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95 · Oct 2020
pharaoh
callie joseph Oct 2020
among shaking,
dancing palm fronds
he pumps his veins
with curls of smoke
reclines in his throne
slowly, it's a science
gold in his fingers
and jungle snakes
and twitching beats
excite his bones
94 · Sep 2020
concert
callie joseph Sep 2020
cigarette mist
dripping fragrance
the hands stretch up
in the limelight
to catch the
razor blades of sound
thundering chords
tear through the nosebleeds
eyes closed in the darkness
music
let go
and dance while the band
sings your name
94 · Sep 2020
VII
callie joseph Sep 2020
VII
she casts
the lasso up
to the snarling
skies and ensnare it
with the burning rope
it's back breaks in
the wind
like a torn sail

it tangles
in the lunar cavity
descends effervescent stars
like honey dripping
down a string
into hidden
alcoves of the golden
cathedral

here, my love
see my arms heave
the bruises
that adorn me
like the jewels of
an african king
i have brought you
the moon
93 · Sep 2020
the view
callie joseph Sep 2020
hands, cheeks, chin, nose
pressed yellow against the
warm glass
the sun has no obstacles
but the effervescence
of the bubbling mirage
cast in the grass
near the reflection
of your blushing toes
93 · Sep 2020
IV
callie joseph Sep 2020
IV
you were surfing on your own
salty water in your hair
and when you stood before the grey sky
I fell in love with how you care
93 · Aug 2020
<3
callie joseph Aug 2020
<3
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91 · Oct 2020
i yearn for sleep
callie joseph Oct 2020
where i can be with you
created by our dancing
in a hungered dream
90 · Aug 2020
to l.
callie joseph Aug 2020
your shallow gaze
feasts on my soul
like flies in the murky
summer nights
that you held my hand
as we floated out
into the sea
90 · May 2020
to my reflection
callie joseph May 2020
there's something lonesome about you
the way your hair parts
how it splits
indecisive yet so
tumultuous and raging
my lonesome monsoon
made of fraying knots
for strangers to tie and untie
until you come together
or it all falls apart
90 · Sep 2020
V
callie joseph Sep 2020
V
he is as blue as the rising crescent
warm as the phantoms marine
and cold as the rain, dripping over
my cupids bow i am refreshed

he is
mine
finally
89 · Jun 2020
the night we met
callie joseph Jun 2020
My dress clinging to my goosebumps
like cold rain on the mountains
as you took my hand,
and said
"let's go jump off the dock"
even though it was late at night
and I was scared of the sharks
and at the end of all of it...
i'm trying so hard to forget you
how did i forget those eyes
87 · Sep 2020
classroom
callie joseph Sep 2020
i blink the dry
air conditioning from my eyes
pretend the cheap
white table under my elbows
is a waxed surfboard
these fluorescent lights
the warm and burning sun
this popcorn ceiling
littered with wandering cello-tape
is the blue sky
that i can see through the window
naked, no clouds
the whirring of the printer
and these vexing voices
could be the waves
rolling into foam
my board grinding against the water
my feet touching the coral heads
i am stuck in a daydream
about the sea
when in the classroom
87 · Sep 2020
to L
callie joseph Sep 2020
more than anything
i want to study
the gentle intonation of your voice
the soft shapes
of your skin
the scents
and feeling of your hair
infallibly
i want to know you
86 · Sep 2020
tides
callie joseph Sep 2020
skin as clean as the ocean
salt water in your blood
bones would settle sweetly
among the singing sands

she would shatter like
a blue tile
that adorns mother's kitchen
looking over the sea

we watch the whales come in at dawn
and as the dusk draws near
the sailboats heave in with nets
shaking heavy with the flashing fish

and brown, wrinkled fishermen
who cut fast into the ****** fish with their knives
slaves to the sea
and sons of the tides
i join them on my surfboard now,
years later
ducking my head beneath the meniscus of the earth
as the engines grind past
so much has changed
85 · Jul 2020
the dive
callie joseph Jul 2020
we went down
with our cold steel tempests
swollen lips screaming
out aggressive effervescence
watching the tide
break the backs of those tendrils
gripping onto the coral heads
and twist them in the dark blue
i held every tear in my throat
and every fear in my mind
84 · Sep 2020
VI
callie joseph Sep 2020
VI
hold me
orpheus with pale skin
atop the white cliffs
where the foaming waves break
and ghosts cry
beneath the torpid sea
paint me with your tears
84 · Oct 2020
i love you
callie joseph Oct 2020
felt like the sound
the sound of my head
smacking against the concrete
83 · Mar 2020
madness
callie joseph Mar 2020
lies in raving lips
and peerless eyes
In the very temple of delight
delirium takes her prize
hysteria kissing her foaming teeth
psychosis fills her sighs
asinity nestles deep
from warmth between her thighs
and leaving her is lucidness
filling final sounds with lies
83 · Sep 2020
castaway
callie joseph Sep 2020
salt, tobacco, sand
getting caught between my teeth
am i a castaway
laying in these
elysian waves
i am free
i dread the cold rain, crouched on the horizon like a demon black.
its winds will draw me out to the sea
82 · Jun 2020
it is so important
callie joseph Jun 2020
to have something to look forward to
because our aspirations,
however small (I want to watch TV later)
are our guides
81 · Sep 2020
pavement
callie joseph Sep 2020
engravement
depravement
don't roast my parents on a spit :)
81 · Oct 2020
none of you
callie joseph Oct 2020
bare hands
masked heart
peppered bruises
from the start
wild hair
broken gaze
and a shattered heart
from an abandoned chase
81 · Aug 2020
write
callie joseph Aug 2020
take each word down
place them
precariously and scribble
force them into eyes and minds
all around you
these words
cannot be forgotten
or you will be
forgotten
and you will be lost
all meaning will be lost
at the sound
of the approaching
rain
81 · Oct 2020
tropical storm
callie joseph Oct 2020
let's go surfing
gather the fading
remnants of our youth
there's a hurricane coming in
the grey waves are roused
pounded by the rain
the heron
with its white and jagged breast
and the three legged dog
laying in the dripping bushes
are calling you
to bear witness
79 · Mar 2020
may i make you forget?
callie joseph Mar 2020
would you drink that Lethe water my dear?
If I was to place it in a crystal vessel
adorn it with diamonds brighter than your eyes

Would you let her serene whispers into your tumultuous mind?
to ease your psyche and cleanse you?

she tastes like flowers grown upon the highest cloud
honey to the palate
does that tempt you my dear?

She is not styx nor cocytus
she is a scintillating blue
you will die, I admit
but she’ll borne you anew
78 · Jul 2020
7/ 6/ 2020
callie joseph Jul 2020
he took his boy
down to the water
alone in that salty
white sun
and sat on the washed- up concrete
touching the sand
before bicycles and old ladies
with their flowery dresses and their
tinkling bangles
and wide swaying hips selling
their mangoes from a cardboard sign
and the boy went into the water
blackening his shorts
ribs tight beneath his ebony hide
and ran up against the shore
casting his arm like a shakespearean
bitten fingernails cupping
as his brown hands and scored fingers
dripped with the sharp *** of seaweed
he had brought for his father
with nothing else to do
on the monday afternoon
78 · Oct 2020
youth
callie joseph Oct 2020
we walk at night
beneath bright lights
drenched in dark sweat
and smoke falling from our lips
like reckless words
heels aching and black
we bow from the labors
of the day
and the heat
of the night
78 · Jun 2020
writing
callie joseph Jun 2020
I never write when I'm happy,
rather, to peel the scabs off healing scars
sculpt the pain into calibri and bold
paste my black skin onto the white screen
and wait
for the views to roll in
which i use as validation,
and bandage myself up again
i know you're all the same
77 · Sep 2020
callie joseph Sep 2020
infant in the sea
paled by the raging white surf
his belly swells with foam, stretched
and his cobalt tongue lolls
like the short haired dogs
on the haitian coast
he has kissed the sands of the deep
with his vapid cheeks
salt encrusts his veins
still running wet
with neptune's tears
he
floats,
cold
beneath the waning of artemis
he is bearded by a mother's grief
who has lost her
infant in the sea
77 · Jun 2020
hi
callie joseph Jun 2020
hi
do you think we could
sit in the dewy grass
on your mothers knitted blanket
like we did three
summers ago
with coffee on our tastebuds
and ice between our teeth
because
i would like to have taken a picture
of you in that green shirt
against the blue
of the sky
before you told me you were a psychopath
77 · Jun 2020
i did not fall in love
callie joseph Jun 2020
with some subtle illumination
i fell in love
with your blue,
raging, roaring, raw
under your skin
ravishing your soul
you didn't have an aura
you had an atmosphere
stirring the air around you
into hurricanes

and the freckle under your right eye
i fell in love with that too
76 · Oct 2020
shatter
callie joseph Oct 2020
wind beats on the glass
and it shatters my soul
to see in the rain
that with her, you are whole
75 · Oct 2020
suspiritus
callie joseph Oct 2020
the ache parts
you come cold
as sleep and freezing kisses
still close
i have this every sometimes
filling me
suspiratio
73 · Sep 2020
I
callie joseph Sep 2020
I
your acrid absence
descends on me like flies to the ferment
fresh, fertile, and fevered gore
as the boiling blood as carthage was *****
and the pillage of gaea
at the primordial age
i pray
i yearn for
the subdued sufferings of atlas
or prometheus, for those smile
so plainly
against your acrid absence
callie joseph May 2020
we were gum toothed kids
popping stones onto trickling tarmac
black and boiling tar

and kissing our nail beds
and biting our tongues
pure puckered flesh and blistering blood

hoarse from our philanthropic noise
antagonists
flashing shouts and rolling loud

my dear lonesome wildfire
with a soul of salt and thunder
eat this youth alive
73 · Aug 2020
self portraiture
callie joseph Aug 2020
i hate the way
she swallows her ***
like i’m going to set her
on fire
and she wants so badly
to burn
73 · Jul 2020
tasting you
callie joseph Jul 2020
was happiness
in every broken way
72 · Jun 2020
we are human
callie joseph Jun 2020
fingernails blackened from scraping in the moss
a soul of blood, dirt, grit and change,
tendrils of Fibonacci, curving ivy in our jewel-veins
lips that have been bitten and blow among reeds
deep in the forest where our feet touch the riverbed
and our heart thunders like the rain.
we are human
72 · Aug 2020
I’ll see you again
callie joseph Aug 2020
those words echoed from the start
you said you would be there when I cried
but now I’m dead inside your heart
and you’re still branded in my mind
71 · Sep 2020
im struggling
callie joseph Sep 2020
to trust
to fall in love
without the distractions
of subtle signs
you want to leave
me behind
71 · Jul 2020
if i could
callie joseph Jul 2020
i would cry you a song
through my loose voice
and broken tone
but i cannot sing
so with a rather unromantic keyboard
stained with ink and post-it glue
i type my feeble poems
to embark along the lonely universe
unheard by caring ears
emotionless fonts
and indifferent words
a language of my lonely understanding
70 · Aug 2020
i learned a secret
callie joseph Aug 2020
about my lover
last night
that i shan’t share
become if i was
to disclose
the truth of her
beauty
the guilty would
throw themselves and converge
in their masses at her
holy feet
their sole redemption
and this truth
the only
precious truth of the heavens
is that i love her so
70 · Jun 2020
i dream of the rose
callie joseph Jun 2020
creator's close
and open, blossoming
each petal chose
enclosed
a glistening cathedral expose
the red repose
i dream of the rose
69 · Jul 2020
to pluto
callie joseph Jul 2020
cast a spell
from somber pluto
ensnare my heart with
orpheus' lullaby
and drown me
in lethe's
black sea
69 · Jun 2020
sahara
callie joseph Jun 2020
The dust from the sahara
golden as caramel
sugar burnt from the sun and
glazed by the shadow of temples and
jewels and camel's hooves
is in the sky
and the sky is grey here
and my lips are dry
69 · Jun 2020
4 am
callie joseph Jun 2020
The cotton of tender sleep
stings as it is pulled from my eyelids
warm, dry breath,
my head hurts, looking to the ceiling
she's in my room.
Mother.
She couldn't sleep again.
69 · Aug 2020
it’s time
callie joseph Aug 2020
to listen to novo amour
to submerge my many
identities convening like bubbles
under the beating of the rain
and let them sink
to the bottom of the sea

to listen to novo amour
and open my soul to the air
red and bruises
like the ones on my knees
i belong on the concrete
or beneath it

to listen to novo amour
and let my hairs matt
twisting and black like the thoughts
raging in my fingertips
and never turn on the shower

to listen to novo amour
to never ever ever leave my room
leave my bed
leave my ceiling
to never stop being sad
and never stop listening
68 · Jun 2020
if i'm in love with you
callie joseph Jun 2020
why do you scare me so much?
why am i so afraid
67 · Oct 2020
one day
callie joseph Oct 2020
every inch of your skin
will be stained with my kisses
and burned by my tears
66 · Mar 2020
when you twist my words
callie joseph Mar 2020
you do just that
you prize apart the mattress springs of my throat
slivering hands
greedily tear and I bleed
coughing up the red words you told them I spoke
and in my own bones
you find me a prison
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