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424 · Oct 2020
Eternal Dusk - TBOUT
Batchelor Oct 2020
Shadows settle where warmth once stood

On windowsills

Beneath quilted covers

Emancipated, gaunt figures now linger there :

Reeking of desperation, to make sense of the cold.
O eternal dusk

And the dark side of the moon

Encompass, envelop and have us whole.

6th of March, 2018.
401 · Oct 2020
Porcelain Weather - TBOUT
Batchelor Oct 2020
A paper cut

A ****** machete

Became a thorn on the focus

Became the pause on the focus

A wail of the wee ones

A whirl on the freeways

Became a soft smothering

Became a daft splattering.
Morbidity is the deal of the week, and there's no way anyone will miss that for the world.

6th of March, 2018.
316 · Apr 2020
Ignem Feram - Z
Batchelor Apr 2020
Burn, burn like the rage of a dying flame.


Scream, scream with the cry of a bushfire.


Flicker, flicker away as the wind puts you out for one last inevitable time.


The bridges are now torched.


There is no you, there is only me.
"May I carry the flame to burn alone" - The meaning of Ignem Feram.

May we all carry the flame to burn alone, once there is no more wine or song left.

June 2017.
Batchelor Oct 2020
We'll hang up our cowls & capes

In the thick of the collapsed ruins

Cranking one last tune on expired phonographs

Groaning as osteofluorosis plays his merry tune again

Still, gazing with the vast emptiness of long-lost eyes,

As a long lost chord haunts these halls again, we mutter :

"I can hear it now, like I heard it then."
And after four months, the infernal typewriter roars again.

And soon, the next book will come to play.

Maiden of the black rag, your last encore is coming right up.
279 · Jul 2020
The Path To Nowhere - TBOUT
Batchelor Jul 2020
A numb sense of right & wrong

The aftermath of events went nuclear


Making an esoteric pact all alone by a round table

Who what when why - identity crisis of belief

Even with the chill of culmination


I recall the actual events of long ago, like it was yesterday.
I went nowhere, and found myself everywhere.

Somewhere, is always where I've been.

4th of March, 2018.
269 · Feb 2020
Temptation - Z
Batchelor Feb 2020
A little bit of something I haven't kissed,
A little bit of a line I inch closer to

Help me chain myself
Anchor my soul and body

A gradual slow crawl to a halt
Rolling eyes at the visual premonition
Surely this must be in jest, old feelings emerge and though not mine
Niche tastes flap on my tongue
Inquisitiveness turns to desire
Clamping down on the Beast

Time is a cruel mistress, is she not?
Yesterday bought stability
Now today bought sins to light.
eu sunt dracul *chuckle
With the assistance of the Courtesan, darker heart than night itself, Blood And Tears is off to a roaring start. Temptation slides a bit closer than most.. and the sorrow of the sins are cloaked, a little more longer. January 2017.
264 · Jun 2020
a warm place - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
While I eventually await the end - all siren call

Of the heat death of our universe

Killing time with the minutiae of hourglasses

Enroaching sub-zero temperatures ensure I will never achieve that closure.
Frozen, in an inversion.

28th of February, 2018.
254 · Jun 2020
Fragility - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
The absence of heat, rather than being in a true inverse of statement, i.e : It is warm - it's hot, instead, i. e : It's cold - there is no warmth, there is absence of heart. This brings to mind peculiar similarities with emotional states, where even sorrow brings a flushed face and tears streaming through eyes.


However, the absence of heat, in the emotional spectrum, is indeed a disastrous precedent. It brings to mind detachment, depression, and a distinct emotion of loss.
Cracks and fissures.

26th of February, 2018.
251 · Jun 2020
l'appel du vide - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
the sensations of formerly heralded emotions

begin as pins and ******

ode to them as tears appear on skin taut as paper

undertow of familiar ashes beneath papyrus heart, rosetta mind

though that fragile bough breaks, hurtling us to our end.
of blizzards and infernos.

undertake this love
undertake this transformation
a cruel transfiguration

into the king in black

28th of February, 2018.
249 · Jun 2020
Eyes I Can't Meet - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
Lay me beside you

Lay me to rest


I dare not meet your eyes

Not even in my dreams


Forever tending to the flames between us

Forever shivering in the void you left.
I won't meet your eyes, the same way I used to, again.

23rd of February, 2018.
248 · Jun 2020
That's No Bird - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
In the ruins of previous lives, ghosts meandered. (soft cheer, and laughter.)

With a skylight turned inside out, cracks, fenestrating form. (soft sobbing, and fear.)

On the desk lay stained glass, and the ashes of yesterday. (softer times, and love.)


Just in time, for the air sirens.

Illustrations on the glass, now of resignation.

Musty tomes fluttered, and in the unnatural torrent of gales,

Angels of metal sent love letters, to wash it all away with indifferent flames.
War.

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing.

23rd of February, 2018.
235 · Jun 2020
Zombie - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
Gaunt, slipping through time, evading notice.

Buried alive, a small comfort, exaltation of terra firma.

Gauntlets equipped, not unlike shackles, once more into the fray.

Unearthed, foul arcana preserving an empty husk, begging for rest in moans.
What's in my head?

23rd of February, 2018.
Batchelor Feb 2020
"We are defined by the choices we make."
How do we truly understand this sentence, then?
Is it the bottom of the beer bottle in which we find it?
Or the passionate afternoon with that red haired stranger?
Maybe perhaps that beautiful pointless death you bloomed within yourself.
In which case you smiled and said, "It's alright."
Maybe the breaking point was when you realised you spent conforming to avoid being branded otherwise.
Self-immolation isn't that much fun.
It began with a heart-burn.
And continued with a tussle for control within.
Til you realised you could no longer pretend you wanted both sides of the cake.
The hunter and prey.
Then you awoke.
And saw that you were no better, no less than the entirety of the roads you took.
Now this is where you made or broke.
A knife to the arm, a rope to the neck, a pill to wash it all away.
A cacophonous tremor rippling across your psyche.
And you realised.
"Do I deserve this future, death, life I've been craving for? Or are we always, sometimes monsters?"
The fires start to singe and twist their way around the other bridges to the other unnamed Brides, circa 2014.
203 · Jun 2020
Restrained Self - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
How are you?

I end up funneling warmth to that part of me.


How have you been?

A simple query, to see if you're still there.


I've missed you.

Bitter frost cracks open with the uninvited warmth.
Chained, absolute.

Frozen, sub-zero.

21st of February, 2018.
194 · Jun 2020
Ghosting - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
There is magic where we once held memorable moments

Your glances, there was perfect chemistry in them, enough to quell the melatonin within.

I'll wrangle my ghosts, sipping from a goblet of ashen intent, dusty wills.


Where's the haunting?
Haunt-Disappear-Intent

20th of February, 2018.
169 · Jun 2020
Tarnished - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
I caught you lying

I caught you picking your teeth off the floor

Not so pretty now are you?


Now your dead soul calls out again to me.
"That keep calling me
They keep calling me
Keep on calling me
They keep calling me"

20th of February, 2018.
167 · Apr 2020
My Lover Is The Sun - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
With renewed vigor

A slip of the hip

The grip of the finger

I chuckle

I've gotten myself into a pickle, it seems.

For the first time in forever

I'm looking forward to basking in the sun

In the brilliance of something greater than all my dalliances

I'm feeling it now

Actual sunlight.
Hello, dear lover, Heliophilia.

The Age of Fire, January 2018.


The rebirth after actualizing Basic Instinct

  A year of elemental foreplay
    
     Barricading the year before

         Secluding hunger from need
165 · Jun 2020
Anesthetic - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
My own words

Clawed fiery tantrums

Across my contents of the breast


Her very presence

Kissed icy trails

Deep into tissue


She was the very essence of void

Drying up all my fiery wounds

Desiccating me into dust.
Hissing and losing power.

17th of February, 2018.
163 · Jun 2020
Mona Lisa - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
Your portrait decays the longer I observe it.

I don't think you deserve the vibrant colours you've been etched by.


Perplexed, perhaps these are my reservations speaking.
I'd pay to see you frown.

20th of February, 2018.
154 · Jun 2020
Mirror - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
Awake, awaiting for your presence to bring a warm pulse shimmering in meaningful gazes.
"It's like you're my mirror. My mirror's staring back at me."

20th of February, 2018.
148 · Jun 2020
Phoenix Down - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
It has been a long time since the fires flitted across my mind.

Has passion simmered down, or am I just ashes, waiting to be reborn?
Or the Long Dark, once more?

20tth of February, 2018.
147 · Jun 2020
under these covers - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
With once forgotten sensuality


I kiss you again.
Put your head on my shoulder, after.

11th of February, 2018.
147 · Jun 2020
Wistful Nostalgia - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
And with the persistence of silence


I turn to the previous chapters


And relive them once more.
Once more, once more.

16th of February, 2018.
146 · Jun 2020
A Gift Of Calm - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
It was not courage I found, dwelling up inside.

I roared at empty spaces til I bled out.


Neither was it hope, clinging unto shreds.


I tore apart, tattered ataraxia.

I found the elusive line between cacophony & symphony.

Here I lie,


In peace.
A minute
An hour
A day
A year

Calm

9th of February, 2018.
145 · Jun 2020
the eyes dry up - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
Neither one of us want to say goodbye

Now, I'll be looking you in the eye.


Narrow rivers of red trickle down my arm

Only tears stream down our faces, the knife digging deeper.


Oh, shrouded in grief we became.


Only a minute for us to breathe.


And time resumes, cloaked once again from perception.
Is this loss?

10th of February, 2018.
144 · Jun 2020
dreamer's interlude - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
I wish this cold warmth of assurance could've been shared.

I hoped that you would've come along, as whole as you were.


((As thick as this lead is, my genuinity was for it all.))


But now, as thin and fading my writing becomes

I've become similar, with soul truly bare

And heart, flushed with actual sunlight.
Intermission between wake - sleep - dream - sleep - wake.

10th of February, 2018.
141 · May 2020
The Reclaimer - TBOUT
Batchelor May 2020
My eyes fall back down on the floor.


Grounded, but secure.


This is the logical result : I'm leaving the burn marks behind.

A cool, dry corpse, crackling apart piece by piece in the wind.

Leaving only, beautiful bleached bones behind.
Your skin, bones all beautiful and eternal.

Back after a long break of being ill.

Now, let's finish The Bibliography Of Unspoken Truths.

1st of February, 2018.
Batchelor Apr 2020
Through the scant scratches of pain

And the breaking of reasoning

Thus the collapse of love

Aether illuminating the aftermath's gloom


We've come to realize

Life will always find a way.
And they'll keep coming.

27th of January 2018.
135 · Apr 2020
Bound - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
I look upon these manacles which I could so easily slip from

These bars that hold me prisoner

So welcome

I'm beginning to forget
I will forget, won't I?

29th of January 2018.
133 · Apr 2020
Maple Syrup - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
The beauty about loss

You crave for sepia
Live on the edge of the endless night, never stretching quite to dawn.

28th of January 2018.
131 · Apr 2020
My Lullaby - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
This will come true

Pull me out of this pyre

Be my broken record

Repeating what I need to hear

Til I fall

Deep


Deep





Deep









For you.
"Help me I'm in Hell."

27th of January 2018.
129 · Apr 2020
Self Fulfil - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
All I ever was, to find validation from others.

All that I am now , for contentment.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

23rd of January 2018.
128 · Feb 2020
Cascadia/Cascade/Casket - Z
Batchelor Feb 2020
(Let's go)
Up and down the boulevard of broken dreams

(Shy glance)
Across the boulevard of broken dreams

Saw her again
Shy, like my Dana
Sultry lips
With a scent of distinctness
Infatuated with the thighs, tempting
Inviting, so much like an oasis
In the middle of sandy dunes, twin suns

Two steps from hell
Disturbed
Five fingers I raise
Four I keep, one thumb I raise
Dana walks over to me and smiles.
A dissonant step into a landscape in between the events of The One Draped In Orange and Ashtongue, but coming face to face with the Lady In Red ; now the current Red Queen. January 2017, and many more.
128 · Apr 2020
The World - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
My body's silently cooling back down

The warmest dead body I've ever had.


Yet as I fade away from you, from me


I'm beside you, in time.
"I know it's getting late."

28th of January 2018.
126 · Apr 2020
Between - Z
Batchelor Apr 2020
Maybe, just maybe.
  In another life, another time.

We could come together,
  And embrace each other, innocent.
No intent
No malice

December 2017.
126 · Apr 2020
To Link The Flames - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
These embers are dying out.

Let us seek new pyres to martyr ourselves on.
Hand over hand.

11th of January 2018.
124 · Apr 2020
Their Van Gogh - Z
Batchelor Apr 2020
There was somebody for each scar we have on our skin ; a flesh canvas streaking raving stark mad.
Give me a minute to breathe you in.

December 2017.`
122 · Apr 2020
Warmth - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
Fire.

Fire everywhere again.

Only that their flames are freezing ones.

That the warmth, once emblazoned into their being,


Is long dead & gone.
Conflagration.

23rd of January 2018.
121 · Apr 2020
Devil's Orchards - Z
Batchelor Apr 2020
I kneeled down
Picking off cigarettes
Reaching down
Picking up the bouquet


Born of maybes
I still recall her cold touch

Left with her smile
I struggled to my feet

A ballad of kisses
Warmth greater than silence that grew between us.

I set the pyre on fire
Now even in death,


She does not belong to me.
Ashes... to ashes.

December 2017.
120 · Apr 2020
Empty Nights - Z
Batchelor Apr 2020
If we go all the way back

To where the night had no hold over us


To silent days laced with kisses

Ending with quiet nights addled with mirth


No more heroes left

Just us villains of our own stories.
Your own worst enemy.

December 2017.
120 · Apr 2020
Silence - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
Fire, fire everywhere once more.

The only difference, in the middle of this tempest,


I am licked and caressed by the coldest flames I've ever felt.
Fall silent

Kiss me goodnight.

21st of January 2018.
119 · Jun 2020
And Yet - TBOUT
Batchelor Jun 2020
The persistence of loss insinuates that we once had something, only to lose it.


My blood rushed throughout my body, as I felt countless lips pass mine.

My blood rushed throughout my body, as I recalled endless hurt trickling down my eyes.


The persistence of loss states we were once more, then we understood that we lost things we never knew we had.

Our soft pleading drowns out even the shrillest of screams.


So why does loss play on our tongues,

More than ever, moving on?
I know the answer now, after 2019.

I know the answer now, after turning 27.

9th of February, 2018.
118 · Apr 2020
The Reminiscence - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
With the intensity of these feelings

Feeling goosebumps up my spine

Of condensation of sensation

(you are being too ******* yourself)

<I don't think I would go anywhere without dominance>

<dominance of my thought, heart and soul>


(It's like you're not letting me in.)

<You're projecting.>


I feel what they must have felt, so long ago.

It feels like leaving hope

:   but I am left withered   :
:   choices to accept   :
:   my role in all this   :
I will always remember, even when I don't wish to.

28th of January 2018.
118 · Apr 2020
Redoubt - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
Dancing, we go again, not unlike a carousel, spinning in place.

Memories of yesterday when you opened your eyes,

Expecting you to utter words I knew you would never speak


It's time to put this chapter to rest

The future is a white canvas


And only my will

Can leave traces on it.
I fortify myself again in my Memory Palace.

27th of January 2018.
117 · Feb 2020
Godless - Z
Batchelor Feb 2020
It's just so difficult
When old scars remain
When love is supposed to be cherished
Instead bloodied foreheads and redeye is all I get

It's just so difficult
While pain lingers
While hate takes over life
And the broken bones and open wounds
is all I have

Help me I'm in Hell
Help me I'm in Hell
Only death awaits
Whether you come to save me or not
It feels that you will just be content to see me drown
I was a mistake.

I'm playing second fiddle to you.
No such thing as champion for good
I'll gladly embrace the devil in me
If only to forget your promise.
As my heart shrivels up,
And my soul distraught,
I assimilate just enough of guilt,
And annihilate any chance of the naive me coming back.
January 2017.
117 · Apr 2020
Noise - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
I'll let the fires scorch my very soul.

No more succor, no more vice.


If only to keep myself humble.
Devouring myself for peace.

21st of January 2018.
117 · Apr 2020
Arise - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
Look at me, look upon my city and tremble.
We lie asleep, waiting for when the time s ripe,
In shackle's rust, in ragged breaths.

Fear the night's chilling embrace.
Arise from the dead, o great ones.

23rd of January 2018.
115 · Apr 2020
Guilt - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
Selfish til the end, I never thought I'd be like that.
Guilt, remorse, mercy for the mind.

23rd of January 2018.
115 · Apr 2020
Be A Blank Slate - TBOUT
Batchelor Apr 2020
And if finding
That I moved

from wanting you
Needing you

To not desiring

Any of this



I deserve to be forgotten.
That's life.

27th of January 2018.
Batchelor Apr 2020
One day I'll find new skin to begin with,
One day I'll find new eyes to yearn with.

I just have to keep working at my heart.
Help me, I broke apart my insides.

23rd of January 2018.
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