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 Nov 2016 Michael Stephens
Love
I can't tell you what it's like to feel like dying.
I can't tell you how I'm so afraid of death but I play with it like its a childhood friend.
I can't tell you what it's like to cry yourself to sleep for the 47th night in a row.
I can't tell you how I feel when I wake up screaming in the middle of the night.
I can't tell you, but I can show you.
I can show you what it's like to feel like dying in my playful smile and dull eyes.
I can show you what it's like to be afraid of death but play with it because I have scars on my body but I refuse to go to a funeral.
I can show you what it's like to cry yourself to sleep for 47 nights in a row by my blood shot eyes and bags underneath with tear stains covering my pillow.
And I can show you how It feels to wake up in the middle of the night screaming by the empty Xanax bottle in the bottom of my purse.
I can't always tell you the things that are going through my mind, but you can't say that I never showed you.
Im back yall.
We were  street light drinking
Stretching our years not our tears
Putting down roots to make our home
Sticking to church pews stained with sin
As shadows were traced in a golden inkwell
Grasping the map just to hold me down
 Nov 2016 Michael Stephens
Maura
Sunday's are gloomy
I don't want to leave my bed
knowing Monday's come
A Haiku about my weekly depression that comes with Sunday's
The worst memories are the cleanest,
Visited so regularly no dust collects,
No spiders crawl in to spin their webs.

The walls are yellowed with smoke,
And the table's water damaged with rings,
From all the hours spent there pondering.

The worst memories are the cleanest,
Organized daily to keep them clear,
Polished and treated like a shrine.

The curtains are heavy and allow no light,
The air is heavy and tastes like the sea,
Once you're there it's hard to leave.
this is not poetry
but my god, i wish it was
poetry is easy
it's crisp, it's clean
it makes me feel better after i write it
it fits into this box
i shut it and set it on a shelf
my feelings go away
and i just don't think about it.
this definitely isn't poetry
it isn't romanticized
or overly depressing
or absolutely elated
i get it that not everyone's poetry is any of those
but mine is.
and you,
are definitely not poetry.
you are not  easy.
you don't make sense
i can't just not think about you
you make me feel confused
and livid and loving and terrified.
sometimes, you make me feel nothing at all
and sometimes, i feel everything at once.
i can't write you down
and box you up
and put you away.
you're not poetry
but my god, i wish you were
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