
Infant flowers and leaves
Flowers and levers
Flow and weave
Follow or leave
Floral trees
In the spring breeze
93 · Jun 2021
Wind chime
Justin S Wampler Jun 2021
The virtuous voice
of father time
is singing
bittersweet lullabies
that I don't
even recognize.

My ears ring,
and I squinch up my face
in revulsion.
92 · Jul 2020
Blood and steel
Justin S Wampler Jul 2020
Grease, grime and filth
Black hands from all the silt
Knuckles busted
Bleeding thumb
Time to take this
Baby for a run
Starter up
Hop on in
Let's go around the block again
92 · Apr 2021
Canine
Justin S Wampler Apr 2021
In my dream, I'm coming home.
Footsteps echoing in the foyer
as I climb the nineteen stairs.
Keys and tumblers.
The door swings shut behind me
with a soft little snik.
In the dream there's a dog
asleep on the floor of my apartment.
I'm frightened when I see it,
the blonde fur intimidates me.
In my dream its tail is curled,
wrapped around it's body.
It's facing away from me.
My emotions ramp from frightened
to fearful as I step towards it,
and when I reach out a shakey hand
to touch the blonde fur...
I sharply inhale and retract my arm,
the dog is ice cold.
It turns it's head and looks at me,
and where it's eyes used to be
are now only two tangled, knotting messes
of writhing maggots.
In my dream the dog speaks to me
just as the scream that's caught in my throat
has a chance to escape.
It mutters something gutteral as I begin to shriek.
I never hear the word it says, though.
I wake up sweating.
I wake up again.
92 · Jan 2022
Look,
Justin S Wampler Jan 2022
I don't like to write.
I write for the likes.
That being said, I don't hate to write either.

So ******* and the horse you rode in on.
91 · Dec 2020
Time traveling
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
When I touch you
I'm nineteen again.

I'm on the bridge again,
Looking at the water beneath.

I'm making shadows in the moonlight,
I'm driving three hours to Williamsport
At 10 PM on a Sunday night.

I'm looking at our reflection
In every pane of glass,
I'm ******* in knots
And I'm driving a little too fast.

I'm playing hacky sack
In a big circle outside
Of the Limerick diner,
With all my friends by my side.

I'm staying up too late,
Because to sleep would be a waste
Of the seconds
And the hours
And the days.

I'm surrounded by orchids.

I'm watching fireworks
On a pier down Wildwood,
Where we jumped over
The banister
On the fourth of july.

I'm carrying wood over
To a blazing fire,
I'm playing pool and darts
And I'm not even tired.

I'm watching a couch burn
As Pat finishes his Bailey's.

I'm writing in that notebook
Behind me on the shelf.
I'm savoring a coffee
With a spoon in it.

I'm drawing on the back
Of every paper placemat.

When I touch you
I'm nineteen.

Or twenty nine.

I'm losing the meaning
Of time.
91 · Nov 2020
A way out
Justin S Wampler Nov 2020
A slight taste of copper,
A whisper of a doubt.
Neighbors are screaming,
A dog is barking,
It's 7:00 pm.

My left ear gets hot,
Maybe that means
Someone is talking about me.
I ponder who it could be,
I wonder who I want it to be,
As I imagine sticking my head
Out the window of a moving car.

Streetlights whipping past me,
Streaks of orange arc-sodium
Burning into my retinas.
Someone takes a picture,
Flashless,
And the memory is gone.

Back home, neighbor is
Pounding on the wall.
The fishtank is low,
It gurgles at me in contempt.
The dog is still barking,
It's 7:01.

My ear is still hot.
91 · Jan 2021
Hollow words
Justin S Wampler Jan 2021
Speak less,
Do more.
91 · Dec 2021
Trigger
Justin S Wampler Dec 2021
There's a dog barking
and
I'm in a chasm.
My life is a chasm
and there are dogs
barking.

God, the incessantly persistent barking.

It echoes and
I'm barking,
the dog is a chasm.

I'm barking and echoing and
my head is ground into dust.
Eyes squinched shut,
nails dug into my palms.

I snap back to reality
with my hand on my gun.
My Springfield 9mm that I wear on my hip,
fully loaded. The grip is sweaty but the dog is gone.
The barking quiets.

I rummage through my memory
in search of
sleep.

Blessed sleep.
Zzz.

Woof

My eyelid twitches.
91 · Jun 2021
Silent suffering
Justin S Wampler Jun 2021
I'm not worth the mention,
tell me:
How are you doing lately?
90 · Nov 2021
Busting nuts
Justin S Wampler Nov 2021
I feel like chunky peanut butter started out
as a failed batch of regular peanut butter,
and they were all like
"****. What do we do with all this
partially blended peanut butter?"
Then the suits probably figured:
"market it as intentional,
******* rubes will buy anything."
90 · Apr 2021
Bind
Justin S Wampler Apr 2021
Maybe if you weren't so pretty when you cry
I wouldn't feel compelled to be so cruel.
90 · Jul 2021
Ask me how I know
Justin S Wampler Jul 2021
Spend enough time
feigning stupidity
and it'll end up
becoming true.
Justin S Wampler Jun 2020
Blossom
With the nuanced energy of remembrance
Shine
With the piercing light of yesterday's sun
Smile
Until the muscles ache with joyous pain,
And strive to never forget
All the memories that
We've created with each other

May time's erosion be kind to us all
89 · Dec 2021
Fistfuls
Justin S Wampler Dec 2021
The only thing
I'm leaving behind,
is time.

Everything else
I've held onto
so dearly.

With a death grip
and cramping
hand muscles.

Blinded to
what's worth
reaching for,
for fear of
dropping
what I'm so
desperately
clutching.
89 · Oct 2020
Butchie
Justin S Wampler Oct 2020
Yo ****.
Disere trans ain't long for living.
She gotta bouta hunnert miles left inner,
If dat.
Limp er on down Alan's,
Dem dere'll see what's dere to see.
Maybe she got but grit inner gears,
Maybe first just gone and done quit.
89 · Feb 2022
Justin
Justin S Wampler Feb 2022
I blatantly hate myself.

Today I went and drove myself
up against a wall.
I get angry at nothing.
I bottle it all.

Glory, I can hardly wait
for that bottle to break.
Then maybe I'll justify
all this self hate.

I want to burn a church,
I want to ****.

I want to leave this plane.
I want to cross this gate.
89 · Jul 2020
Water, and blood.
Justin S Wampler Jul 2020
Drive your spile
Into me,
And take what you've tapped.

Been going on miles,
Last night's dream
Was of two maps.

We alternate
Between the two,
Getting there ain't our right.

Time's gone late,
And who knew?
Missed the turn off last night.

Now or later,
Drink it down,
Do I satiate the thirst?

Now a neighbor
In a new town,
I'll go say hello first.
88 · Nov 2020
Meta
Justin S Wampler Nov 2020
I hate writing.

But I love the idea,
And more importantly,
The image
Of being a writer.

What's cooler
Than a glass
Of brandy,
Beside an ashtray.

With a full pack
Of marlboro lights,
And a mechanical keyboard
Clacking away the night.

I want to be a writer
For all the wrong reasons.
I want to convince you,
Dear reader,
That I'm a phony.

Maybe you already knew.
Maybe it doesn't matter why
I want to be a writer.
Maybe all that matters
Is writing about it.
88 · May 2024
Not maybe, only never.
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.
88 · Jan 2022
Lone
Justin S Wampler Jan 2022
Bled it out, one,
one day at a time.

I shouted at you.

You didn't cry.

I don't find none,
none is what I find.

I tried for you.

You didn't try.

Bled it out one day,
one day without time.
88 · Dec 2020
Keys
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
The door to honesty is ajar.

A breeze of truth is wafting through.
88 · Feb 2022
Hand in hand
Justin S Wampler Feb 2022
**** man.
I literally can't stop drinking.

I took a day off,
yesterday.
But it don't matter.

I was bitter and angry
all day today.

So I grabbed a bottle
on my way home.

I'm an alcoholic.

But I'm a poet too?
88 · May 2021
Hive
Justin S Wampler May 2021
A paltry show of effort,
a slight scent of something rotten
wafting in through the breezeway.

When you thought it was finally over,
did you close the book shut tight?
Where do you write the rest of your story
if there are no more pages left?

Do you wane
in the face of
such shame?

You were true
to you,
I remember that much.

Now no one knows.
No one can tell just
where the road goes.
88 · Dec 2021
Title
Justin S Wampler Dec 2021
Radiant slats of gold
on that ageless, painted wall of old.
The paper told me to go,
so I left not too long ago.
Tales of sadnesses untold
are the source of all this bitter cold.
I buried all that I know
under her heavy blanket of snow.
They say that she broke the mold
when they cast her into the fold.
Now all that I've got to show
for these sudden thirty years in tow,
is a handful of memories I hold.
Everything else has long been sold.
Something, somethings, some things grow.
What they are, I just don't know.
Justin S Wampler Nov 2021
Yes,
my tastes are shallow.
Although still deep enough
to drown myself in.

Been looking for
a specific type of gal:
a delicate flower
that can take
a hard *******.

Pretty, yet sturdy.
Crystalinne,
but not brittle.
Loving,
but willing
to hate-**** me
when I forget
to take the trash out.
Or when she catches me
eyeing another woman's ***.

Bring me your finest spite,
pour it over me
in a liquid display
of primal ecstasy.
87 · Dec 2020
Lucidity
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
It's like a dream.

Only I'm not sure
If I'm fast asleep,

Or

If I just woke up.
87 · Dec 2021
Regular
Justin S Wampler Dec 2021
I found her behind the counter
at my local diner,
I found her deserving
of my most sincere wishes.

She smiled with a radiance
that I so craved to smother.

Her supple skin
and lively eyebrows
were a beautiful canvas
for three ropes
of my ***.

So beautiful.
87 · May 2024
Doors
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.
87 · Oct 2020
Ex-Sting Guish
Justin S Wampler Oct 2020
Like a fire come
During drought season,
Ain't nothing coulda been done.
Red, White,
Blue lights
Pour like liquid
Into my irises.
Deaf to the sirens,
Congested to the smoke,
Numb to the pain.
Another one down the drain.
86 · Aug 2021
Flood
Justin S Wampler Aug 2021
Vibrant orange puddles
sprout and wilt,
time washes over me.

A tide is pulling
the blankets down.

Love is scribbled
in the corner
of an old textbook.

A tide is pulling
the curtains down.

The moon peeks through
on a sunny afternoon,
and my eyes smile.

A tide is pulling
us further apart.
86 · Jul 2021
I think so
Justin S Wampler Jul 2021
Everyone spins,
you spin too.

Everyone sits and stands and frets.

Everyone sees and listens
to the cooing of morning doves.

Everyone is so God ****** beautiful,
and life dithers between
reality and imagination.
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