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298 · Jun 2016
b.
rook Jun 2016
b.
press your lips to
mine
we walk with our fingers laced enough, already
would it be so hard to sit on this bridge
watch the creek move slowly
and us move steady?

i woke up with the memory of softness in your eyes
and though i speak to you now it still feels like
goodbye
b
296 · Feb 2018
split #2
rook Feb 2018
i don’t know the things that i like.
i know what he likes
and i know what
he doesn’t.
what about me?
291 · Jul 2016
missing
rook Jul 2016
we were on the roof once, or was that a dream?
high as the sun in the sky, but it was night and the moon
in your eyes when you smiled
we couldn't name a single one of those **** constellations,
then or now
but i remember your laugh like i heard it not two minutes ago.
i never know when i'll see you again.
i wonder if it's okay with you?
njp; i despise myself
289 · Oct 2014
an Odd triolet
rook Oct 2014
On this night, Addison seems oddly quiet
It’s almost as if he’s a ghost, himself
He’s never loquacious, I won’t deny it,
But on this night Addison seems oddly quiet.
And an odd one he is, though I mean nothing by it,
But tonight it seems quite like he’s on a higher shelf
On this night, Addison seems oddly quiet,
And it’s almost as if he’s a ghost, now, himself.
a.o.e.
285 · Nov 2014
i never meant i never i
rook Nov 2014
it is me.
i am the ruiner of fun.
i am the destroyer of all things enjoyable.
i am unwated.
i am unnecessary.
i am
actually -- i am not
i am nothing
i am not
i'm sorry i'm sorry just stop just go ujst im sorry
283 · Mar 2015
foxfires
rook Mar 2015
foxfires,
& the monsters hiding in your closet
when it's 4:03 and the world's asleep and
streetlights burn truth into my veins,
the silence of your eyes
and
foxfires
sigh.
laundry girl; h.k.
283 · Sep 2014
forced
rook Sep 2014
breathing
it is odd to think that such an involuntary, seemingly inconsequential thing
is what keeps us alive
we can not simply quit it
air flows in and out on its own
you may try to hold it, but it continues flowing
long after you've passed out
dreaming
on a cold floor

you tried
but you were so scared to try harder
you knew you wouldn't be able to do it
and making the effort is terrifying
you can hold your breath
but you can not take it
you are afraid

you have almost given up hope
you used to say this was ridiculous
you would never consider it
you would never try
you didn't
need
to
you were happy
what happened?

you fell
you spiraled down
and you tripped on the last stair
battered
bruised
hurt in more ways than physical
the things you require from people are withheld
the love you give is snatched greedily
and
never returned

you fell.

now it seems that
trying
is pointless
everything is pointless
apathy
you are numb
and nothing matters right now
you don't want to be
you want your particles
s c a t t e r ed
far into the wind

Love.
is it a good thing?
a bad thing you have decided
it is only pain
but you crave it
you hate the fact but you need it
and this one thing you need so much
is always just out of your grasp

It's so difficult
You force yourself to keep going
Sluggish, robotic motions
Corrupted hardware
Programs that don't work
You want to stop.
you know,  on your birthday one of the last things you should be thinking about is killing yourself.
281 · Nov 2014
i know
rook Nov 2014
it's fine.
i'm an airy presence
a breath of maybe fresh air
probably not
just nothing
i might be dead already
a ghost
unseen and unheard
and maybe that's why
my parents never respond when i talk to them.
not that i deserve their ears. i deserve nothing.
278 · Feb 2019
july 10th 2018 -
rook Feb 2019
i've never known what to do with myself.
i carried my heart away in the storms you raised
and i called myself your son, but only in name;
but, oh, what a name.
fear, fear in the eyes of men until they see me
a mere boy
a child, playing at games he knows nothing of,
like he had a choice,
and two brothers to hide
secrets he pretended not to know.
and he never knew what to with himself, because it never mattered:
everything was already decided long before the day he was born,
on the day where
the house was empty, and nothing had yet begun.
he set everything in motion.
i became a catalyst for a game i played from behind the scenes,
and let the main characters take the stage.

you always belonged in that light;
i'll make sure you never see otherwise.
277 · Dec 2014
anything you say
rook Dec 2014
in the dark
in the half dark and in the half light of the half conscious
and fully awake
in the late and in the early
and in the silence of the overbearing noises a small sound
slides through,
and the butterflies in your stomach have all turned to
rocs
and you can't breathe and you can only think if only there was some way
because half concealed glances and whispered pleas just don't
cut it.
you need something you can touch.
can and will be held against you, so only say my name
277 · Nov 2016
found
rook Nov 2016
i found him
fumbling through childhood memories and sawdust
i saw him and his brothers
perched like crows on the wires
theres nothing about you on there
fitting.
why would you want someone to know who you were?
who were you, really
the boy who prayed on others or the man in the truck
or no one at all?
rwb
277 · Aug 2016
i want to go home.
rook Aug 2016
i dont know when that gate was put up
but i remember when we were small enough to slide through that doorway
on our hands and knees
under blankets, pretending that couldnt see
my blanket was thrown out without choice
but you still keep yours close.

i dont remember how the floor felt when it was clean,
or what exactly the space behind the couch looked like without the pool table's frame and no christmas tree
logic tells me
that table didnt always block the fireplace,
but i dont remember it any other way.

we used to slide down those stairs on our *****
but that wide step in the corner was where i liked to sit
and that window by my door, where i learned
we can see rain.

why weren't we allowed in the back yard?
we didn't we want to go into the back yard?

so many nights spent sleeping on that couch
i know it couldn't have been my entire childhood but when did i
ever
sleep in that bed?

they trimmed back the hedges and painted our house.
everything is clean and respectable
and detestable.
275 · Nov 2015
Untitled
rook Nov 2015
you're crying over your keyboard.
is it because you know you're dying that you're crying
or that
you're leaving people behind that won't even notice you're gone?

but you're wrong, you know. he'll notice.
he always does.
aoe
268 · Feb 2018
split #1
rook Feb 2018
am i you?
am i you, or am i me, or
is it somewhere in between?
when you’re with me, it’s like we’re complete
things feel like they’re as should be
so am i you, or am i me?
267 · Dec 2014
yss
rook Dec 2014
yss
you were fine.
you were fine, and you could breathe and you were dry
and now you want to *****
all you think is breathe breathe breathe and you type
type the same words over again
i'm sorry
i'm sorry
and maybe it will change something eventually, even though it didn't work
the first time.
s
264 · Jun 2016
the realization
rook Jun 2016
school
i put pen to a page put fingers to keys and stretch my limbs
gotta get ready to run
for once i look back and think
this isn't cowardice
the words of my father bounce off of my second skin,
wasp-proof and kissing-safe
the realization that I could buy cigarettes and never smoke them
just because I can
i keep thinking about so many strings attached to me  attached to the words
eighteen
and then i think about
cutting them one by one
i am who i am
and i am nobody unless i want to be.
i don't have to do it unless i want to.
258 · Sep 2014
let's look at it this way
rook Sep 2014
i was the earth and you
my burning sun
it's not poetic anymore to spin a metaphor
so i'll put it to you plain:

you came, i burned, and all life has been evacuated to mars.
the sun will expand and consume the earth. this much we know.
256 · Mar 2015
no sleep
rook Mar 2015
my mind, shaped like your mouth,
all sharp edges & wires &
hazardous,
dreamt of missing you in the way i miss waking up
at 3 am
only to fall blissfully back to
sleep.
h.k.
254 · Aug 2015
come down
rook Aug 2015
you let your fingers do the talking
with your hips ground down unsystematically destroying
that which your mouth could not
in the darkness, door open, silent night and the american horror,
you let yourself show
i never told a soul, not even
myself
that i looked into your eyes and i saw something only
hell
could have described to the maker
frozen
churning
mind blank
body of wax melting
your hands shaping your legs locking you’re falling you push you know it’s wrong you fall
vomiting
again
****** abuse , , ,coping is hard
251 · Mar 2015
i (never) loved your mind
rook Mar 2015
i cultivate your thoughts in my sleep
&always; end up here,
but i understand.
all i ever wanted was your mind - you can
keep the rest.
h.k.
rook Jun 2016
last night i slept with him.

it wasn't intimate -
    at least, not in the way one might expect.
it wasn't skin against skin,
    the way some think it should be.
it wasn't soft conversation -
     (why am i the little spoon? because you're short as ****, that's why)
it wasn't kisses slipped between drowsiness.

last night i slept with him.

i didn't know he would be there;
as we crawled into bed, i settled down beside him
a familiar feeling
that i had forgotten.
brushing back hair, kissing the top of his head
all things brought back from long ago.

you know i missed you so much
but i didn't until i woke up the next morning
n.j.p; missed you. this poem is coming up a few days late.
248 · Aug 2015
stretched
rook Aug 2015
my heart aches
in midnight summer i dont feel the silence you've left,
but i see what was once ours
in the evening breeze.
i spent years wandering around in the
void space
of my own heart, and i ran into you.
if you had played your cards right, i would still
revere you --
hold you in that special place only those of your kind have ever been.
but you stretched me too thin.

and now you're all alone, once again.
again, *******
246 · Dec 2014
&look away
rook Dec 2014
a split second headache,
a forced examination of fight or flight and thinking i've been here --
but not like this
not a sight that made me want to swallow my pride
although
not looking, not being able to look, wanting to never look away
ridiculous, i know
thinking about grass and legs intertwined and suddenly realizing
i can't breathe
but another glace another half second do i run do i hide and i wonder
isn't it better to die like this, to suffocate
under your eyes?
it means he looks but does not see
241 · Jan 2015
i am empty
rook Jan 2015
i used to care so much
i cared more than you can quantify
i cared so much that it ate me up inside
and my acid spilled over because i just couldn't tell you how much i loved
everyone

and i started to love myself
and i blinked
and the world shifted

and i don't care about anything anymore.
another bad poem but ?? ?  it doesn't matter nothing matters
240 · Oct 2014
somebody wanted but so
rook Oct 2014
you were something i never was.
warm, breathing, whole
and wholly alive
and i wanted to hold you in my hands but i was afraid i would break
the porcelain in your skin
the glass in your eyes
and i wanted to feel every side of you but i was afraid i would tear
the cashmere of your skin
the cotton of your hair
and i wanted to make you mine entirely but i was afraid i would ruin
the sincerity in your smile
the longevity of your thoughts
and i wanted to be inside you but i was afraid i would banish
the innocence in your spirit
and i wanted to be with you but i was afraid i would destroy
the life in your bones
and i wanted to make you part of me, but one of us has to keep on living
it's okay -- i'll be your ghost.
t.f.j.
238 · Sep 2014
october and may
rook Sep 2014
it shouldn't matter to me when i open a page and i see your face
(costumed, made up, wig or not)
it shouldn't spark a feeling in this cavity of a chest
but it does.

it shouldn't make any difference when i hear from a friend
rumours that were spread
or things that have been said about me
and i should take everything at face value but i heard that you lied
and it shouldn't make my stomach turn
but it does.

and when i see your face
(you know, it's hard to avoid someone when you're ******* facebook friends)
when i see your pathetic, amazing, perfect face
it shouldn't make me cry
but it does

and when i see you in the same place i am
i should be able to say hi
i should be able to say something
instead of staring, dumbstruck
instead of panicking
instead of not being able to breathe
instead of crying when i can finally escape
it shouldn't mean anything

but it does
every time i accidentally see jean or run into jean no
235 · Dec 2017
may 27 2016
rook Dec 2017
i would want to agonize over the
mistakes
that i made
But the truth is,
thinking about them is like walking on eggshells
233 · Jan 2015
When Thought that Words
rook Jan 2015
When thought that words no more
could be hunted down and bent to my will,
I hear them sing from places  still
unfound, though nothing have i sought more,

And strain to catch the faint tune
of memories I dimly recall of times when
While standing nearly alone just then,
I sang up to a moon

And of when the moon had all but gone
and  the tides all washed away;
But the words I hunt are all now done,
and scurry from the light of day.
230 · Jan 2015
Suckerpunch
rook Jan 2015
If you took an x-ray & looked at my insides, they'd be a Picasso.
All tangled shapes, color spills, and meaning hidden
Or maybe a ******* --
endless splatters of endless paint that are all the same, except portrayed           differently.
An entire infinity in those dots, a life of
wishing for someone you could never be
or remember,
And remember, lost in place.
229 · Sep 2018
a letter to you.
rook Sep 2018
i still don't know what happened.
i wonder if you even remember us; we were friends, we were close.
then we weren't.
is it weird to still think about it? is it weird that it still hurts?
we deserved some kind of answer.
i don't think i'll ever be okay until i have one
i don't care what it is; we deserved something, at the very least.
what happened?
228 · Jan 2015
fin
rook Jan 2015
fin
it's when i see him,
his moonlight poured out onto a canvas
waxing poetic
and spinning with the ground, turning the tides.

it's when i see him,
his honey head an slow step in his movements,
that syrup from the bees and
honey of the seas.

it's when i see him,
his wax now beginning to melt,
that burning
in the stomach that means the candle is out

and i am out with it.
a.o.e.
217 · Jun 2016
Untitled
rook Jun 2016
it's uncomfortable.
i don't have room for him and her and him and me
i can't be anything more than i am
it
scares me
but i know
i remember
i can't
this
can't be happening
212 · Dec 2017
may 27 2016 ; pt 2
rook Dec 2017
your hair looks like dirt,
she said.
i laid in her lap like it was the most natural thing in the world, and for me
it was
i didnt love her.
i was never under the illusion of loving her, just
the idea
that maybe i could love her
that maybe she could love me

he walks around with her heart in a glass, doesnt even notice
when it rattles and threatens to
break
209 · Aug 2015
subtract
rook Aug 2015
sun rusted light settles
on the
pale
moon
and your eyes closed for the first time
and mine opened
and i saw everything you had dreamed during the interim
and your ghost
carried on
aoe
207 · Dec 2014
i'm trying
rook Dec 2014
sometimes i look up and all i can think is, my god, she's beautiful.
and sometimes all i want to hear is your voice, the way you get excited, the way you sound saying anything or saying my name.
And I know.
And all I want is to hear your point of view, your words, your thoughts, and I never give you time to say them. All I want is everything I push away. And I can feel this happening again, I can feel it coming to an end and I can feel this cab hurtling to a collision and I am trying so hard to stop it and I don't know how
I have never tried so hard to keep something, never tried so hard to be so good
And I have never failed this badly.
199 · Oct 2014
night terrors
rook Oct 2014
i was afraid of you long before you were a nightly apparition,
and i'll be afraid long after
i whisper your full name into my sheets, thinking
that the power of a name can even
resurrect.

the image seared in my head of two people transparent
did not include one that did not breathe.
this is probably not even a real poem but; addison
195 · Jul 2017
%
rook Jul 2017
%
tell me i was wrong.
tell me the people who've given up on me
decided i was too much effort
or a mistake;
people who promised me things
that now
seem light years away.

tell me i was wrong;
you don't know the years that followed
and you don't know the things that happened,
because you left.

tell me i was wrong.
i don't care.
but tell me something;
don't just leave it empty.
you owe me more than that.
rook Nov 2014
i'm digusting
i'm aboslutely revolting, in person
i seem smart
i seem worthwhile
i seem many things
but the truth is i am none of them
i am a thought
an illusion
an idea
when you remember something from your childhood and go, "Oh, that was great!"
and then you actually experience it again and go "oh, it actually wasn't that great. Why did I think it was in the first place?"
Yeah. That's me.
Some people are better imagined; up close, you see them as they truly are.
Awful.
192 · Dec 2014
it's a --
rook Dec 2014
there are only two people in this house, and neither of them particularly
human.
you're a fiend.
you slither into the hearts of people, make them like you, and then you grow dark
and then you grow cold
and then you choke them in all the worst ways.

and the best part is, you insist you aren't doing it.

it's cute to watch you try to be something
try to be worth anything
try to be something light when you were only ever the heavy blackness.

you should take comfort in the fact that you have the one talent, at least; ******* things up so perfectly.

why don't you just do us all a favor and die?
-- family tradition.
188 · Jun 2019
periodic
rook Jun 2019
every now and then my pen runs dry.
i forget how to swallow the words of others, as if any thought can be truly organic.
why isn’t there a farmer’s market for ingenuity?
how much to buy a phrase that could finally satisfy me,
a phrase that would finally make me stop after years and years of
nomadic poetry tried to string together meaningless events into a story
that actually made sense?

every now and then,
my pen runs
dry.
i spit all of my words out in search of answers to
questions i shouldn’t ask.
i was parched.
i have so long been parched.

one day
i will set my pen down
and one day
i will look up to the sky in this desert of my own creation
and i will stop trying to put the pieces together
( there are none that fit)
i will close my eyes
and let the rain fall.
rook Nov 2017
curved words forming around soft lips
rook Nov 2017
it hasn't been long enough for the ache to fade
for the memory of how innocent and comforting it all was
you were there when i lost myself and at the end when i was
right there all along,
you smiled and told me it was okay.
rook Nov 2017
the thread unravels.
i curl up in a blanket that doesnt fit this mattress
fall asleep in the middle of the day
when i cant in the middle of the night
156 · Feb 2019
july 1st, 2018
rook Feb 2019
how time changes things.
i used to believe that the old saying about how
time heals all wounds
was a lie;
it turns out, i just didn't have the patience
for recovery.
i was running in circles in my own mind,
pretending
that i had no other choice.
how frustrating that the light was always in reach, but
time heals all wounds
even for me.
rook Nov 2017
when i go missing, the moon doesn't go out
gemini still shines even though
one of its own
is lost

through streetlights and

— The End —