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541 · Feb 2013
A Word To The Wise
Elise Feb 2013
A word to the wise:
When I tell you that
I woke up at 4 am
It doesn't mean I couldn't sleep
It means I'm miserable
It means I hurt
And I guess I've brought this on myself
Seeing as though I just wanted a hug
But arms are never long enough to reach me
When I need it most
I know I'm awful
And when you tell me to smile
It feels wrong on my mouth sometimes
You seem to get exasperated telling me I look beautiful
In the pictures that I'm taking
Just to show you
I'm together
In my eyes being broken can not touch the face of beauty
And you say its to early to be sad
But you don't know its already been 5
Hours
How I've already fought back tears
While you
Were still asleep
Depression doesn't choose a time of day
Usually
I didn't want to tell you but now the minutes we're apart
Scream
We've been wasted
When all I wanted was a hug
And you just wanted a smile
A slightly different direction
540 · Feb 2014
Untitled
Elise Feb 2014
the sky looks like cheap wine
mixed with water
that was always my uncles favorite drink
he said he couldn't risk dying
on his two sons
just for a party
and I respected him for that
if I was ever to drink
it would be cheap wine
mixed with water
as a tribute to his solace
he just needed a hint
of what he was missing
he used to drink when he was married
and I'm still not sure what happened behind those closed doors
but he came out divorced
with a liver problem
occasionally I write about my family in tiny little bursts
532 · Sep 2014
Along the Edge
Elise Sep 2014
Back when fate was something so true we could hold it in our atlas laced hands things might have been different.
You may think that life can only be an ever consuming sleep but I wish to remind you that does not inhibit us from dreaming.
I believe that one day I will wake up with a knowing;
grasping at any tendril of that which may have been left behind,
with unconsciousness still lingering in my vision.
We learn, criticize and hope
laying in piles of uncreated art.
It is a sad comfort to be human;
a relief much comparable to tearing yourself from a particularly terrible dream.
And we will startle,
again and again,
repeating lines for emphasis,
until we find the truth.
It is then that the dream is over and we return to what is.
I'll talk about God until I meet him in the middle.
I'll talk about God until he comes to me in that dream.

I sleep on my stomach with my back to the stars
and I send my condolences to the moon.
526 · Mar 2013
Je Suis Le Vent
Elise Mar 2013
Take me into your skin
I am the air
Inhale me into your lungs
I’ll help you breathe
Keep me under your wings
And just float
522 · Sep 2013
9/25/13
Elise Sep 2013
A boy I knew was abandoned by the love of his life today, after two years
And all he said about it was:

"Funny thing love is"

And as I passed the grave yard driving home I saw an old woman whose hands were clasped in front of her, praying for the love of her life to come back home

"Funny thing love is"
small&sad; (like me)
514 · Oct 2015
Waves
Elise Oct 2015
It was May
and I was drunk
and I was sitting on a rock somewhere far away from my mind
and my heart and all those other things that you need to survive.
I was thinking about the ocean
and time
and how much my feet hurt.
You see,
I had walked all the way out there
to look at the waves and lost my shoes
along with my mind and my heart and
they’re probably swimming out there somewhere;
I’ve just lost sight of them.
The ocean is funny and sad
when you hold it in your hands your fingers can either feel like they own the world
or as if the world can, at any moment, slip through the cracks.
Time is funny too,
and like the ocean,
you can only hold a little in your hands.
In other ways it’s not like the ocean at all,
trying drinking Time and I’ll think you’re on some drug that I’d like to get my hands on.
People describe time and the ocean similarly
and for some reason I think I’ve got it figured out
but I’ve got it figured out in only the way someone sitting on a rock in the middle of the night with no shoes and heart can.
They describe the ocean and time by telling us about how enormous it is,
they try to tell us how deep it is,
how wide it is,
how tall it is.
They can stand up and tell us facts about the beginnings of it and how they think it will end but when you look at the fine print both of them say that they have about 90% left to be discovered.
When you look out at time or the ocean who is to say how much your seeing?
Is the the horizon over there or is it just how far my eyes will reach? Can I predict the tides and the sky and the next person to stumble around the corner?
Maybe I should just go to sleep.
this may or may not have saved me
513 · Feb 2013
Forrest of Eyes
Elise Feb 2013
We were always wrong                    
We were wrong in thinking our hearts were in our chests
They must be in our feet guiding us down our path
The trees that stand strong and silent never told us that they knew where we would end up
Most men search for immortality
If only they knew
There is no way to live forever
until
The trees grow of iron    
And
Mens hearts grow of stone
500 · Jan 2013
Infinite Blue
Elise Jan 2013
Come sleep with me in the ocean
We can wash all your fears away
We'll forget all about the world outside
I'll even hold your hand so you can't drift away
Come float with me in the ocean
We can escape this place
If we dive into the ocean
Maybe everything will be okay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYwImiZp0iw
488 · Mar 2014
A Cigarette and A Sword
Elise Mar 2014
the first thing I want to tell you is:
I was always jealous of those kids who had glow in the dark stars
that they put on their ceiling
they could create their own personal paradise
and I wanted that power
to create something to stare at during the night
and if I can't play with the sky
I'll settle for plastic
and some tape
when you put your hands in the sky
some might call it playing god
but I'd like to think of it as creativity

you talk about God as if he was holding a cigarette
and
I talk about him as if he was holding a sword
but what if we combined them
a man
dragging a sword through new york
leaning against it on street corners
and asking for a light
they would wonder
wouldn't they
who he was
jeans
some armor
but only enough to cover his battle scars

It's becoming a right of passage
to pass out on the floor
someday
I think I'll wake up
under the sky
and when I look to my right
I'll see a man
with a cigarette
and a sword
that's when I know
that I've made it
I may smile to myself
comforted by the fact
it seems we all end up
on our backs facing the sky

God included
488 · Feb 2013
Each Shade Of Blue
Elise Feb 2013
Take my hand
Remember when...
I asked you what color the sky was
Both then and now when you told me the answer I realized
I love you
And those perfect words you spoke were exactly what I had in my heart
You should never trust anyone that says the sky is just simply blue
Good thing you said "it's every color depending on how you look"
I knew it
We've come a long way from March to February
But not so long that we don't remember the beginning
I know the ****** is always at the end
But..
If we want this to last maybe we can go back to that beginning again
Maybe this time we will remember to slow down at all our favorite parts
I know life won't always be perfect
But I do believe if we hold on tight we'll hold each other together
I promise I won't let go
I promise with the sky as my witness
Because it's not everyday you find someone who can see
The true colors of the sky
NCM
487 · Nov 2013
Depression
Elise Nov 2013
There must be something
heartbreakingly beautiful
or
wild
or  
brilliant
about sadness
that I am not privy to
for my body
simply cannot seem to get enough
pain is a terrible addiction of mine
477 · Jul 2013
star dust
Elise Jul 2013
You traced the marks on my back and told me they looked like the big dipper
I wanted to tell you that your eyes shone brighter than any orbs of light we have desperately tried to make into
constellations
We have created stories for every star
Put so much thought into every light in the sky
Just to wish on them as they fall
When in reality

The north star is going to fall someday
And you'll still find your way just fine
I do not love you anymore
470 · May 2014
Metaphor
Elise May 2014
the world sits on the tips of peoples tongues
one day someone might talk a little too fast
and it will fall off
but until then we will be content to look for it in others eyes that we might happen to see while walking down a sidewalk

this is what searching for love is

we all hope to catch a glimpse of the world between cracked fingers
or within the echoes of thoughts we pick up from crowds
but I believe the best way to find love is to wait
wait on the edge of the room
wait between the silences
wait until the night has broken
eventually you will find the world rolling across the floor
with a mouth wide open
and eyes
shut
I have been gone for too long
459 · Sep 2013
After The Fall
Elise Sep 2013
Shh it was just a slip of the tongue
I never meant to tell you
Everything
Or
Anything
But the words slipped in between my ribs
And while trying to stop everything from spilling out
I think I bled all over your favorite sweater and it was obvious that I am not as alive as I say I am      
I never meant to hurt you
It was just a slip of the tongue      
And it all came crashing down
448 · Jul 2013
Transmissions
Elise Jul 2013
I'm not doing this to hurt you

I used to have a philosophy
Much like mass I thought pain was neither created nor destroyed
Merely transferred from one to another
Constantly circling
And I thought if I hurt it would take away the pain of others

Before I went to sleep I would curl up in a ball imagining that I was taking the pain out of a child's scraped knee,  or giving peace to a man's last breath,  or saving you from a couple more tears
I slept with a smile on my face

I'm not doing this to hurt you

All I ever wanted to do was good
and now I can't seem to stop
443 · Jun 2013
thoughts
Elise Jun 2013
I seem to think that if I start to wear a hole in the carpet I’ll have cleared my head but it always seems like I just end up with blisters on my feet and more holes in my chest than in the ground. And it’s hard because I feel like I am forcing myself to get over something that one does not simply get over in one night for someone who I should have given the time of day to years ago. It would have made my life much simpler but yet here I am stuck walking back and forth with nothing in my hands or my heart that makes any sense to me at all. I feel mostly empty and the walls are starting to look kind of sad and maybe if I scream loud enough the echoes will be the glue that keeps my mask together because ****** I’m trying my best to be strong. And I’m caught in a web of who knows what just hoping that I can see straight long enough to make the right decisions and who knows if my vision is even correct. I might need glasses, soul glasses. Clarity is something I struggle with and unfortantely no amount of back and forth is going to help me in any way but I would like to think it does. The path on the carpet is softer than the rest and maybe because of that I think about how this path is making my life feel more soft on my feet also. The blisters are just here to remind me that takes work. But I don’t want to work I wish everything turned out the way I thought it would a couple months ago, but life is never that simple. I did realize that I loved you for the way we interacted while both being ourselves and although I can do that with a lot of people with you it was different and the connection we had I will never get back with anyone. My music teacher told me that you never really get over anyone and I am starting to think that is true but how can I move on if this isn’t ever over?
I want to wait for you but everyone and everything is telling me I shouldn’t
I almost fell to the ground when I saw you yesterday
Love is tearing me apart
417 · Feb 2013
Sleep.30w.
Elise Feb 2013
As you wrap your arms around me
Breathe into my aching lungs
Reach beneathe my skin
Touch my soul with your fingertips
Leave me with traces of you
NCM
413 · Feb 2013
Damage
Elise Feb 2013
Put your hand down
You cannot break me
For I have already broken myself in much greater ways
Than your hands
Could even begin
To think about
411 · Sep 2013
Human After All
Elise Sep 2013
I used to hold you up so high
until you let me down
I used to think if I pulled back the skin on your ribs all I would see was a blinding light
Sadly
You are only human

And even the best of us forget
I was mistaken
406 · Jul 2013
Mind The Edge
Elise Jul 2013
I wish I could have been what you needed
But sadly I am only a collection of chemical reactions between synapses that are just a little too far apart
Left to wonder why something that makes us so alive can **** us with one misstep

I think you must have smiled when you pushed me into the waves below

Drown me in the one thing that keeps me breathing
one last time
394 · Feb 2013
But maybe I wasn't meant to
Elise Feb 2013
I'm no good at remembering how to breathe
I didn't when you kissed me
I didn't when I was told all men die
I didn't when the beauty of the world revealed itself to me
The air caught in my throat
If not I might have spoken and killed the silence that hangs between words              

I'm no good at remembering how to breathe
Just maybe, that's how it should be
Life happens between breaths
393 · Aug 2013
A Tangled Skin
Elise Aug 2013
When a line is drawn is extends infinitely in every direction
and I hope this means there is at least one that connects me to you
no matter how far apart we are
and if you follow it maybe we'll meet again
where our lines overlap

I'll guide you home
393 · Feb 2013
A Dream Of Rain
Elise Feb 2013
I want to write beautiful words

I'll let them flow down my arms in rivers

They'll drip down my fingers onto the page

Oceans will form in the margins

Seas will rage between the lines

I'll drown in the paper

And become my own words

Maybe as you sail across my waves you'll find reason to drown with me
392 · Apr 2013
The Quiet Places
Elise Apr 2013
Sometimes I wonder what love is

Is love a hand to hold
A voice you long to hear
The silence in the darkness of a mind
Movements of a heart

But I think I know what love really is

The electricity made between two people
Bursting into light
384 · Apr 2013
Tiny Rhythms
Elise Apr 2013
These days we seem to get advice from everywhere but you've probably never heard the part about how you should definitely find someone who thinks in metaphors.
Maybe you've never heard of the advice to find someone who's hands whisper way more than their mouths ever will
Find someone who doesn't just move your heart but moves your whole rib cage so that your facing in the direction of the sun
Find someone who knows that your soul isn't actually in your chest but is in your feet leading you down your path
A person that can tell you exactly what light SOUNDS like and knows that the darkness is more blinding than the day
Find someone whose eyes speak with a sound deeper than all oceans
and I bet you've never heard how you should find someone who thinks the sky is purple and the grass is blue just because you need to look at the world differently sometimes.
Someone who tells your stories with words that spill out of their eyes because those are the ones that count
let them match your tiny rhythms
let them kiss all the cracks in your skin
as they fall in step beside you
Fall in love with someone who thinks in metaphors
They'll understand
maybe i'll do this for english
or maybe not
382 · Mar 2013
Darkness
Elise Mar 2013
In the absence of light
I traced your outline with my finger tips
Your body seems to whisper
It tells me secrets
That I'll
Never
Forget
~
378 · Aug 2013
ghosts
Elise Aug 2013
I keep dancing with strangers
Hoping to look up one day and see your eyes

And I think I've found someone perfect for me
The only problem is

He isn't you
373 · Sep 2013
Too Late
Elise Sep 2013
Now that I know the truth
Now that this is all over
I can finally write the words that I always wanted to say but never had the heart to
And everyone will tell me how nice they are
But they are not nice
They are true

"This will be the most wonderful mistake I ever make"

"I know, it will be mine also"

Fortunately
Unfortunately
I'll love you always

But that's what I get for falling in love with my best friend
Tell anyone and everyone you love right now, how much they mean to you, it could be too late at any time
363 · Mar 2014
Two
Elise Mar 2014
Two
I heard this theory once
that we have tiny red threads
coming out of the centers of ourselves
and they connect to other people
they pull us together during life

invisible
but existing

some call it fate
but when I think of fate
I see you
taking your heart out of your chest
just to look at it
set it on the ground in front of you if you must
to study the contractions
cross legged stranger
to yourself
I'll do the same
sitting across from you
I'll set my own heart on the ground
We'll flip a coin to choose which heart goes back in your rib cage
and I'll tell you that you are better off
with mine
and I am better off
with yours
my veins are still connected

invisible
but existing

maybe that is what they mean
when they tell us we are connected by tiny red threads
seeing my hand on your chest
they must think we're crazy
but I'll tell them I know two things:
1) I love you
and
2) there's blood all over the floor
362 · Dec 2016
Final Diagnosis
Elise Dec 2016
There is a small hole in my back and
no matter which way I toss or turn I cannot seem to fill it.
I will walk and walk and walk but it will still be empty
it will still be missing.
I will walk to the end of the earth to find it again

Fear for me is not terror.
It’s an itch on the very edges of my shoulders that will not leave
I have scratched off the top layers of my skin trying
when it comes I am an inch shorter and a foot smaller
and when it puts its hands on my face I can’t bear to look away
my fear is sleepless nights staring at a clock that ticks down to zero
whenever it reaches the end I am convinced that the world will end but it hasn’t yet
I just reset the clock and roll over and over again
maybe next time the world will finally start to break apart

I think about time every time time happens
my mind loves to remind me
again and again repeating lines for emphasis
that I am running out
my heart is too fast and my hands are too slow
my breathing is somewhere in the middle
I am looking for something I lost long ago
I will walk to the end of the earth to find it again

I will walk to the end of the earth to find my peace
a special form of hell
I wrote this for a psychology class to describe a specific form of anxiety, bonus points if you know what it is
342 · Feb 2013
Memories.5w.
Elise Feb 2013
Wars;
you fought
and won
340 · Mar 2013
East Side of the Island
Elise Mar 2013
"Lost soles"    
Read the tree

That was hanging
With shoes

Maybe it is our feet that lead us
We all do get lost
I went to a cafe sometime last year that had a shoe lost and found
It always stuck with me how they named it "Lost Soles"
340 · Feb 2013
1.31.13
Elise Feb 2013
Note to Self:
Darling please,
Forget everything
Play yourself a new song
Set your sights on the future
Let go
Forgive yourself
Remember to love
and love
and love
l
o
v
e
it will get you through
I promise
336 · May 2013
Untitled
Elise May 2013
I never do not have a name for a poem
but this one seems as though no word can accurately capture
the essence of a being
that has lived with me for 16 years
yet does not attempt
to enter my life

and

You tell me
I should be treated better
but
this is all I've ever known
heres looking at you, dad
333 · Mar 2013
Singing To The Void
Elise Mar 2013
My soul can't tell time
All it knows is that everything is right when your soul is with mine
My soul cannot speak
But..
If my soul could sing
Maybe you would hear it
And come home
Back to me

— The End —