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Deyer Aug 2013
I don't know about butterflies
                     but
                         I know happiness.
In my stomach,
           I feel only hunger,
                                             fear
                                    and sometimes indigestion;
                                               but never butterflies.
Even when I see her
              and she smiles at me,

I feel happy
                but my stomach is inactive,
                                        silent.
       ­                                   
But
  when our fingers interlock
                     her eyes meet mine
                   and our smiles parallel,

                         I cannot help
                                                  but
      ­                                                   feel at home.
2.5k · Jun 2014
Night and Day
Deyer Jun 2014
Even the darkest night is followed by mo(u)rning
2.4k · Sep 2014
Attention (deficit)
Deyer Sep 2014
Bear with me,
but we are the generation of social consciousness and laziness and internet and poetry and netflix and instant messaging and everything-at-your-fingertips and catchy pop music and brand names and

we often lose sight of what is important,
so I'll keep it short.

Put your phone away,
sit outside for a while.
2.2k · Jul 2014
Fear
Deyer Jul 2014
I’ve heard the footsteps,
following me everywhere
and whispering in my ear

“failure”
And I’ve ignored them for the most part,
but sometimes they cut me off
and I just want to crumble
into a heap on the floor.

Although I sometimes see it as a barrier,
I’ve realized that the doubting voices exist
mostly pushing me forward
to challenge me.
When they gain a little ground and cut me off,
I change directions,
or even push this invisible force to the side
because I love a challenge

and Fear drives me forward.
2.0k · Dec 2013
"Graffiti"
Deyer Dec 2013
we can question the nature of art,
what it means to be beautiful.
I see hopscotch in chalk on sidewalks,
                                          children laughing and playing while a political picture,
à-la-Banksy
stares blankly down at them from a brick wall.
I see that,

and around the corner is a
spraypainted
                          tag
that illuminates the area as existing through poverty
but it doesn't stop
              kids from playing. Even if the city pays a man to take down the
             tag
because adults are afraid.
While we decide what is worth keeping,
can we please remove that
                      hideous hopscotch?
Please, it's poorly drawn, and it leads to
young people
gathering.
And that's scary,

                                                                                                                    right?
1.8k · Jan 2015
Call me the Enemy
Deyer Jan 2015
My heart beeps
and grinds but mechanics
apply WD-40 and I grind no more.
I am plugged in (only to charge now)
and soon I'll be free
to travel as far as the wi-fi
allows.
It's new ish,
my technology
and a lot of people are afraid.
I am not
the Terminator.
I can not
fix myself.
I have no
mind
but
people are afraid
because I'm not what they're used to.
If you fear
me,
then don't watch colour
tv
or
use digital clocks
or
drive an automobile
because they're new ish too,
just like
me.
1.6k · Mar 2014
Sunset
Deyer Mar 2014
I remember that night you met my dad.
     I'd packed it away,
                  like one of the boxes that mom put in the storage locker,
         only to one day bring it back
when I need it most.

I'm not sure I need it most now,
                                             but here it is.
I remember after dinner,
my dad talked to us for about an hour.
And I told him we were going for a walk,
because he was a little drunk,
       and he loved to tell his stories.
I remember standing at the lookout,
                             my arm around your waist;
I knew I loved you then,
     but I didn't say it.
That was a perfect moment,
                           forever in my memory

But if I had known it was the first and last time
you'd meet my dad,
I'd never have mentioned that walk.

For another average moment with both
                            you and my dad,

             I'd throw away that perfect walk,
that beautiful sunset.
1.4k · Jul 2014
Money or Happiness
Deyer Jul 2014
With leaders and life coaches
          mental doctors
they must have discovered the
                                                                                 Right
way to live.

With dreams broken down
crushed into a dust,
and structurally analyzed,
                                              they must know.
We exist from 9 to 5, monday to friday,
breathing in and out only for a

bi-weekly

paycheck.

Our lives revolve around
                                             one thing.
Religion has taken a backseat to this new obsession
that people fight and die for.
Now, we battle over
paper and metal,
pressed into coins, printed as bills.
Kind of makes you wonder
why you are
really

here.
1.2k · Sep 2014
Sirens
Deyer Sep 2014
Sirens will sit, stand, sprint, and lay with you,
if you let them.
Sirens whisper of an incoming life
while sometimes, on the same night,
discussing one that is outgoing.
Sirens have told the people of Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and Dresden
that their air would be turned to ash,
sooner rather than later.
Sirens pull you to the side of the road
to tell you that you're going too fast,
so maybe slow down a little.

Now modern Sirens have taken the face of man,
the voice of man.
They whisper not to the sailors;
but to the people in their cars,
in their places of work
and in their homes.
(buy my product)
(become a member)
(Listen to Me.)
Maybe control is swaying
and man is being changed,
persuaded to
sit, stand, sprint and lay
with Sirens.
1.2k · Feb 2015
Not Written from 20,000 Feet
Deyer Feb 2015
We climb mountains and buildings
and risk everything - well, some of us -
                                                                   for what?
For achievement? For a good story to impress girls?
For pride? Because no one else has?
No,

           it must be something more.
We climb into spaceships and airplanes and
elevators
          to be higher than anyone else,
      to see things that have never been seen,

                  and to be further than anything
                                  than anyone
before.

We climb to improve, to live, to love,
and because up is unlimited.
1.1k · Apr 2014
Droplets
Deyer Apr 2014
Buckets filled with tears,
          filled with effort and sweat,
            blood and exhaustion,
will fill a well-used life,
                                like a small apartment with a leaky roof.
This apartment is dark,
                                         dreary, and nothing more could fit.
Pain is written on the walls,
  stress lines the floorboards.

Sure, you could move to a new place,
    one with clean walls,
                  empty spaces to walk,
    a TV with satellite,
    but you stay in this dark hole in the wall,
because it's yours.

Through all the sweat,
                     the buckets filled with negativity,
       the dreams turned to nightmares,
a single droplet, glistening like the sun,
         appears to descend, stopping

just beyond your reach.

No matter how many buckets, tables and chairs you pile up,
it sits, staring down at you.

One day, this hope,
        this unprecedented sense of achievement
     falls,
  landing softly on your tongue.

The taste is unlike any other,
   and the pain melts away.
      The blood, sweat, the tears,
         all become necessary.
The dingy apartment
     is well-lit, clean,
     and the pursuit of this perfect droplet
becomes The ideal.
This second of sweetness
                      makes bitter fade to memory,
                      makes the darkness warm and bright,
illuminating existence.
1.1k · Jan 2016
Student Whimsy
Deyer Jan 2016
Pizza boxes sit at curb sides every thursday.
Bottles and cans fill most weekends, some
week days because why not?
We celebrate in ***** rooms, letting liquids leave all sorts of stains.
Semesters pass and we pass (sometimes),
with nothing left in our pockets but long-term debt, friendly conversations lost in the haze of moderate alcoholism, and memories that we feel will last forever.
Youth is wasted on the young, they say,
but what better way to spend a Tuesday than day-drinking in eternal ecstasy?
966 · Apr 2015
Praying for Yesterday
Deyer Apr 2015
The ash will fall, settling silent
                   while the barrels cool.
          No noise will come as the last
head hits dirt.                
No words, no amount of
      prayer will set still hearts in motion.
                      No deaf ears will continue to ignore
at that point,
     and no one will wonder
about the meaning of it all.
With all weapons,
hearts,
                     and minds settled,
maybe then
we'll
finally learn.
961 · Feb 2016
Birthing a Poet
Deyer Feb 2016
It's so easy
to write while grief spews from
the greatest depths of your character.
Everyone, too,
needs to read about the heartbreak,
the lingering heartache that makes
life decisions feel like clouds.
And it's so easy to give in
and put pitied pen to paper,
and the beautiful only
blossoms with agony, angst, and anger.
Infrequently, though,
can you really find the blood curdling words
that turn ache into anything but
agony. Only then
is a poet born.
859 · Aug 2016
Deep Blue Ego
Deyer Aug 2016
we were tired of the unknown,
tired of the mocking
deep blue, so we
peeled back the ocean
like an old band-aid on scarred skin,
just to see what sat beneath.
and we were
satisfied, our egos boosted,
because it was our ruins
cast across the ocean floor,
it was our waste
that the band-aid
was hiding.
843 · Jan 2018
20XX til XXXX
Deyer Jan 2018
Impose no barricade.
There's no sense in waiting til the countdown ends.
There will always be another. 2018 is my year. 2020 is my year. 3001 is my year.
I'm on no golden throne here. I wait too, continuously, patiently, hoping tomorrow is brighter.
It won't be. I know it, you do too. Tomorrow never comes. We keep up our waiting, deciding that we're invincible and that time, this slowly crawling, aching forward sense of loss does not apply to us. It does.
Still, there's one way to not suffer such great a loss. We have
to make life worth our time. No more 'one day'. Be what you want. Do the thing.
A new year is not a reset. It is not a new beginning. When we decide to start chasing whatever it is that we need to be, that's when it starts.
842 · Jan 2016
Bar Stars and Lying Smiles
Deyer Jan 2016
All I see at bars is bouncing, smiles,
and laughter full of sad eyes and
repression.
A bunch of lonely
                 people
                        looking
for a warm night and a cold morning.
Connections built to a beat, and you
      have to blame
all parties
because that's what bars are for.
A house of human fluid,
dank floors filled with
feet and fluttering hearts,
moving parts when all
any of us needs
is a real caring conversation.
A real daring contemplation,
I know, but though I'm a young
anomoly, I honestly believe
these thieves of youth are used to their
dishonest truths.

We don't even know it's a problem.
804 · Feb 2016
Mid February
Deyer Feb 2016
A leaf clings helplessly as all its

companions grow weary

and weak and let their

holds fail.

This leaf

refuses, despite great

winds and storms of both

rain and snow. It holds on

and I'm reminded every time I walk

on by, that the battle is well worth

the effort.

Hold on,
           lonely leaf.
748 · Jan 2017
What made my home
Deyer Jan 2017
tonight we reminisced
about pets loved and lost and a few that we
found again. and though
decades
have gone by, and we have travelled roads
with different destinations, we're still brought
back by the fur babies that made our
home whole. our source the same,
we
will always be held together by at
least that much
737 · Mar 2015
Sadness: A definition
Deyer Mar 2015
It rests indignantly behind eyes,
and in the creases that hold them in place.
It's a permanent gaze,
a glazing of hope and health and most of all,
it's a loss.

Embedded in failed careers and lost dreams is this
listlessness, this blisslessness that some
try so desperately to hide.
I know some don't try to mask their masks
and I'm sure that most don't know
the parasite from their own
black sparkling souls.
The diamonds in their eyes have lost their purpose,
and pupils cannot regain their lustre
easily.
It takes divine intervention or more,
whatever that means,
to shine on darkness.

And sometimes no amount of sunlight
lets broken souls glisten; for that
I have no answer.
I was feeling pretty upbeat when I wrote this, I have no explanation really.
720 · Feb 2016
A Proposal
Deyer Feb 2016
I know that fire
fades to ember,
and that ember
cools to coal,
and that coal
is pushed to diamond
with enough pressure.
684 · Mar 2016
Windex
Deyer Mar 2016
My landlord is renovating the neighboring room.
I inhale, eyes closed, and I'm faced with God. Unable to speak, I listen as he tells me that life is worth living and that love is worth loving. He says that I'm doing pretty well despite the circumstances and that often an ounce of a smile is worth ten tonnes of agony.
I inhale, bleach and other cleaning solutions siphoning reality from my extremities, replacing it with a calming alternative.
675 · Jan 2015
The Warmth of Winter
Deyer Jan 2015
Fatigue comes and goes
as it pleases.
It comes early in the mornings after I've hit snooze
four times,
and it lingers long after.
It breathes
d
o
w
n
my spine,
taking power from already aching muscles.
It works at my body throughout the day,
but my mind
still
has the power to wander
through the night.
My body builds up its walls
but it cannot fight this ever-present force.
My mind seems to slip beyond the
wretched grasps,
even though I sometimes wish
fatigue would put my mind at rest,
if only
for a little while.
673 · Jul 2016
It Ain't My Place
Deyer Jul 2016
To talk about race.
It ain't my place
to talk about murdering innocent people.
It ain't my place
to talk about chaos.
It ain't my place
to act in anger; it ain't my place.

It ain't my pace,
to heave headfirst into battle with a burst of hatred.
It's dated. Antiquated. Don't devastate the devastated.
It seems senseless to fight this menace
that is our own. That we have grown
using ignorance.

It ain't my place
to presume to know what anyone is going through.
So to you and you and you,
I'll take a step back before I raise and fire
the crack of a whip
that is born from hatred.
I refuse to take the bait
of the crimson painted faces
whose hopes are killed at the hands
of their brothers. I refuse
to fire back, bullets crack
at the community
filled with emotional action.
It's wasteful, and frankly faithful people
look to each other. So look.
667 · Aug 2016
Caregiver
Deyer Aug 2016
Some days she comes home
sad, having ushered one of
her patients into the big sleep.
And she pours a drink, sometimes
telling us the medical side and
sometimes half asleep after the
first sip. And sometimes she
won't come home 'til 7 hours
after her shift, 'cause the evening
nurse didn't show and she has
paperwork to do (and management
has gone home, so she can relax
a bit), and we keep dinner
in the microwave cause even
saints gotta eat.
And her mom is becoming her
favorite patient, requiring
extra patience because my grandma
was a doctor. And she's now 92
with a failing heart and a mind
that can't quite hold on to what
it used to. And my mom is gonna
hold her hand, calmly carrying
another weakened, time-stricken
soul on her weight-thickened shoulders,
to the vacant hole that holds the
after. And she'll do it not 'cause
she has to, because all she's
ever done
                 is care.
635 · Mar 2016
Bum
Deyer Mar 2016
***
Today, I ate rice
and sauce. I woke up at 2 PM
and decided to shower
tomorrow
maybe.
I brushed my teeth, spat on the brim
of the sink, and
left it.
I went to
0
of my classes
just cause
I think it might
be cold out.
629 · Mar 2016
Giving Meaning to my Matter
Deyer Mar 2016
I sit high on my Mount Olympus,
a chair from Staples with an Executive
appearance (so the box said). I'm faced
with a vacant canvas, and the knowledge
that one day,                                                
I won't have time to fill it.
1A
I decide then to fill it with whatever
comes to mind. Stars sparkle from my
fingertips after painting the whole thing
mostly black. I place them in shapes
that could be confused for a belt, a warrior,
a goat, or a saucepan to those without
vision. I pause, placing large reptiles
on a green and blue dot that floats
around one of the smaller stars. It entertains
me for a short while, but I decide to
start anew with a smaller, weaker, but
smarter animal.                        
And then I observe.
I watch as first they stand upright,
their distant relatives still using sticks
to catch ants in their homes.                
They spark stones using friction, and
I'm delighted while feeling my first tinge
of fear, for I sprinkled my own intellect in them
like stars on a black canvas.

They thrive, expanding out in every direction
until they share air, exhaling while others
breathe in their exhaust.

I watch as they cut all the greens, take
clean and cover it with cement. They burn
the core, slowly, to power machines that
take them anywhere. They fight; oh how
they fight.
        The core dissipates and they fight over
it, and they fight over me and I don't
understand. All their ideas are the same,
other than those who assume that they
are in my favour . . . Location, as I've
grown to see, impacts culture; it can not create
hate.
They look to me, pray to me,
and I can hardly intervene. A new
world, it seems, is all that I could do . . .

1B
I think of my dad, who left a thousand
jokes yet to be told. Before I paint or print,
I think and think and nothing comes.
Then I paint the sky with tiny points
of white, wasting no more time on thinking.
A scene opens up before me, and it
consumes everything
that I am, or that I ever will be.

I paint my own light into the dark
abyss, bliss kissing my cheeks as
my working wrist grows weak.
I write, if only to last a second
longer than my body. I write
to continue (to matter).
625 · Jul 2016
Headlights at Dusk
Deyer Jul 2016
The headlights, as always,
were blinding.
The End
was carried in discomfort between us,
its warm air pushing sweat
from our pores.
Some lost cells lead us to this point,
the word "tumor" hanging
                        numb
                        in the air.
There, we had no choice
       but to leave the conversation;
       unsatisfied, but now
       more aware of what lingers
       in the shadows cast by
       headlights at dusk.
611 · Dec 2015
Sprinkled Heaven
Deyer Dec 2015
Until snow speckles the skies,
winter hides joy from colour-laden eyes.
There's no sparkle
from October to December,
as leaves lose their lustre,
as beaches become wastelands,
as sun-tanned skin fades to pale.

When stars finally fall to the earth as
flakes,
darkness is shaken away. Skin quivers
with the cold,
shivers growing more common and less discrete.
Little flecks of brilliance
reach down to the blinded,
returning vision to those
who hope only for a little bit of colour.
The first one to touch your nose,
having
come from the heavens,
describes more colourful times.

"Patience," it whispers.
604 · Mar 2017
Death and Traffic
Deyer Mar 2017
A car speeds down the highway;
an aching heart beats on despite constant
complaints. The car veers left on a straight road, tires spinning on gravel;
the heart housed in, surrounded by
disease. Slow, plodding, it beats a little slower
with every passing day. Momentum
carries the car, spinning then rolling,
bits and pieces flying in all directions; the heart grows weaker still, others keep coming because a dying heart shouldn't beat alone. The car takes one final flip,
settling upside down, glass broken, seatbelts still in place, dents, scratches, scrapes and newfound bruises; the heart is slower still,
pained peace settling until, veins showing, baggy eyes, wrinkled hands, it stops. The car, leaving black marks on straight highway; the heart leaving a slightly different imprint. It all
stops,
598 · Aug 2016
ache with experience
Deyer Aug 2016
embrace the bruises. embrace the aches that emanate from the surface of your skin. embrace the broken bones that come from the sum of your experience. embrace life's tattoos, the proof that you have used your time; the proof that you didn't just cruise through, unscathed and unafraid.
embrace the disease that coarses through your veins; embrace the pain that brought you here today.
if we were meant to end, heaven sent without a scrape, don't you think that scars would fade away at day's end?
593 · Jul 2014
Heartache
Deyer Jul 2014
When my dad had a heart attack,
              His friends bought him a LazyBoy
                                                reclining chair,
as if to say

"rest up, buddy

we've got your back."
                                        Now a man myself,
               I know that my friends

would pitch for a chair,
too.
587 · Oct 2014
check the Last Line
Deyer Oct 2014
My question started with Rives and Op Talk.
Only an idea at first, a spark,
convention that I can not help but mock
because spark rhymes with hark and bark and narc.

Write to make the bones of Shakespeare shiver
and this is awful but who is to say
that a young artist cannot deliver,
cannot produce a lyrical ballet?

It is not important. But it is special
because I cannot speak and speak and speak
and the world is not always so gentle
to warrant an outlook so very bleak.

Not all of the lines will always rhyme like
A sonnet sonnet sonnet sonnet has to.
570 · Oct 2015
Between Marketing and HR
Deyer Oct 2015
Sometimes I feel like a shadow, merely
flowing through the background,
affected by light and dark and not
really
changing anything.
Sometimes I feel like a
supporting actor,
unimportant
though I'm writing the script.
Sometimes I pretend to believe
in something greater,
just to make the day pass
with a little less friction.
Sometimes I write sad poems
about things I don't really believe
just to pass the time between classes.
551 · Jan 2016
Small Bird
Deyer Jan 2016
Bay Street Bus Terminal at 2:23 PM

A small bird travels between the feet, one joyful hop at a time. It's accustomed to the careless giants that move about,
and it knows nothing but doors and trick glass and steel and cement. I doubt
it's ever seen a natural, unabashed forest in its lifetime. Nor have I, but I belong to
the rapists of land, molesting everything natural that should ever cross our paths. I'm not an exception, I type poems
on my smartphone and wear nothing but name brands, I travel by burning oil and I consume everything from plastic cases and my protein comes from animals
that sit in cages, their feet crushing old food and new ****, but I don't like to think about it. So I won't,

and I'll keep on enjoying the company of a small bird that can't even conceptualize a forest.
527 · Jul 2017
There is a quietness
Deyer Jul 2017
in crowding. the air swells, too
big to fit the most developed lungs.
Isolation creeps between the living,
making any movement seem
well beyond possible. Here,
I, and likely you, feel both
alone and smothered, helpless and
aware
that sometimes no effort is too
great. Soon, but not too
soon, hopefully, we
will be enveloped.
505 · Jan 2015
God must be human
Deyer Jan 2015
God must be human
because
I didn't really cry at my uncle's funeral
because
I couldn't stop crying at my dad's
because
a girl I went to highschool with just died, she was 22.
God must be human
because
mistakes have been made
because
World War
because
I can't seem to remember my locker combination.
God must be human
because
I look just like my dad
because
every day is a reminder that he's gone
because
that couldn't have been intentional.
God must be human
because
no omnipotent being would allow for such destruction
because
no omniscient being would ignore such destruction
because
no omnibenevolent being would withhold goodness.
God must be human
because
because
because
because
I am.
498 · Jul 2016
Wipe Yourself Clean
Deyer Jul 2016
Get up.
Put on clean pants, a clean shirt.
Brush your teeth, god ******, and floss em
too.
I know, today the demons are howling
poison in a ceaseless ringing in your skull; every appendage aching heartily with each movement. Keep moving. Don't be
consumed by it. Don't listen.
Drink your morning coffee, have
your morning ****. Wipe til the paper runs clean.
Get up - go outside.
Breathe deep; count to a thousand, listen to the wind in the leaves and the honking of busy people that can't wait. Listen to the soft coo of morning doves and listen to the ceaseless coarsing of blood as it runs in circles throughout your body.
Watch birds float, intertwined in a back-and-forth that may be familiar. Watch them
swoop this way and that, pecking and chirping.
Get up.
I'm pleading, begging
please get up.
If not right now, if not today,
when?
497 · Apr 2017
Drowning
Deyer Apr 2017
I wade through the shockwaves,
Searching through lost toys and
Broken boards, old doors, a stuffed bear
And rotting memories.
They all slip by, my fingers
Reaching but never finding.
The noise is too great; the waves too
High. I can not
Search through all of this,
Surely tomorrow holds
The story I hope to
remember.
474 · Feb 2015
A Hanging
Deyer Feb 2015
Man will hang from his own creations
with the pain taken a little more
as every shaking twitch finds its fit,
crawling down the spine.
Every aching itch flaking away
with every passing day.
The chord pulls tight under the weight of mankind,
and one day man may find their loss, but I guess
hindsight sees all.
Find sight, see all.
Find might, be all.

But maybe that's the problem. Too busy searching
for the cause of the ache to pause and wake to what
we've created.
Self-medicated, in need of a mediator
with the creator hiding between our ears.
I hope one day it's clear that our destiny rests in
me and you, I hope that we drop the dope and
clear the smoke that's choking us to death.
Trying some stuff with rhyme, experimenting. I hope you enjoy it.
470 · Mar 2016
The Beat
Deyer Mar 2016
I sit in a coffee shop
pump pump pump
goes my chest
pump pump pump
goes my diaphragm
pump pump pump
goes these hiccups
pump pump pump
it's rhythmic and
pump pump pump
obtrusive.
2. I lay in bed
pump pump pump
unconscious, unresponsive.
pump pump pump
A stranger presses two
pump pump pump
metal paddles to my chest.
pump pump pump
It's rhythmic and
pump pump pump
obtrusive and
pump pump pump
temporary.
465 · Mar 2014
Crossfire
Deyer Mar 2014
I had an idea
that guns should shoot in both directions when fired,
to rid the world of assailants intent on


killing

another human being.

To the public, I still think
                   this an effective method.
To military men and women,
                   this is no solution.

           They fire on orders,
they fire on enemies of the state
they fire because they have to.

I think that for every shot fired on an 'enemy',
                           politicians should be shot.
Non-fatal, of course.
   Just a warning,
                 so these decision makers
                   can truly understand the

                                      cost
of war.
465 · Apr 2014
people of Importance
Deyer Apr 2014
all of these Important
people
walking to and from their Important
jobs,
talking on their Important
cellphones
about the upcoming Important
meeting...
   i
   n  
   t
People
   r
   t
   w
   i
   n
   e
   d

with their Important,
            complicated lives.

Their importance
           showing through their fancy attire, their better-than-you attitude.
   If they're all so IMPORTANT,
Why is it that I feel like I stand apart,

in my jeans and t-shirt?
460 · Mar 2016
Waterfall
Deyer Mar 2016
Deep into the forest, where none
but paws seem to wander, water
cascades over rocks, connecting
two streams. Heard from a distance,
it howls as crashing bubbles form
and fade under the weight. No
rubber boots displace this current,
and they never will. Still,
fur-covered faces scamper all about
as bliss is carried through the trees
by whispering wind.
460 · Apr 2014
4/5 Senses
Deyer Apr 2014
If you would lead me until death,
I'd give up my vision.
This sense only, so the others could strengthen.
I'd never see another sunset,
only to hear your heartbeat louder as you lay next to me.
I'd never read Bukowski or Cummings again,
only to hear you whisper the poetry of your day,
softly, perfectly.

To taste your lips on mine,
just a little sweeter- who am I kidding,
nothing
could be sweeter.
To inhale and be convinced of our togetherness,
despite the distance that is between us at times,
I could go without watching the hummingbirds
that float from flower to flower,
every spring.

To feel your hand in mine, fingers interlocked,
I would close my eyes forever.

In my seeing nothing, you would close one eye
because I am you, you are me,
together we would halfway see.
453 · Jan 2016
(Take a) Pass On shame
Deyer Jan 2016
Generations change.
People didn't trust the radio or newspapers or television or social media or or
Or
anything new, at first.
And some people don't see the comedy
in posting why the next generation is unsuccessful on social media,
but it's there just as
the next generation is, and as their trends will be.
Change is not scary, I'm
telling you that it's coming and
fear, in this case, is a waste of time.
447 · Nov 2016
Apple Aches
Deyer Nov 2016
fresh peaches in lined baskets, ordered
apples in individual grooves,
potatoes at three dollars for a one pound
bag. a mom pushes a wobbly cart as her
toddler reaches for
and grabs whatever is in front of her
Honey, no
but she doesn't get discouraged. An onion
floats into het hands while mom grabs and
bags green beans, and the toddler takes a
bite.
She launches the 7/8ths disgusting
as far as she can throw,
it crashes at the feet
of an older man with a walker. He looks
up, angry, then laughing
a skin crawling scream
fills the produce section, the mom
coddles her bundle of tears,
and they don't really subside
til she's home, snacking on apple slices
and watching tv while mom
puts away groceries and cooks
roast beef in a bed of garlic, onions, and
peaches, a family recipe
422 · May 2018
Hold on
Deyer May 2018
Death is
one of a kind.
It takes adults, sure-handed through years of experience, and leaves them stumbling as toddlers. It takes love and makes a memory. It takes all that you value and slowly breaks it down. It is indifferent, sometimes unrelenting, and fires in any direction at any given moment.

All this, but

It can be more than just a vacant space.
It's hard to see in the moment, or even after, but death also means more than loss. It means you've had something worth missing. It means that every day prior to meeting death in any capacity, you had something valuable.

It's easy to see the vacant space that held your family, but not all vacant space has to be empty. It can be a reminder of the endless nights of laughter, the endless days of adventure. This is a reminder that canvas filled with your shared story is worth something, and will remain valuable as long as you still
remember.

just hold on, nothing is lost
418 · Dec 2015
Rest
Deyer Dec 2015
The dog has to ****.
The whole city sleeps.
The dog won't go more than five feet
from me.
I walk five feet from a bush, listening
as the buildings slowly inhale, pause,
and let out a restful breeze.
He sniffs the bush, apparently unaware
of the cold.
I look up, naked branches catching
my eyes and the breeze. They shiver
as white flakes of heavens tears
fall softly all around. The dog finishes
his business, then comes for some
attention. The city still sleeps,
time stands still, and we go back inside.
415 · Feb 2016
Too Soon for Sunshine
Deyer Feb 2016
Sleet seems to fall in sheets.
It covers all, sometimes even a blooming
rose on a cold Spring (or warm Winter) day.
New life, now passed but still preserved.
It seems to evade death,
only until the sun returns from
behind the clouds. The icy casket melts.
It leaves behind a wilted image of
circumstance.
Some flowers wilt too soon
only to be remembered as gemstones
that brought
colour
to a glazed wasteland.
****, that was unexpected
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