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John Glenn May 2020
War stirs in the west.
The giants in the east
awaken from slumber,
ready to wager.
Up north and down south
the trees burn
as the households await death
to knock on their doors,
unable to breathe.
Speaking of death,
he has taken the icons
and left us with dictators
to further his bidding.
Money has fallen out of value,
with rather a hefty price
at the cost of human life.
Plagued with adversity,
food is short
and the days are long.
Humanity pays
for all its wrongs.
Everything that's been happening so far this year has affected us in so many different ways. Though no matter how dark it all seems to be, there's always light to find at the end of the tunnel. This darkness too, shall pass.
John Glenn Jan 2020
When you're 21
and barely
employed
and wholly
depressed
people expect
you to pull
your ****
together
and handle it
well,
you ought to say
f*ck you
**** is nasty
and I expect
to flush mine
down
the toilet drain
John Glenn Aug 2019
Too late in our efforts
to give love so adequately,
hoping to be loved back
do we realize
what was given back sufficiently
were mere lies
for they were more efficient
and the truth was,
we were never loved
John Glenn Sep 2019
people prize
the words
aristocrats toss,
not the effort
commoners
exhaust
Art
John Glenn Feb 2020
Art
You are the woman
with the perplexing smile
The pearl earring
of the golden age
The starry sky
that offers asylum,
The clock that melts
time on tabletops,
The great wave that dissolves
froth and foam
The venus atop the shells
on the waters, and
The charismatic fire
even the seas thirst for
And I will be your artist;
the desires to sketch you
What desires to sketch you
(Read the first line, then every other line that starts with an upper case. Read the second line, then every other line in lower case. Then read all lines as a whole.)
John Glenn Jun 2019
is this how we fix bad photographs?
saturate the focus, craft the perfect banner,
grain enough to feel the gloom
in between the curved lines.
then before our eyes -- perfection
of disgust & delight
if so, then i am just a bunch of
bad photographs
loading
unloading
still
load
- ing
to be curated, and
to create its own color corrections.
-all from Karen
John Glenn May 2019
Beauty is in the eye
of the beholder
and behold
the beauty
in your eyes
even when it cries
John Glenn Aug 2019
Conversations are coffee
Small talks go smoothly
Arguments are bitter
Heart to hearts arouse
Pillowtalk stimulates
Public speech palpitates
Late-night talks often deep
Hurtful words avert sleep
ECQ
John Glenn May 2020
ECQ
Being young but unable to go out
Being able to go out but not feel young
The sky is nothing but a wide stare
into dry nothingness.
The drinks are a distant memory.
The moon smiles on the empty cities.
There's nobody to smile back.
The Monday mornings are not hated.
The Friday nights aren't to be thanked
in as much as opening
a canned sardine
with the edge of a dull knife.

Going to bed is not a rare occasion.
Staying in it is ubiquitous.
There's no race against a clock.
We're waiting to be freed
from our own homes.
As if the constant crowds
gave us joy in the first place.
Waiting...
to soar like a bird
and have the bliss
of a stained liver once again.
John Glenn Aug 2019
One kind of forever
that would inherently ****:
creative slowdown,
a writer's block!
took me a very long time to create this piece
John Glenn Sep 2019
the sweetest happiness
is often savored
in our tongues
like honey
after a long,
and bitter sadness.
John Glenn Apr 2019
Her collarbone is a basin
And it reflects the stars
Twinkling in her eyes
When the liquid salt
Fills it to the brim
And drops like an irregular
Waterfall down a honeyed chin
John Glenn Apr 2019
the worst pain
produces
the best poems
John Glenn Dec 2019
Last night I went to Paris
with my first ever muse
and held her one hand
while we held the Triomphe
in the other

We basked in books
we bought in the rue de la Bûcherie
and gazed at herons in the Seine

We were two tired birds
that perched atop the Eiffel
one lazy night, ready for a kiss

That's when my eyes fluttered open
like the birds in Paris
What a dream
John Glenn May 2019
It was in the warmth
of her body
where I found ecstasy
my fingertips laced
in the spaces between hers
our thumbs painting
each other's palms in subtlety
her head rests on my arm
my head rests on hers
in the midst of each other's surrender

and yet somehow,
even ecstasies
end in sober
John Glenn Nov 2018
I will never love you
Never believe that
I will write about you
Because of your pulchritude,
I will share every cliche and
Imagine constellations and blackholes;
I will not
Never believe that
I will think of you
In every cup of coffee
In every rainy day;
I won't.
Don't ever think that
I love you
read bottom up
John Glenn Dec 2018
I often color the sky
based on the intensity of love.

It can go from exchanging compliments
of sapphire, vanilla, and blue

to different degrees of purple,
black, and velvet hue.

Sometimes the richest combination
of orange, yellow, explosions of honey.

Oftentimes all shades of gold, bronze
plus all the colors of downy.

A careless mix of
pink skies in perspectives of blue

All paint poured to the sky
if the intensity's for you.
John Glenn Aug 2020
Let the stars in the sky plummet
on their own
Let the flowers sway
The wind is just the wind
and nothing more
Let the angels sing their songs
and let the devils
shed their snakeskin
Let all the girls and boys
my age be happy
Let the sunshine sliver
across their skies
Let them walk into the sunset with love
ablaze in their eyes
And leave  me free
to wonder why
I do not feel the same
What are you up to these days?
John Glenn May 2019
the clock
tick tocks
in golden variables
every hour malleable
every minute ductile
every second savored
while we are juvenile
feel every moment
John Glenn Feb 2020
Because it's like
a lightning bolt
when you're in love
with two vivid streaks
in the form of the hands
of a clock
love also strikes
but never in the same
place for a second time


But when
you fall out of love
what could be worse
than the slow, unending rumble
of each tick of time?
what could be more redundant?
John Glenn Dec 2018
Your eyeglasses
Are a stimuli
And I
I hope you
Keep wearing them
So your heart sees clear
That you're beautiful
With them on.
John Glenn Sep 2019
I wanted to write a poem
because I wanted to test
the integrity of life
when life tests
the integrity of me,
indulge in decadence,
and create a travesty
out of society;
fall in love, like a skylark
does with his sesame seeds...

and it was not until after
I have written
did I realize
I have not written at all.
John Glenn Feb 2020
Perhaps the reason why
there are vices
is because people pay
hospital bills
on the heart, the lungs,
the liver, and the kidney

And people
are willing to pay
the price
to know
something
in them
is valued

— The End —