Daniel Lockerbie

Daniel Lockerbie Feb 2018

I want to hold you,
as a miner holds a diamond,
after years of chipping away at stone,
and left with nothing but
harrowing dreams
of futility.
I want them all to know,
that my efforts were not in vain.
Long passages of suffering,
years of agony,
none of it was wasted.
Because you hid there,
underneath all my ineffectual exertions.
You waited,
patiently,
denying all others,
longing to see if someone, anyone,
would work through sleepless nights
just to reach you.
Then, only then,
would your beauty be on display
for all to see.

But maybe all of this
is wishful thinking.
Maybe you would turn me away
like all the others.
At least you would be free to shine.

Daniel Lockerbie Feb 2018

Twenty-somethings

This is not writing,
this is not art,
this is simply another attempt to quiet the voices
that live in between the cracks in the walls,
and underneath the floors,
slowly slithering their way towards me and
taking up residence comfortably
in an already vacant heart.
But they are not welcome here.

They are the river that cuts through the canyon
of an empty soul,
slowly eroding away day by day.
Let me have another quick fix,
some sort of wicked sustenance
just to make it through.
Despondency rears its ugly head
and opens its gaping maw,
ready to devour another victim.

This heart has been an empty house for years.
I kept the doors and windows wide open
in case any soul would like to come and share the space within.
But despair merely sat in the shadows,
crouching like a predator,
waiting to pounce on its next wounded prey,
and devour it ravenously.

Nov 2017

Jack Jenkins

Six Month Autopsy

i'm a frozen tempest
there's nothing left to bleed
my body is hollowed
emptied of it's essence
a frozen burn from my touch
fire turned to cold ash
spin me
out of control
for i am cold and weary
a broken sculpture
i cannot hear your whispers
my head is split
the veins trail to my heart
where you left your mark
oh how you killed me
with torture
before the killing blow
you said you would grow old with me
but that turned to a lie
you're a desolate soul
looking for hope & love
yet you killed me
i turned to ice
frozen solid
but melting
i still miss you
i still love you
i still hate you
what can i do?
poetry is the only place
i can speak to you
your face reminds me
to
not to trust so much
keep my love at a limit
say "fine" when i'm not
i locked you out of my life
but there's still a draft
that carries your scent
& it lets me know
i'm still hurting
from you
you were my best friend
oh you killed me...

For all my words, I'm still speechless when people ask me why she left...

#best #friend #lost #broken #betrayed #trust #poem #poetry #jack #jenkins

Daniel Lockerbie Nov 2017

Stream of Consciousness

i remember sitting at a table across from you and
listening to words flow from your mouth and
watching your eyes light up
as you talked about your favorite things and
how your lips would curve into a smile but
all i could think of was what it would be like in that moment
to press my own against them

one night i was standing next to you
watching the fireworks on the fourth of july and
you said you wished you could dance
as the lights seemed to do against the night sky but
all i that flashed upon my mind in that instance
was how i wanted to give you that experience

one night i was sitting next to you
against the backdrop of the flickering television static
and you said to me as tears started to form in your eyes
how you were afraid you would never be loved
and you would never find security in someone else's arms but
all my energy was directed in that moment
to stopping my arms from shaking
as i desperately wanted to put them around you.

Daniel Lockerbie Nov 2017

Oceans

You and I were oceans;
we fell into each other,
except neither of us remembered
to come up for air.

Daniel Lockerbie Feb 2017

The Beginning

The greatest note of triumph ever sounded
in a cosmic broken symphony—
"it is finished"—
resounds across the cosmos,
silencing every utterance of penance
still needed to be paid in blood;
a deafening cacophony shuts out
every last blotch of darkness,
cloaked in light by the shape of a cross.
And all at once, your work of striving is silenced.
Your hands shake and streams flow from your eyes,
unable to move, unable to breathe,
every cell within you pulsates with the sound
of terror and of a newfound joy.

Daniel Lockerbie Feb 2017

C'est la Vie

I fell in love with you
the way the sea fell in love
with the shoreline:
relentlessly trying to reach it
but
always being pulled back
by the tide.

#love #unrequited