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90 · May 2021
Think
Justin S Wampler May 2021
Positive
They say
Justin S Wampler Sep 2020
I can put my boots on blind
Not adverse to working overtime
I'm up before the sun
Don't need to carry a gun
But baby at the end of the day
When I'm tired and sore
I get excited to keep on this way
Even as I start to snore
Cause money don't stretch a long way
When I want to buy so much more
90 · 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.
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.
89 · Sep 2020
Nacho Cheese
Justin S Wampler Sep 2020
She hides her little sighs
Behind bouts of subtle laughter,
Her eyes whisper lies
Of inevitable disaster.

I mostly smile as i drive,
With thoses eyes in my mind
And wonder why fate
Has been so uncannily kind.

Fate? Or maybe a wheel
That was designed
To whip around and around,
Like a great cog of time.

I slip past a fellow
With my eyes on the lines,
Blasting across double yellow
To leave my problems behind.

The clocks are all laughing
At my desire to rewind
Because whats done is done
And she's so naturally kind.

Momma said, momma said,
It might be time to try, but
Now momma's long dead
So maybe just one more night.

Indulgence.
88 · 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.
88 · 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.
88 · 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.
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 · Oct 2021
Untitled
Justin S Wampler Oct 2021
• Honeydew
• Honeydew
• Honeydew
• Honeydew
• Honeydew
• Honeydew
88 · 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.
88 · 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.
87 · 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.
87 · Dec 2021
rugburnt
Justin S Wampler Dec 2021
The bed just won't do.
The couch ain't up to *****.
The desk is too wobbly.
The coffee table doesn't look too tough.
The kitchen counter's already a mess.
The windowsill simply ain't enough.
(Though I'd love to press you against the glass,
and really show off your stuff.)
The staircase is a bit too creaky.
The candles in the foyer are already snuffed.
The living room floor feels perfect though,
since we're already here and I like it off the cuff.
87 · Nov 2021
One day at a time
Justin S Wampler Nov 2021
I think about my next drink
because I drink so I don't have to think.
I'm so over these hours spent sober,
when will this sober be over?
I take a nip but the bottle bites back,
I bite the bottle and I chew up the glass.
I'm never hung over with dread
because responsibilities hang over my head.
I know what I need to do,
do you know that the ***** needs me too?
In a bittersweet twist of fate
for every drink that I take
the drink takes a sip out of me,
and although I've plenty ***** left
my mind's now mostly empty.
87 · Mar 26
Cigarettes & Parfait
One's got layers,
both equally delicious.
Not concerned about nutritious.
Not concerned about tomorrow,
or about getting granola
stuck in my yellowed teeth.
The sound of a lighter flicking,
the smell of the cherry flickering.
Soft red glow,
mmm.
Blueish twine escapes my lips,
I take a spoon and start to mix.
Uniform yogurt treat,
this just can't be beat.
87 · Dec 2020
Wolfe
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
Definitively
Not the way that it seems.
Did I think it'd come so easily?

I found a note
On a swim through your moat,
But it all fell apart in my coat.

A hollowed out book
In my hands, as I shook
In the bright aftermath of late noon.

Living night lives
Gone done and disguised
Misfortunate things as a boon.

I saw light there, shining.
Up through the floor,
But not anymore.

I see light still shining.
It's vulcanized, it
Bounces through my eyes.

A pen.

Will mend.

Everything.
87 · Aug 2020
Unibrow.
Justin S Wampler Aug 2020
Little imperfections,
I usually so easily ignore,
Suddenly became amplified
Since meeting someone I adore.

Get out of the mirror,
Get out of my head,
I just have to focus
On being myself instead
Of trying to be
An idealistic version me,
I just hope that she likes
Who I am.
86 · Nov 2020
Giving thanks
Justin S Wampler Nov 2020
I'm slightly shameful
That it took great loss
For me to appreciate
The family I've got.

But maybe that's life,
And all that I can do
Is be here for who's left,
And be grateful for it too.
86 · Dec 2020
Tines
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
Harmonic resonance,
I can feel it in my veins.

Vibrate with me.
86 · Dec 2021
Mundanity
Justin S Wampler Dec 2021
Been here before,
done this a thousand times.
Yet still I find
something new.
85 · Oct 2021
Teeth
Justin S Wampler Oct 2021
One day you'll lie down tired,
albeit thoroughly satisfied.

Yet you'll still remember
those times.
85 · Dec 2020
Methadone love
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
It's as if those sleepless nights
Were dragons in my mind,
Soaring through my clear eyes,
Torching the darkened skies.

It's as if I've been chasing them down ever since, desperate for another gust of wind
To buffet my smiling face with
That same feeling it had back then.

I suppose the high is never as good
As it is the very first time it hits you,
And the naive overdose of emotion
Was just a piece of something bigger.
85 · Dec 2020
Talking shit
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
I'm reminded
Of the savage lives
People live,
Every time
I take a ****
Somewhere
Without
A bidet.

*******,
You ******* animals
Walk around
Like this
All day,
Every day?

Filthy *******
All around me,
Whilst mine stands alone,
Glimmering with pristine purity
In the golden afternoon light.

You monsters.
85 · Nov 2021
Untitled
Justin S Wampler Nov 2021
I base my personality
off of other people.

Though I've been rather alone.

Who am I supposed to be now?
84 · Mar 2021
Beer battered
Justin S Wampler Mar 2021
An abusive alcoholic? Who, Me?!

No ma'am,
I'd just like to order a dozen wings please.
84 · Jul 3
No more poems
I ran out
I'm empty
look somewhere else maybe
maybe you'll find something
worth your time but
not here
that's for sure
because I'm all out
and got nothing left.

If you want nothing though,
you're in the right place.
Nothing is what I've got.
I've got nothing for you,
for me,
for everyone.
Heaping piles of nothing,
glimmering, shimmering piles
tightly coiled and
slightly steaming and
reaching up to the sky
of nothing.
Glorious, fat, gluttonous servings
of nothing. That's what I'm handing out
because that's all I've ******* got, okay?

You get it? Do you?

Do you really understand yet?

DO YOU?

I HAVE NOTHING, READ ON ELSEWHERE.
I'M NOT HERE FOR YOU,
I'VE NOTHING IN STORE.







Maybe a joke or two but,
other than that? NO.

NOTHING
NO THING
Haunted by a flabberghast.
84 · Apr 2021
Dirt
Justin S Wampler Apr 2021
I was so ***** the other day;
I cleaned my **** off with a vacuum cleaner.
83 · Apr 2021
Roadkill
Justin S Wampler Apr 2021
Sometimes there's nothing more beautiful
than a rotting carcass of a squirrel on the road.
Petrified, hollow-eyed, stiff as a board.
Sometimes you need to see something dead
in order to really appreciate life.
83 · Jan 2021
Compulsions
Justin S Wampler Jan 2021
A perfect fan of water
spraying from the spoiler
of that passing Porsche
in the evening rainstorm
gave me brief inspiration
to create something new.

I kind of hate this.

Creation is frustrating.
My life has been full
of combating little impulses
that compel me to break ****.
Whether it be pushing a hinge too far,
or twisting the cap on a bottle
until I shred the threads,
it's compelling to break ****.
Then I always feel awful about it
after it's done.

Do other people have those?
Those little impulses,
those little compulsions?
But instead of them
whispering to break things,
do they whisper creation?
83 · Dec 2020
Gregory
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
There's no real reason
That I never called my step father
'Dad.'
I came up with some throwaway line
When Mom asked me to call him that.
I was young, but I remember saying
Something along the lines of
"I respect my Dan more than I respect my Dad."
She must've thought that was adequate reasoning
Because she never brought it up again,
And I've called him Dan ever since.
I think now I may have missed out
On an opportunity, but there's no way to really know.
At the time I thought that
If he had been the one to come up to me
And ask me to call him Dad,
Then maybe my answer would've been different.

I can't decide whether
I never consider my biological father,
Or if I constantly think about him subconsciously.
I wish there had been a day when
He wasn't a kind and loving person to me.
I wish he would've been more obviously
Cruel,
Or sick.
People told me he was schizophrenic,
But that was never what I saw.
I only ever saw my Dad, y'know?
If he had been more obviously sick,
Or maybe if my memory wasn't clouded
By the idealistic, fuzzy veil of childhood,
Then maybe it would've been easier
To accept it when he told me he was leaving.
But when someone who only has ever loved you
Shows up one day just to
Say goodbye,
Well... I don't know.
I guess it makes it harder
To let go of hope.

I see a lot of him leaving,
In myself.
The idea of running away
Is appealing.
The prospect of chalking up my
Lack of responsibility
To something like a mental disorder,
Or wanting to be crazy,
Has always been so alluring.
I guess at the end of the day
Everyone wants to be like their Dad.
83 · Apr 2021
Cellophane
Justin S Wampler Apr 2021
I'd keep you like this
forever,
beautiful and naked.

The collector in me
sees you
wrapped in plastic.

Behind glass,
top shelf
in my curio cabinet.

Not to be played with,
only appreciated
from afar.
83 · May 2021
Lost and found
Justin S Wampler May 2021
What defines it?
Is there an innate sense
of purpose
grafted into the drywall?
Is it an undefined longing
for solitude,
for a little time?

I'll find it.
Coated with pine needles,
desperate for fresh lumber.
I'll find it buried
beneath seven years of therapy,
slathered in liquid doubt.
Dripping.
I'll find it dripping.

I ain't looking any harder today
than I was yesterday,
but I swear that I'll find it.
83 · Jun 2021
Rattle
Justin S Wampler Jun 2021
Jacketed in scale.
Wire wheel.
Self-etching primer.
New seals.
One coat,
high temp enamel.
Paint it black,
hit the track.
83 · Oct 2020
My own apartment!
Justin S Wampler Oct 2020
I fret and twist my hair into little knots
I twist and I twist until it all falls off
I like to hit my teeth with a hammer
I pick my skin until it bleeds
I pick the scabs I pick the moles
I peel off my skin in layers
And leave them on the desk to dry
I scratch my scalp and shed my dandruff
Onto the kitchen counter
And line it up with a dunkin donuts gift card
And snort up the lines of dead skin
I pick my nose and eat my boogers
The wet and bloodier the better tasting
They stick to the roof of my mouth
And I hawk a loogie on the ground
I *** right onto the ******* carpet
And never ever clean it up
The crusty hard spot that forms
Is dark and yellow with time and accumulation
I clean my ears with my pinky
Then lick it out from under my nails
I slam my head against the wall
Until all the photos fall
I play with knives and fire and drugs
I love to give myself a hug.
The look on my face inside the mirror
Is pure bliss from popping all my zits
My eyes shining the same color
As the flecks of **** inside the toilet
I never ever clean the shower
I **** in the sink sometimes too
I hung all my posters with glue
I stack my laundry in a tower
And wear my clothes until they reek
Drank every night for 20 weeks
I hide my toenails under the carpet
I dry myself off with the drapes
I like to live all alone
I'm finally free inside my home
I saved those photos on the shelf
Someone save me from myself
83 · Dec 2020
Teamwork
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
Never wanted to cook before.
Never wanted to cook.
82 · Jul 3
Letters
Iterative of
my entire life.

There's barely any
haught to be had.
Instead of wondering,
now I'm dreaming, but
knowing would be ideal.
Instead of merely living,
no, instead of dying,
give me a reason to thrive.

All is gone
by the time I walk
outside.
Usually I can still find
the meaning.

You.
82 · Mar 2021
Hotel Coral Essex
Justin S Wampler Mar 2021
Don't ******* stop,
the finish line nears.
81 · Oct 2020
Weight
Justin S Wampler Oct 2020
Man my back hurts
From carrying all of this
Right between my shoulder blades
I wish it would crack
And give me some relief
Because I've got years ahead of me
And I'll still be carrying all this

I can't let it go
Not now, not tomorrow,
Not twelve years ago
81 · Jan 2021
By the light of the moon
Justin S Wampler Jan 2021
Ripped up, little pieces of paper.
The baritone hints of doubt on a voice.
Redundant pens lining the shelf.
Accumulated dust, hair, dirt.
Faint scents from long ago burnt incense.
Paper and ink.
Machinery gone silent in contempt.
Hollow sounds of footsteps from the hallway.
A wooden chair being drug across a kitchen floor.
Chimes, bitter tinkling like an old music box.
Distant atonal whistling, creaking foundations.
Glass bulbs swinging ever so slightly.
Bare filaments, jagged lines burnt into retinas.
Softness within a blanket.
Feeling the weight of gravity.
Letting bones stretch, muscles twitching.
Eyes racing and alive beneath their lids.
Heartbeats.
Touch.
The color yellow.
81 · Dec 2020
Glint
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
Every time
The trees sigh,
I feel
A slight wind blow.

The sky sings
With whistling birds,
Swooping
In the falling snow.

A taste of lime,
A sprig of mint
Floats
Atop a cold mojito.

Twinkling rings,
Headlights glint
Briefly,
In an ebb and flow.

Luminous lies
Shine light on
My mind,
My eyes are windows.

Simple things
Convolute, in the
Face of
My writhing ego.

The day flies
On the wings of
A black bird,
A single cawing crow.

Wallowing, no,
Relishing in
This feeling,
Like watching a plant grow.
81 · Apr 2021
Roadkill 2
Justin S Wampler Apr 2021
Y'know it don't have to be a squirrel.
A rabbit or even a cat works fine too.
Let me tell you, if life grows mundane
all you gotta do is find something dead.
But if that doesn't quite do the trick
try being the one who kills it instead.
Life is littered with hidden speed bumps,
it can be good to find them, my friend.
Life begets life, or so it is said.
But a tiny taste of death will remind you
to beget while the getting's good.
80 · Aug 2020
Untitled
Justin S Wampler Aug 2020
Stupidity.
How many times can I apologize
In the span of a week?
How many things can I do
That are worth apologizing for?

In so few days.

Innumerous.
Stupidity.
80 · Aug 2021
Cancelled masterpiece
Justin S Wampler Aug 2021
It's too late.

Can you not see
that the pages are full
but the soul is empty?

It's too late.

I'm tired and dead
from wishing all these wishes
that're racing through my head.

It's too late,
it's over you fool.
Don't bother submitting.
Don't go back to school.
79 · Apr 2021
Dawn comprehension
Justin S Wampler Apr 2021
Shine in my eyes,
how that ***** sun does rise.
Light bathing the skies,
color comes in a disguise.
Ain't painted,
no surprise,
how that ***** sun does rise.
Shine upon my brown eyes,
let me make a choice with pride.
With consideration I decide
I ain't a saint,
no surprise.
How that ***** sun does rise.
79 · Sep 2020
Daydreams
Justin S Wampler Sep 2020
Veiled silhouettes
Of horsemen galloping all out,
Cast in black against the twilight sky.
The beating sound of crashing hooves,
Like a heartbeat, like the ticking clock of doom,
Pound louder and mercilessly into reality.
Torches ablaze with hate come careening through,
Shattering the uneven glass windows,
Buildings go up in a funeral pyre.
Coughing, screams of dispair, a cacophony
Of misery, an apocalyptic wind chime blowing
In the smoke laden wind.
Blood flows and the red,
The red screams my name
As it runs through the hardpan,
Spelling out my destiny
In little crimson rivulets.

I can taste it now,
A desert in my mouth,
As I walk west
In solitude.
79 · Nov 2021
The eyes have it
Justin S Wampler Nov 2021
Been gazing.
Looking.
Peering at things
I aught not to.

I see it clearly,
the sky through
a closed window.

I no longer just leer
at my faint reflection
in the glass.

I been looking,
gazing at you
for far too long.

Been taking down my mirrors.
Been changing up my song.
79 · May 2021
Freedom
Justin S Wampler May 2021
There's not a thing in the world
more liberating than
not holding it in any more.

Just letting it go.

Taking a massive diarrhea
while standing in the shower.
79 · Jul 2021
Gold
Justin S Wampler Jul 2021
"It's always sunset here!"
she said with an airy laugh.
"Like a land of infinite twilight,
or a place where the golden hour
persists forever. It's like a dream!"

She turned and smiled at me.
The golden rays of the frozen setting sun
turned her hair into liquid bronze,
and I marveled at the visage.

"I'm happy you like it here"
I said with a bitter grin.
I saw my reflection in her glimmering eyes
and the taste of copper flooded my mouth.

Blood on the pillow.
Bit my tongue in my sleep again.
It's dark in this room,
blankets all askew
and my teeth are dry
from snoring.

It'll be tough falling back asleep
because the dichotomy between
reality and my dream
is too vast.
Too great a divide.
I'll be imagining
That dream
all day long.
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