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Jan Reest Aug 27
stomped out
bonfire
cleaved lips
soft kisses
bruises
with hickeys
kissing you better
tips of my fingers
tracing
my suffering onto you
your skin a map
I long for home
Jan Reest Aug 27
Smiling at you,
your eyes lowered,
stitched to your shoes,
while your lips invite me,
already aware
of what moves inside me.

I unfasten you
with the slow flutter
of my lashes,
peeling you open
breath by breath,
learning the shape
of your desire
as if it were my own.
Jan Reest Aug 27
A fenced suburban dream
where we raised hyacinths,
and you had a faint smile
under the July sun,
under your cowboy hat.

Breath seeps from me
as I lay on the wet tile,
thinking of you.

Someday, I swear,
we can do everything we want to.
And we can pet the crocodiles.

Every day I think of
untwisting and untangling
these strings I’m in.

Every day I think
of taking your hand
and slaying all who stand in my way.

All these thoughts
have led me
to this cul-de-sac.
Jan Reest Aug 27
Condemned—
the mimes
count their beads,
a penance
well deserved.

Provocateurs soar
like Icarus—
lilies budding
from the orifice of evil,
flora and fauna
rising in my lungs.

Old coots clutch purses,
mourners cradle roses.
I have seen them all,
and heard
their prayers rot in the throat.
Jan Reest Aug 23
Man in a grave,
surrounded on all fronts —
by trinkets used day to day.
Who belongs to whom?
Who is the master?
Who is the slave?

Flesh and bones
wither away like morning mist —
yet, pottery remains.
It's intricate patterns
speak an ancient tongue.

Even steel corrodes,
and yet, pottery remains.
Mud buried in mud,
it retains it's sapient form.

Beneath it all,
what is the purpose?
Jan Reest Aug 20
love
sold away for a meager sum

love
that I don't keep for myself

love
that I bestow with bottomless abundance

love
that I deny myself

love
that finds me

love
that takes away
Jan Reest Aug 17
Cold noodles await
a starved soul.

Death,
delivered over the phone.

Take out.
Take out.
Take out.

It’s gone cold.
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