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Redshift May 2015
pack up the room of pulsating anxiety.
these walls that are seeped with your hatred will bleed into your delicate spiderweb nightmares no longer, baby.

pack up your clothes, books, shoes, hundreds of papers marked with ideas of how your mind operates
pack up your soiled, tired sheets
covered in mascara and aching disappointment
that hatred that lies on everything like a film of dust
pack it up,
put it away.

and as you fold and pile and scrape, honey
forgive yourself.
forgive the objects.
lay the knife in a box and apologize for the way you used it
whisper sweet nothings to the underwear he removed from you in his bed
tell them it will be ok.
tell them that you won't let him touch them anymore
that you won't let him touch you anymore
that he will not be able to reach you anymore
that all the filmy hatred that left your pores and entered into everything that makes up who you are for an entire ******* year
WILL BE BRUSHED OFF.
WILL BE LEFT BEHIND
IN THIS ROOM OF CRUSHED BONES AND RANCID INSIDES

that you...
you are going to a better place.
you are putting to death the you that lived in this room
that cried in this room
that died in this room
stake it through the heart
cut off the head so it cannot return
mutilate the frightening, hideous, trembling manifestation of yourself that labored in the night
in this
room


in going home for the summer,
return home in your mind.
find that place again, baby.
find it and make a home there.
remove him from you like the parasite that he is.
go home for the summer.

go
home.
i will be different, i will be better, i will stop living under something that has crushed every aspect of my self
Redshift May 2016
as i pack up another cement walled dorm room
a year later
a different boyfriend in my wallet bringing me boxes
and saying he loves me
i am much happier, although not perfect.

and with this fact, i am alright.
i realize that it's not overnight
that i learn what real love or correct treatment is
i realize that although this one ***** me too
it was only once
and not for a year and a half

i realize that this dorm room brought me endless smiles
held me in its small, funky walls and beat up closet doors
held friends and memories and all my strange habits
lovingly in its embrace
for 9 months
and now it releases me to the fold of summer
where i will begin once more
only different.

in going home for the summer
much unlike last year
i hold my freckled cheeks high
shoulders back
stomach still uneasy
still pained,
but with the assurance that it will go away.

in going home for the summer,
i hold all the beautiful things
and the pain that greets me like a dog that awaited my arrival
in my chest
gently
respectfully
more maturely
than before.

one more step up the stairs
little red is closer to peace
not there yet, but closer.
Redshift Mar 2013
sometimes i'll go way back
in the lost annals of facebook
way back to the strange days
right after mom left
and i'll look at all the posts
the few people who knew what happened
posted on her
wall
all "i love you"s
and "please call me"s

please...
trust me
you didn't actually want her to call you
panic attacks aren't fun
they aren't a joke
when you're sitting in the room
in your sisters house
that you've been thrown into
on the floor
gasping for breath
clutching at air
raggedly
you'll wish
you never talked to her
on the phone
please
don't even

and then sometimes when i'm
brave
i'll scroll
and scroll
and scroll
until i get to the days
when we were all together
and everything was
ok.
i'll read all the things i said to my mom
...isn't that funny?
i used to say things to her...
all the nonsense things
wishing her
a happy birthday
talking about
baking her cake
and it all makes me remember
that father's day
in june
right before she left
in a chinese restaurant
how awful it was
how thoughtless the gifts
that mom picked out
and it will make me think
of my older, married sister's face
when she heard
mom was gone
how she came over to our house
where me, dad,
and another older sister sat
empty vessels
filling up with pain
that we still couldn't shake
two years later
i'll remember her saying to me
that she couldn't believe mom would just leave
we'd all been together for father's day
just the week or two before
had she been planning it
even then?
yes.
she had.
she had been planning to leave us
for months
i just wonder
how she could let me love her
when she knew she was leaving
how could she do that to me
how...
how.
Redshift Feb 2015
we all float on
all shine on
like the sun and the moon and the stars
like light glinting off the shiny new fender of a car that's going to get me places

i'm gorgeous.
i'm infectious.
i have a beautiful ***
and i can state euthyphro's 5 definitions of piety, *****.

do i look
like i need
your sorry
***?
Redshift Jun 2014
there is a screaming face in the roof of this van
and i am starting to wonder if it is mine
eyes punched in
a ***** light fixture for a nose
a gaping, gashed mouth
almost smiling
in its torment
to no place good
Redshift Apr 2013
the sad part is
i saw a picture of three mugs
one for you
one for jack
one for kaytie
and i knew
exactly
which one
was yours.
because you always wanted to be
as suave as audrey hepburn
but even with all the home decorating
you could never achieve it.
and even though i hate you
for stomping on me
with the might of my mother
i still love you
somewhere.
Redshift Apr 2013
where chains
and the bite of a whip
once dug into our backs
and our shoulders,
backpacks
now leave chafed ruts
in their stead.
taskmasters
bid us to bake our own bread
if we want to eat
pass this exam
if we want to keep
our families
we will be taken
and beaten
if we do not comply
GPA:
the silent
torturer.
Redshift Dec 2013
my bones shift and crack under my skin
like they never have before
i can't tell if tension is coming
or going
or sticking in my temples where it is so familiar
bones shape me
make me
these bones seem to hate me
they need another way to escape me

i am not doing so well
Redshift May 2013
i have managed to evolve just enough
that i am no longer bothered by you.
i have someone i can fake text
a badly designed little game
meant for six year olds
that i can play
or i can
scroll
scroll
scroll
and pretend that so many other two demensional people
want to get ahold of me
i can do all this
in the most superior manner
and never even look at you
because you are three dimensional
and you are too hard to figure out,
process
analyze
you are simply
too big
for my screen...
i must wait for another upgrade
before i can open you
you are too
real
i cannot sort you out
into little
megapixels....
you will
break
me
Redshift Oct 2015
they all want to think they have qualities that will entice me
dancing beggars throwing text into the air and hoping it falls in pleasing shapes
watching my snapstory and hoping i notice
trickling through my internet stream
laughing at my antics as if they know me
begging superiority by the green sword next to their name
thinking that my biggest problem is clickbait that they can just time out and make disappear.

i entertain you but it's not for you
it's for me.
ow.
Redshift Sep 2013
ow.
my stomach is trying to **** me
it says
red you left me empty
three days
now you try to eat something
tough luck, *******
haven't you learned yet
first of all, i'm not anorexic or bulimic or whatever **** is happening these days (or all the days). i get sad, and i don't feel hungry.
Redshift Mar 2013
and when these tears
find a pathway out
i will not let you see them,
daddy
i will not shout
i will not scream
with the pain
of this last
twist of the knife
i will be here for you
without tears
i will paint myself
brave
i will be
as i am not
i will be
ok
this i promise
you
Redshift Aug 2013
try to throw up the little white pill
baby is
too scared to dream
but it's too late
it's already in
your bloodstream
stand up
pace the black room
fall
over
lay panting
fall
asleep

d                    r                    e ­                a              m
Redshift Sep 2014
if i wanted that kind of love i'd watch a ******* *****.

i can get that any time
any where.

if there is something growing inside of me i won't **** it
it doesn't deserve it
it didn't do anything wrong
i am the one
who did it wrong
i will ****

me
Redshift Apr 2013
it's nights like these
that i try to figure out
if i love you
but i've never been good
at puzzles
i always give up
on them
Redshift Dec 2015
turn right and think about happiness
as my broken sneakers walk me toward a mirror-image in the dark window.
i have never been so grateful to be away from someone
never so thankful that my biggest problem is an annoying girl
i almost giggle in my play
avoiding her in the halls
such trivial problems
am i allowed to be a child
now?
Redshift Jun 2013
i like those
kisses that sit on your lips
like 90's kids
on a parkbench
yeah. maybe parkbench is actually two words. so is ******* ^_^
Redshift Mar 2018
i'd like to say that i've always been into clean living
but there's nothing really clean
about *** on your brother's living room floor
or
making you ache in movie theaters
with just a glance
or
handjobs and ruining your pants
i
somehow have this strange power over men
wanna look into my eyes
when i **** them
like i was prepackaged
batteries included
a little machine
with thick thighs and big lips
and
the prettiest eyes you've ever seen
below your belt
you
hang on my words like they're something
you've never felt
i

have a pretty smile
taste like something you've wanted
but never had
with crinkles in my cheeks and the dimples on my back
i
could make a grown man crack
and i
do -
the middle aged men at my job
love me
wait outside after closing tryna touch me
and i get scared
walking home
fingers shake
in the cold
one mile till i can let go
of the breath
that i hold
and i

try my hand at clean living.
eat salads,
stay home on the weekends
cut off boys
that make me
feel
anything
joe at work
tells me to wear less makeup
maybe then
men won't follow me home
maybe then
mike will leave me alone
stop calling the store phone
looking for the prettiest smile
he says he's ever seen
i stand behind the counter
ready to dial
911
on my screen

clean living doesn't feel very clean
when everyone you touch
has dirt on them
i mean
i don't want to make a scene
at work
i just want to make money
go home
not get hurt
keep my head down
but red is too easy to spot
much easier than i thought
Redshift Apr 2013
for once
i am the frog
and not the scorpion
all i have ever done
is love you
i thought you
loved me too
but if you had
you would have never
ever
said that
because you know
how hurt i am
you know
that you were like a mother to me
you know
how much you just
hurt me
and that makes it all the more painful.
i put my trust
in no one....
cast not your pearls
before
swine
this is the second most painful thing that has ever happened to me. my mother left me two years ago, and a woman who has mothered me for the last five months has believed lies about me told by jealous lips, and lashed out at me. i did nothing to deserve this, and i will not let it **** me. i deserve to live, not to be killed by the people i love the most.
Redshift Apr 2013
sometimes
you just need to stick your face in a cat
and scream
cats are fuzzy
and warm
and soft
and they make you feel better
screaming makes you feel better,
too
Redshift Feb 2013
If I could pick flowers in a winter storm
They'd probably look a lot like you
Rough
Tumbling
Perfect.

There's something to be said
Of the way your jaw
Curves into neck,
Something that could be hidden
Something that could be kept.

Lips
Placed gently
On my cheek
Across my freckles
On the tip of my nose
I wish
I could catch
Every smile
Put them in a box
Look at them every once in a while.
Your hands
Stroke through my hair
And I feel
Soft
The gentle kisses
On my neck
Spark up and down my spine
We get excited
We clash
And re-align...

Testing
The confinements
Of our bodies
We strain against each other
The desperate lover
Tangled up parts
Trying to fuse together
Hearts.
Redshift Aug 2013
if i have ever learned anything
"don't look back"
is the one
that would serve me best
if i let it.

but things aren't easy like that
humans can't just let the burning city rest
they have to turn around,
check
that it's
leaving
see if
anyone's still breathing.

the poor ******* that second guess
are the ones who don't get blessed
you've failed the easiest test,
red
now you're in trouble
again
i know not to go back and read things i wrote when mom first left. it makes me want to cut up my arms.
Redshift Mar 2013
"yeah i had a good break...was smashed the whole week...apparently i ****** on some dude's xbox"
"yeah mine does that too. they were ******* so hard the bed was squeaking"
"*** there she is! the one with the ears....hah check the sneakers! who the **** does she think she is"
"i'm glad my hair doesn't look like that"
"i think i was *****"
"did you get it in, man? hahahhh"
"it's cuz his **** is smaller than his brain"
"got a D...i'mma go shoot myself. i ******* hate this lady"
"hah! I like HER skirt. notttt! what the ****, she looks like a hippo"
"yeah we're kind of a thing now. he texts me like, 24/7...my parents were so ****** over break"
"oh my god i have this test in an hour...i was way too ****** last night to study"
"wow i didn't get **** on my midterms, hello mcdonald's"
"*******"
"hey *****, you're lookin' ******"
"check my ***. good? good."
"yeaaahhh man! we make this punch...it's crazy. half a solo cup and you're gonneeee. tuesday, man. be there or be a little **** for the rest of your life, hahahhahh"
"duude we were dropping ecstasy like crazy! everything looked like pink marshmallow fluff...some poor ******* jumped off the garage roof, thought he could fly or some ****...you want some? i can get you some, bro. no prob."
"i couldn't even sleep last night, my roommate was banging her boyfriend and the moaning was sicking me out"
"yeah bathsalts are some ****...my cousin tried to rip out his kid's eyeball one time...it was ******* hilarious"
"did you get in her pants?"
"homerun?"
"i was so drunk man, i don't remember anythingggg hahahhhh"
"honey...i was drunk. i don't even remember sleeping with her, you can't blame me"
"i was drunk...surprise buttsex!!"
"dude she had her hands in my pants for half of the class"
"can you believe she posted that? i mean come on"
"yeah! then write ***** on it!"
"hahah i wrote this note on her door with my number...saying that i was a lesbian and thought she was hot....then the ******* ****** called me and me and my roommates basically pranked **** out of her for like, two hours"
"dad, i know. i get it. yeah. yeah. ALRIGHT! i just need a couple hundred. i'll pay you back. it's just to help me get by. yeah, this one professor wants me to do some extra reading. i need it for a book..."
"yeah he likes you! he texted me! text him back. COME ON! i'm telling you...you're gonna end up 22 and STILL not have boyfriend. just do it already...jess!"
"yeah we didn't even have enough gas to get here. had to borrow money from my dad...ohmygodd...this app won't load..."
"it wasn't ****...it was more like...******* a dead fish...hahahhh!!!"


"i'm gonna fail"
"don't worry about it, it's the professor's fault. she's a ******."
Redshift Dec 2013
superstar of the lowest level of the food chain
they marvel at my wondrous acts
i am enticing, raucous, too loud
the prima donna of the freakshow ballet
they would pay
to be seen with me
the perpetrator of chaos

hoodies with spikes on them
batman tshirts
and too tight
skinny jeans
tired pink sneaks
from my wandering days
i am the queen of misfits
i've graduated
Redshift Feb 2013
A one-worded answer
flies to me, through pixels and buildings and trees,
across six states
and to my phone.

and I still wonder

why I'm alone????
Redshift May 2013
why yes,
mother dearest
i will get the hell off your property
when you get the hell
off of MINE.
it's our little sister's 11th birthday. why can't you TRY to cooperate...if only for her?
Redshift Aug 2013
you are allowed a certain amount of dissonance in this world
and when it is up
you are shuffled back into the sticky embrace of playing cards
where you must learn all the new games
as they come with the changing times.
you must not put up a fuss...
honey,
it's not your place
you do not run the game
you are here
to be
played.
Redshift Jul 2013
if i can learn
neither to be alone
or to be with others
to play nicely
with the other children
by lack of mother's
teaching
(she never got along
with anyone)
what can i be?
i can make friends with
make believe
i can make friends with
the omnipresent dust
the whirling breeze
the freckle
on my shoulder
but i have made such good friends
with the empty
in me
and he has a bad case of
jealousy
...at least mother would be
proud
Redshift Jul 2014
don't leave me alone
with myself
please
not another
night
i'm not silly. it's not just one thing. it's a million
Redshift Feb 2013
Poems, like beer
should make things better.

(easier?
freer?
happier?)

but poems, like beer

don't.

the complication of

(words
phrases
emotions)

should sort things out.
a poem ought to help me understand
ought to make me
better.
but they
don't.
if anything
i think they mess me up more
i'll discover things i didn't even know were there
in the sultry lines of a poem
i can't define...

if poems, like beer
don't make me better
i guess i don't really know
what would...

yes,

(bartender
poet
friend)

i'll take

another.
Redshift Feb 2013
i am not
the color blue
i am
orange.
irritated
in a wild sort of way
tripping
from situation
to dream
Redshift May 2014
they have not words
to strike a competitive pose
against ours
but they do the best with what they have.
Redshift Apr 2016
childhood memories feel like rust
crumbling in my fingers and leaving their orange stains
as i skip over the horrific teenaged years
that my little sister
remembers as her childhood.

i resent her for having a bad childhood.
i say that our childhood was good, was great
with two loving parents
in a big house in the country
with long grass and animals to hold.
but her childhood was a falling down home
with seeping walls and crying mothers and a screaming father
stuck in a house that imprisoned all of us in seclusion
and an older redheaded sister
who maintained control in her life
run by parents who no longer saw reason or justice
by treating her little redheaded sister
like trash.

i forget that her childhood was not mine
i forget that the things she remembers were awful
that daddy did scream and shove
that mommy did cry and quake and throw and push and smash and shove and scream and rip
in the middle of the night
while she slept
and i wandered
the lonely caverns of my book-filled room
where i hid with my fantastical friends
who shielded me from the screams
in the middle of the night
that your deaf ears
missed

i am sorry for undermining the truth of your childhood
i forget that we are different
i forget what changed
i forget the hidden, resentful monster that overtook our parents
and bled down into their children
but you,
you remember
it was the only thing you knew

i remember the good,
you remember
the screams
Redshift Apr 2013
politically correct?
**** that.
we all know
that not a single one of us
is "pc"
in our own heads
who are we kidding?
who the **** do politics think they are
anyway
to correct
me
pretty sure we're
the ones who should be keeping
politics
in line
Redshift May 2013
i think too much
about throwing up
about emptying
that which people tell me
is wrong.

to society
i am
disgusting
i am
too fat
i am
repulsive
"no one wants to look at THAT"
they say.
because beautiful
is malnourished bones
thighs that don't touch
stick-thin arms
bony
ribcages...

it has been POUNDED INTO ME
that beautiful is NOT
what i am
that beautiful
is achieved by the shape of your body...
and maybe i'm not a perfect size
maybe my stomach isn't flat
maybe my thighs
are chubby
maybe
i'm not a lot of things
but i believe
that i AM
beautiful...
and no amount
of ugly hearted people
who tell me that i am not
will get to me.

i was made like this
and i would not change it
for the world.
**** it,
*******
generation.
not everyone is going to look like a pornstar. in fact, hardly anyone. stop holding us to that standard, because it is ridiculously unrealistic.
Redshift Feb 2013
I am hereby
Going to be a degenerate
All my life
I hope you won't mind

....I don't.
Redshift Oct 2017
i want to be weak.
i want to tell you i ******* miss you
not even the romance
just the friendship
i want to show you what i make now
the commissioned projects
the poetry
the non-fiction
the photographs.
i want to tell you what my professors say about me
want to send you music
tell you funny things i think of during the day
watch movies with you and rip them apart.

i want to lose this rigid, crystalline shell
that we made together.

i ******* hate the way people do this -
the way people tear away at each other
until they see bone
looking for the source
of the tick, the heartbeat
then get disgusted
once they find it

i hate the way people ruin each other
i hate the feeling of trying to yell
underwater
mouth open
eyes wide,
waterlogged words sinking between us
you're so
*******
out of reach -
*******
for being
disgusted with me
Redshift Mar 2013
so it's
4:01am
and my mother just texted me
which is kind of funny
because i just wrote a couple choice poems
about how she royally
****** me over.
she said she can't sleep
that she was thinking about me
(funny, i was thinking about her)
how much she
loved me
she called me her
precious daughter
told me
that she was praying
for me
but mom...
god doesn't listen
to people who abandon their families
still,
it makes me wonder
how did you know
i
was
awake
just when you think there is no god he finds you and beats the **** out of you
Redshift Apr 2013
no rest
caffeine-induced
labor
the product:
a black and blue
crumpled
essay...
disappointed
parent.
Redshift Mar 2013
four thousand
different dreams about you
last night
you stalked through them
like you owned the place
(...maybe you do...)
so many different places
positions
smiles
back-drops
all because
you held me last night
on accident
just to see
how it felt
Redshift Jan 2015
cocooned in march 2014.
i expanded and never left the nest that i suddenly found myself in
that i created
(i am only
to blame)

as time goes by
the walls solidify
locking me in
with
**him
he frightens me
Redshift Mar 2013
the two amigos
standing through constant ****
since 2011
fell asleep
i on the couch
he in the armchair
trying to ward off
the oncoming
despair
Redshift Mar 2013
how quickly
thine priorities
abandon
me
stop telling me
how good my hair smells
stop
twisting it
around
your finger
like that
**** it up
and spend some real time
with me
i'm not an idiot
i get what happens
you get scared
and you opt out
go pray
for some guts
or something
Redshift Jul 2013
too much
alcohol
a tuna fish sandwich
and lettuce

is the recipe
to cure
the world

...or at least something

maybe
Redshift Jun 2015
there are a lot of people in the world that you don't need
and that don't need you
but i have never been good at figuring out who those people are.
i let all of them stay
and pull me, drag me, **** me
back and forth and up and down until suddenly
they are telling me they love me
and i am saying it back
because there's nothing else that can be done.

my head and my heart know that i don't truly love them like they love me
and that in the end i will stop replying to messages
and make up excuses for months
and months
and months
until they just stop trying
and that i will end up hurting them more by allowing them to love me and then leaving
but i cannot close myself off to them.
i have declared myself public property
everyone gets a piece of me
to place their country's flag
divide me up like a chocolate bar
eat me in one melted bite.

i wonder when there will be nothing left
to give.
Redshift Feb 2013
i can feel the point of my life
slipping out my fingers
not really
slowly....
boy
i'm in trouble
but i can't help it
i just don't give a ****
what's the point of anything
anyway
go to school
get a job
at mcdonald's
get pregnant
get someone else pregnant
make fun of pregnant people
treat everyone unequal
never get married
live with a load of ****-heads
fall asleep
die
i can work at mcdonald's
without a college degree
so why won't you
let
me
Redshift Jun 2013
i sit on the streetcorner of your mind
and every once in awhile
you drive by
throw money at me
say
hey baby
how about a
smile
and i smile for you
because im in the red
naturally

you do not mind
paying for my ******* smiles
and playing with the curvature of my lips
you do not mind
buying me for an hour
to smile at you

i am glad
that my crinkled eyes
are enough to make you feel better
i am glad
that you feel you are good enough to me
to demand a smile for free
sometimes

and only because
i want you to feel better
do i give them to you
even when the bank is looming
shaking all the outstanding debts
at me
that i really
owe myself

you do not mind
ravaging the smile
you paid for
you figure that you are allowed to ****
that which is yours
and i let you
because you
paid for it
Redshift Apr 2013
oh yeah
sure
let's ask the traumatized kid
if she knows anyone in that stage of psychological life
the one where you
start questioning
whether or not you're happy
and you often make
rash decisions
oh yeah.
i do know someone
who's right in that spot.
can you describe it
for the class?
what the hell, sure.
...as i explain to everyone
that my mother left
because she was bored
i watch the words "oh ****"
etch themselves
onto my professor's face
yep.
i'm never getting called on
again.
Redshift Jan 2016
all humans think they are the ******* ****
like we think elevated thoughts that trip across moonbeams
drift on clouds laced with estrogen and ******* sunshine
like we steer their course
when in reality
our elevation has nothing to do with the brevity of our infantile thought processes
that we believe are unique and something for others to wonder at
it's been ******* done before
someone already wrote a better poem about it, too.

don't stand on my shoulders and point out all the **** i can't see from down here
things unseen still exist
i'm not a tourist
in a poetic world you created
full of bleeding wrists and antidepressants
******* tell it how it is
don't elaborate
or don't
say anything
at  
all
Redshift Mar 2013
temples pounding
shoulder-blades burning
eyes sore
frustrated...
why can't i stay mad at you
you
*******
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