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Mar 2023 · 744
spaghetti
fluorescent Mar 2023
outstretched hands
overlapping timelines and lives
circling back to the same origins
and stretching far enough out to forget them

promises twirled around fork prongs
paths meeting and crossing and departing
held together by cohesive experiences and sauces
the chaos of our own existence
shouldn't prevent us from taking a bite
Jun 2022 · 374
use by: 8/6/22
fluorescent Jun 2022
our affection has an expiration date
like a gallon of milk
left in the door of my fridge

we only have so much time together

this is an objective fact neither of us can deny

so why is it that I'm trying to clutch onto every moment
convince you to stay longer

while you use it as a reason to be cautious
keep things as painless as possible

for when that
milk finally turns sour
fluorescent Jun 2022
our protective measures
keep each other
at bay

years of abandonment,
tears shed without
reciprocation

has dragged us
to this
stalemate

you're not
supposed to
meet

someone
new

someone
kind

someone
healing

while you're healing
yourself
Jun 2022 · 930
nights in June
fluorescent Jun 2022
the mutual tenderness
between us
feels nice
even if its fleeting

fingers intertwined
shared laughs
tugs on the hems
of cotton tshirts

adjusting the radio volume
in your car
squeezing the dish soap from sponges
in your sink
peeling back the sheets
in your bed

moments feel intimate and infinite
Jun 2022 · 80
alone
fluorescent Jun 2022
this is the first time I've been seriously single in five years and its honestly refreshingly boring. I love not having to run my thoughts by anyone else but myself. I love just waking up and only thinking about myself for that day. I love how my entire existence revolves around my choices and how I want to spend them. but that being said, its incredibly boring sometimes. I want to share my mind with someone other than myself. its not even affirmation that I crave, it would just be nice to hear something else than just my own thoughts echoing back at me.
Jun 2022 · 71
"for sale" sign
fluorescent Jun 2022
as I was driving
I saw a man taking down
the "for sale" sign out front
of his yard

and I thought to myself
did someone buy his home
or did he give up trying
to pass it off to
someone else

either way though
the little green house
with the front porch
was no longer available

he has resigned
either his home
or his attempts to
move on from it
Jun 2022 · 77
pinching myself
fluorescent Jun 2022
you hold my hand while I'm on the phone
you kiss my shoulders while I do the dishes
you stroke my hair while I cry
you laugh at my jokes while I try to impress you

your tenderness is something so foreign to me I keep pinching myself to see if I'm just making it all up
May 2022 · 661
unrequited
fluorescent May 2022
I have loved and been loved back.
I have rejected some and been rejected back.
But the most painful love of all,
was the unrequited love I show myself.
living and loving comfortably within your own mind
May 2022 · 330
double homicide
fluorescent May 2022
I really love you, or the potential I see in you. Your empathy draws me in but your insecurities push me away. You project your pain onto me and tear into me with your words. But I can't hate you, because I see the your same pain inside me. You don't mean to hurt me the same way I didnt mean to hurt you. It's innocent and mutual torture. We set ourselves on fire and now I'm just watching us burn.
we understand each other- too much
May 2022 · 144
the other woman
fluorescent May 2022
What really bothers me about this whole situation is how I know for a fact he’s just sleeping peacefully right now and I’m still wide awake wondering if my thighs are too wide or my skin isn’t clear enough or my jokes are too crass or there’s some reason he doesn’t find me attractive and therefore I am just an emotional support dog he gets to use in the mean time before he can run home to his girlfriend who is just some Freudian excuse for a mother figure. And i hate that it really was a personal thing when rejected with me because when they were at their worst, he still looked other places-any places for girls other than me. He really decided that the most annoying, disposable people were better options than i am because for some reason our connection makes us too compatible, too real to be an option and now im left looking like an idiot to everyone because everyone knows im stooping to his level for him to like me and he still rejected me and i don’t understand what about me is so off putting that everyone rejects me. Did i read too much as a kid, do i ask too many questions, are my arms to fat? I dont understand what i did that he decided i was almost good enough, or good enough in every aspect except for one. I genuinely think that if i was 30 pounds lighter he would have thought of me differently, flirted with me from the beginning, and now the issue is that since we’re friends- a position only reserved for girls ugly enough to never be considered, and he sees how compatible we really could be, he chooses someone else. And what do i really see in him? I always thought it was emotional intelligence but this semester has proven it to be otherwise. I hate how i am a provider for every group i am in, i never grew up out of the eldest sister role. One friend whines to go out to the bars and i accommodate no matter how much I didn’t want to go, i make another’s dumb jokes seem funny to others, i reach out to the socially rejected and try to create space for them and yet even those who love me the most prioritize their own needs because they "don't owe anyone anything." What’s it like to have relationships where you dont live in fear that youre not worth other people’s time? What’s it like to never consider how other people are feeling when opening your mouth? I cry randomly not just for myself but for his girlfriend because she probably feels the same form of neglect that I do and doesn’t even realize why. I know i look like an idiot, but she might look worse. But should i pity her? She behaves similarly to him. I don’t think i could even survive a relationship with him, too much to change for both of us. But honestly I’ve never met a man who can match me emotionally, he’s the only one who comes close. Hes smart, and kind and values communal support over his own. But also he’s a selfish *****. That’s what i don’t understand, how can he only want to **** me when he’s drunk? How did I make all of this up? How can he tell me I’m gorgeous "platonically?" i just feel like every choice I’ve made this semester has been so embarrassing and i feel like the embodiment of the character whose faults are commodified as modern feminism or some sort of coming of age Bridget jones narrative when in reality women like me are genuinely just treated like this all the time because we’re average. Average intelligence, average looks, etc. but thats the enraging thing; not only do i know im not average, I know im buying into misogyny every time i get angry. But im always angry. All the time. I can cry at the drop of a hat because of how angry I constantly am. I hate everyone I know and i hate that i could probably do it so much better than they are. I could be a better friend, a better boyfriend, etc, and i just feel so let down by everyone i know. I hate that everyone I’ve ever kissed has been ugly to me. Why dont attractive boys like me? Am i not picky enough? Do i think im more attractive than i actually am? I used to think that my personality could carry me because i know I have a good personality, but it has come to fruition that my personality has no effect. I’ve met some of the most boring and unfunny girls in my life and they always pull more than i do. Like as someone who isn’t attracted to them i literally want to rip my own eyelashes out than actually hold conversation with them and yet boys still are drawn to them. is he even capable of loving me? Is the friend zone this damning? Is it only damning because im subpar? Is this how his past girlfriends felt? Even she was able to hook up with him, he apologizes for even considering me. Does he consider me? Has he even considered dropping his girlfriend or is that just something he says when he’s drunk? How can what you say drunk not be something you mean at all? How can you be two different people? How does your subconscious differ that greatly? Will you regret this one day? Will you come around? I literally just can’t comprehend this rejection. I was so certain. I ended a relationship after 5 years because of my certainty. I dont know what im even expecting though, dating him would be kinda weird. Is this the kind of relationship where we get together in our 30s when there’s no drunk hookups on yatch parties left to be had. If i tried to make out with him this weekend at the yatch party would he reciprocate? I hate that my literal best friend in the world would use me. That’s the worst kind of loyalty. I hate that he’s so “loyal” to his girlfriend that he’d shake me off. I hate how he’s conveniently “out of his mind” when he’s drunk and calling me beautiful but conscious enough to not cheat on his girlfriend because that would be “too far.” Why am i too far? Why is considering me so damning? Is this love to him? He says he loves me, why does none of this feel like love? I think about him literally 24/7 and i know for a fact he doesn’t consider me until im looking him in the eye begging him to stop leading me on. Why did he choose to do this to me? Why does he only want me when he can blame it on the alcohol? Am I ugly enough that you need alcohol to justify your attraction to me? Should i try to kiss him this weekend for the heck of it or will that literally push me over the edge. Will that be the final straw? I am constantly trying to prove that what i saw was legitimate that i didnt just make the whole thing up. I hate this.
streams of consciousness. a friend who was a little more than a friend but only wanted to remain friends until alcohol was involved.
Apr 2018 · 364
not today, maybe tomorrow
fluorescent Apr 2018
I woke up this morning
maybe this will be the day
I thought
you'll say the words
that finally **** me

they'll swallow me whole
rip out my insides
tear my body to pieces
burn any remanence of my existence

but nothing happened
and I got busy

so maybe ill just await death until tomorrow
Jun 2017 · 289
intentional
fluorescent Jun 2017
you hurt me
but it was innocent
you didn't mean it
it was a mistake not supposed to affect me

but it did
and it hurts
and theres no solution
no remedy for the side effects of love

but the greatest pain,
comes in the realization,
that if it hurts this bad this time,
imagine the blow when you hurt me for real
with intention
maliciously

how will i continue to live on then?
fluorescent May 2017
my hair is an array is an array of fluorescent and inorganic colors,
i listen to indie rock like its my religion,
my best friend is my mother,
i go to bed early and still drag my feet in the morning,
my most prized possession is a sea shell i found,
i resort to self-deprecation in awkward situations,
my favorite t-shirts have sarcastic jokes or history references on them,
i cry when i am angry, sad, or happy,
my diet consists of only coffee ice cream and saltine crackers,
i cannot help but to care what people think of me,
my worst fear is wasting my time,
i am only seen wearing the same pair of old skate shoes even though
i don't know how to skateboard
my babysitting paychecks are spent on looseleaf tea,
i don't read as much as i should,
my worst habit is procrastinating,
sometimes i think i'm addicted to ibuprofen,
and i overanalyze everything i do to the point of hysteria

but you
you you you you you you you

you pretend to look past all this

i can still feel your judgement,
anticipate your rejection,
and foresee myself waking up tomorrow more miserable than today

yet somehow

your words say something else
they speak of my "overwhelming beauty"
they praise my "individuality and intellect"
your lips whisper tales about my "sensuality and passion"
they conjure up compliments that flood my cheeks with color

i melt, for a second

then i convince myself that you must be lying
for truths cannot contradict
May 2017 · 187
red-handed
fluorescent May 2017
i thought you cared about how i felt
but as it turns out,
you only cared about not getting caught
fluorescent Feb 2017
last night,
after our paths crossed momentarily
i took off into the night

in search of
something

my bike let me fly
fly down hills
fly through our memories

i spliced the wind and felt the cold rush consume me
burns creeped over my cheeks and arms

in the quiet, i felt so isolated, so cold, so hollowed out
then i realized

it was the same feeling you simmer me in whenever
you ignore me
you laugh at me
you look past me
you reject me

all of the sudden, the harsh wind didn't seem so abrasive
because
maybe
it will in return,
give me the same high you give me
when you meet my eyes

so i challenged the next hill
and subjected myself to winter's knife
let it rip into my soul
Jan 2017 · 216
constricted
fluorescent Jan 2017
teeth clenched
shoulders aflame
fingers outreached
my abs feel constricted

calves cramped
thighs tightened
body lengthened
my abs feel constricted

I radiate with heat
I am burning
I am on fire
Jan 2017 · 221
reinvention
fluorescent Jan 2017
my skin feels tight
my eyes not my own
familiarity is a distant memory
I cannot remember when my body was content with belonging to me
I run my numb fingertips through my unwashed hair, searching for any type of reassurance
my room is cluttered and my body unclean
nothing here is mine
if identity is supposed to evolve, and change as you do,
then why did I wake up this morning in someone else's skin?
today, I would rather diminish completely then continue in a body reinvented

— The End —