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Justin S Wampler Jan 2022
I can
tie my work boots
with a blindfold on.

I can
drive a truck
in my sleep.

I can,

I can
can
I can
I

can I
change though?

Can I
change?
Justin S Wampler Apr 2016
Maybe if I write a poem about her
she'll finally listen.

(reads through own poems)

Oh, ****, nevermind...
                                                  ..­.I tried that already...
Me
Justin S Wampler May 2014
Me
I have so much hatred
pent up inside

but I don't know for whom
or even why.
Justin S Wampler May 2023
Just good enough
to enjoy it.

Can't make money on it.
Can't stand out in a crowd.
Not quite special.

That's me and
that's okay.

At least I can afford
a good steak once in awhile.
Not a great cut of meat but
just good enough
to enjoy it.
meh
Justin S Wampler May 2015
Behind your bi-folding mirrors
I'm led into the closet.

The closet where you kept
endless time and history.

When you opened that shoebox
and showed my eyes, and let the light
shine bright on, the past crammed tight
into that beautiful cardboard coffin

I took up your red sharpie pen
and wrote generic lyrics along
the lines of an empty tissue box
kept right by your so sickly beside.

Years later when you moved out
and found my words written
while you picked up those memories
from your one and only room,

I cried when you told me
you never even knew.

I died when you showed me,
because we never even grew.
Justin S Wampler Sep 2014
The one and only thing
I've collectively missed
more than that ***** is
getting so very ****** to
make her easier to ignore.
Justin S Wampler Apr 2015
My ears forgot her laughter
My hands forgot her body
My skin forgot her touch
My nose forgot her scent
My tongue forgot her taste
My eyes forgot her beauty
My heart forgot her love

But my ******* bed
still has her *******
imprint upon it.
Men
Justin S Wampler May 2021
Men
I need a war.
We all need a war.
A real war too, not this
falsified and opaque war
on terror or whatever the ****
we've been doing for the past
twenty years in the desert.
Give us something bigger
to ******* ***** about.
Give us good verses evil.
Something more meaningful
than this curse called the internet.
Give us something to die for,
in a violent and ****** rage.
Give us some meaning,
give us a new age.
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.
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.
Justin S Wampler Aug 2015
The rain poured,
the pain roared,

and I woke.
Justin S Wampler Mar 2017
Incredibly I
feel exquisitely alive,
savoring each breath.
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.
Justin S Wampler Jun 2015
words and spaces and punctuation
Justin S Wampler Mar 2022
There's no real relief.
Just an endless search.

Suffering abated, gives way
to new suffering.
Solutions turn up only
new longings, only
new reliefs
to set one's sights on.

Circles ring round
the nature of man,
we trace them
in our thoughts.

In our actions.

They don't see me,
not really.
I'm just a pair of sunglasses
reflecting a blue morning sky
with jetliners carving scars
in the mirrored horizons.

I'm just a smile to them,
to anyone.

Just as they are
to me.

We're all just sifting through
the dust of life,
looking for a hidden relief
to some hidden suffering.

So that we may suffer anew
once again.
Justin S Wampler Jun 2014
tell me, upon returning...

"Returning from where, I've been right here?"

...did you gasp for breath?

"I no longer fool myself into believing that breathing was ever an option,"
-thought my hand out loud
"I merely close my eyes and concede myself to the asphyxiation."

love

*"...is my darkness of eternity."
Justin S Wampler Feb 2022
But you don't know what it is.

Dropped something,
patting my pockets.
Feeling for what is not,
yet what should be.

Knife, wallet,
phone, keys.
Gun.
Smokes, matches.
Vape, shades.

All here
and accounted for,
yet...
The worst feeling is knowing you're forgetting something,
but not knowing what it is.
Justin S Wampler Jul 2022
Concrete barriers with trees painted on them?
Buildings with murals of rural landscapes?

I want to paint a grassy field like a parking lot.
I want to carve a cityscape into a cliff face.
I want to dye the sky yellow, jaundice with smog.

Bring the city to country a bit.
Mmm
Justin S Wampler Dec 2018
Mmm
Father had a rotary,
Whereas I favor flat four
But when Pap has a V8
I cain't argue no more.
Justin S Wampler May 2015
There is a fine balance between
all or nothing,
which is very difficult for me
to embrace.

I either want it every day,
or it to forever go away.
The same goes for anything
that I've ever found interesting.
Justin S Wampler Feb 2015
no one criticizes me
everyone just smiles and says that everything i write and share is good
they nod and say i'm "talented"
i ******* hate it
they make me want to quit writing
i read so much **** daily
so many awful meaningless expressionless words
every ******* day

and i contribute to it

someone tell me that i'll never be a writer
give me a reason to keep going
this place is secptic

we are all byproducts


.
Justin S Wampler Jul 2015
My shower head was down to the last seven streams of water,
the other thirteen or so were either clogged
or just slowly dribbling out sad little droplets of hard water.
The calcium and lime buildup around the jets grew
greener and thicker with each day passing,
yet I never felt the inclination to attempt cleaning it.
I just stood there in the few remaining streams each day,
rotating slowly like the ballerina in my mother's jewelry box,
trying to wash away the ***** suds from my hair and shoulders.

Until one day,
after I had gotten home after a grueling twelve
hour shift at the dogfood plant where I worked and
stepped reluctantly into my bathroom, I peeled
the sweat stained clothes from my reeking body
and reached behind the curtains to turn on the water.
The only response I received from my poor shower
was a loud groaning noise, like a man attempting to
pass a particularly large kidney stone but having no luck.
Three or four drops of water escaped from the mere pressure
building up in the old pipes, then it quit altogether
and the groaning ceased with a brief moment of silence
before the face of the shower head burst, throwing plastic
shrapnel in every direction and spraying the ceiling and walls
with rusted water.
too lazy to finish this right now.
Justin S Wampler Jul 2015
slug slime on your skin
salt it and it begins
to wither and writhe
deliciously

yum.
Justin S Wampler Mar 2015
Childhood is fleeting
Youth is fleeting
Friendship is fleeting
Vitality is fleeting
Sports are fleeting
Both body and
mind are fleeting
Memories are fleeting
School is fleeting
History is fleeting
The Past is fleeting
Geography is fleeting
Equations are fleeting
Every thing I've ever
learned is fleeting
The clouds are fleeting
The hours are fleeting
The daylight is fleeting
Sleep is fleeting
Weeks are fleeting
Months are fleeting
Years are fleeting
Time is fleeting
Justin S Wampler Mar 2021
Got done work
early today,
only an eight hour shift.

Was eager for bed,
didn't clean at all.
I just got drunk instead.

Girl's coming up tomorrow,
gotta make the bed.

Gotta pick my place up
and not get drunk instead.

I lie to myself
and say that
I keep it clean for me,
but only I know
that without someone else to please
I'd let this place
slowly accumulate
my garbage and debris.
Until the detritus
overwhelmed me,
in my comfy old jeans.
I'd be in over my head,
because I wouldn't be able
to delegate,
and I'd just
get drunk instead.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Maybe there's a tangible thread
that dangles and wavers,
ever so slightly,
as my eyes turn steadily red.
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.
Justin S Wampler Dec 2021
Wind whipping through naked limbs,
plastic bags like tumbleweeds.

Solace under an overcast sky.

Billows bellow out from the candied sunrise,
brief beauty unfolds in rippling hues
of taupe and ochre and violet.

I watch alone,
as the commuters argue over lanes.
As trucks trundle past.
I enjoy the parallax as
the chuffing dragon's breath
of their air brakes
grows, and then fades.

I watch alone as light begins to bathe all.
An upside-down ocean. A gorgeous abyss.

I watch alone, yet
I'd like someone
to share this morning with.
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
Dawn brought a bruised sky with it,
A spattering of trundling snow clouds
Scattering the radiant light of the rising sun
Into nothing more than a blue and purple smudge
Peeking through the gap in my bathroom curtains.

It was just enough light to see a silhouette
Of myself in the mirror hung above the sink.
It's fun to imagine the reflection isn't a reflection,
But a window into another universe, another
Perspective on how I actually exist and persist.

I want to reach into the silvered glass,
Like it were a puddle of polished chrome,
And give the silhouette a squeeze on the shoulder.

I want to let him know that
He's doing a good job,
And that I'm proud of him
For everything he's done.
Even the little things
Like getting laundry washed
And waking up on time.

"You're doing alright man,"

Were the first words I spoke that day,
Smiling to myself.

A little more light was pouring in now,
Liquid day filling the room a bit,
And for a second I saw the silhouette
In the mirror a bit more clearly.

I could've sworn he mouthed the word:
"Thanks."
Justin S Wampler Sep 2017
A picture of a blazing inferno,
flames frozen in time,
is as I burn for you,
forever this house on fire.

If ever the wood should
wither to ash and ember,  
I would bathe in the soot,
I would burn to remember.
Our love is light and warmth and crazy
I love you Emily
Justin S Wampler Sep 2014
Oh my, I'm dragging bodies
over the welcome mat and I
sit them up on the couch so that
they may feel at home

Oh jeez, these displaced pixels
and rhythmic reception soon
let loose a solemn deluge
of flickering blue light onto

Oh dear, dead faces in the glow
of some early-morning show
currently being reflected back by
their glazed and vacant eyes

that I just can't seem
to stop staring into.
eye keel you nao
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
Miles of art
All buried beneath
These mounds.

Mounds of dirt
Meant to drive away
Silent hill people.

Under the art,
Under the mounds,
The world's on fire
Under the ground.

This place feels like
A cemetery.
Justin S Wampler Oct 2022
Brightly pale
Hunter's moon
turn midnight
into noon.

Beseech beset
beside myself
put upon you
up on the shelf.

Talks and tales
told not too soon
sunder underneath
our Hunter's moon.
Justin S Wampler Aug 2015
Short, yet but lovely,
she stood at the height of my chin.
And for her I would
cast my soul into hell and into sin
over and over and over again.

Melanie isn't real,
but her idea is.
and I hate the girl
but her essence
makes me grin.

In doubt and in faith
she persists,
someone to talk to,
someone to miss.
When I'm drunk.

When I'm alone.

When she swims
through the depths
of my skin,
to my bones.
Justin S Wampler Nov 2018
Sometimes it claps.
Sometimes it rasps.
Sometimes its silent,
     sneaking out of my ***.

Sometimes it's loud.
Sometimes it's quiet.
Sometimes I'm proud,
     even when I'm in private.

Sometimes it's stinky.
Sometimes it causes strife.
Sometimes my mud *****
     go pppffft in the night.
Justin S Wampler May 2021
I expected to wait my whole life away.
Never thought that bird would return home.
What if.
What if she didn't have meaning
tied in a note around her leg?
What if I was happy
to have some anguish to relish in?

Do I tend?
Pick something up off
the floor of my memory?
Do I find something new,
yet long gone,
to ascribe my longing for?
To apply my doubt to?
What if anguish has always been here,
untapped and brimming,
and I just keep picking things
to soak in it.

I fear it was never the bird having flown,
that brought me to such depths.
I fear I've been living in these depths all along,
and just finding reasons to persist there.
Justin S Wampler Dec 2021
Been here before,
done this a thousand times.
Yet still I find
something new.
Justin S Wampler Apr 2015
Sometimes I obsess heavily
and not in a good way
Sometimes I think in circles
all throughout the day

I just don't know what I want
and looking at your pictures
is driving me insane with lust

I care
I don't care
It's all the same and
I'll never forget your name
sometimes I go a little crazy, if you could forgive me babe.
Justin S Wampler Apr 2015
Richard is a good guy.
Justin S Wampler Jul 2022
The temperature is turned too hot, but,
it feels good for now.
I lean my face into the falling water
and let it just douse my entire world.
I start soaping myself up and,
with a subtle pang of regret,
I wash her scent from my beard.

I hear the door click open.
I smile before she pulls the curtain aside,
she's naked and climbing in with me.
I smile and pull her in, pressing myself
up against her and kissing her cheek, her neck.
I smile with the memories of how
my beard picked up her scent last night.
The brief pang of regret from earlier
is gone as I imagine doing it all over again.
I smile as our foreheads press together
and our soapy bodies slip against each other.

I smile.
She smiles back.

I wash her back.
She washes mine.
Justin S Wampler Jan 2016
I saw someone I knew from high school
as I was walking into the bar.
He was doing shots with some other guy
in a corner booth on the other end of the room.
so I strode over and made myself at home
showing them both how to really drink.

Then I recognized a few of the girls they were with,
well one in particular, and that was all that mattered.
The instant I recognized her I knew it was a dream.
I knew that it couldn't be real.
She was pretty, but I didn't talk to her right away,
I had my fair share of ***** until everyone wanted
to take the party back to someone's house.

I saw her glancing my way,
and vaguely realized I was making her glance.
Making her steal quick looks at me among the crowd.
Making her smile at me.

When I convinced myself of this I walked over to her
and made nonsensical small talk as we walked out of the party.

She took me to her apartment, filled with cats.

She started to cry, inexplicably, and I folded her up into my arms.

And I flew us into the sky, slowly floating between buildings and trees.

"Why does this have to be a dream?" She whispered in my ear.
And I chuckled quietly.

Because I knew it was actually me saying it.
**** dreams
Justin S Wampler Feb 2015
I woke on the precipice of doubt and remorse
also I was on a painted blue cement floor.
I had spent all the previous day painting said floor
with broomstick rollers and discounts from Lowes.
Lukus's dad gave me the money for paint and
sent me off to pick it up, now I was recalling.
The wooden garage was a new building in his arsenal
of land he owned to house his various cars and motorcycles.
He commissioned me to sweep and paint the floors yesterday,
saturday, and I worked for 6 hours or more doing so.
When I was finished I took the cash he gave me out of pity,
and went to the bars with Nick and saw a Hadfield from school.
I saw him when I was smoking a cigarette outside with my beer,
even though beer wasn't allowed to leave the building.
I kept asking him for *** and he kept making fun of me
so before I could punch him I shut my eyes and asked Nick instead.
Nick had just been busted at the Diner with intent to distribute,
baggies filled out and ready for delivery in the trunk of his Honda.
He didn't like it when I kept asking for ***, so he turned away and went inside but I was drunk and walked to my car with my beer.
I didn't pay the tab, but my car started just fine.
I drove down to spring city and passed the apartment I had just been
evicted from on my way to the run down garage I had just painted.
I took the memory foam mattress that I had been keeping in my back
seat as a bed out of my car and carried the hulking thing inside.
When I laid it on the painted ground I was out of breath and gasping,
so I fell on top of it and shut my eyes.
Justin S Wampler Aug 2015
"Goodmorning"
says the *****
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
My new favorite hobby
Is hands, and flesh.
My new favorite hobby
Is my name on your breath.
My new favorite hobby
Is leaving bruises and marks.
My new favorite hobby
Is a shower in the dark.
My new favorite hobby
Is sweat on my chest.
My new favorite hobby
Is staying undressed.
My new favorite hobby
Is that look in your eyes.
My new favorite hobby
Is giving you sore thighs.
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
Justin S Wampler Mar 2015
You'd sound much more intelligent with a **** in your mouth.
You'd feel that much more tangible with the back of my hand.
You'd look a whole lot prettier sobbing in a heap on the floor.
You'd be nothing special even if you weren't an easy *****.
Women are such beautiful beings, like delicate flowers, or silken garments.
Let's treat them accordingly, shall we?
Justin S Wampler Aug 2015
It's not me,
it's Bukowski.
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.
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