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Jul 2015 · 297
the untold fairytale
glassea Jul 2015
one.* the worst thing about madness is that you know it until you embody it.

two. losing people is the hardest part, but it's also the simplest. isn't it easy to let go? never mind that grabbing hold once more is  nigh impossible, especially for people like you. (the people who wrest the night from the moon and spend hours laughing at the stars that dare to burn.)

three. graveyards are strange. who says the dead want to be remembered? you know they don't. when you die, just another body among many, you want to be forgotten, passed over, destroyed with the acid of time.

four. logic is a cage. you break down the bars with the sword from the stone and watch as they cower. they should.

five. it doesn't matter how much armor you wear when your eye is uncovered. you make sure that your own armor is up. words, wrapping your chest, your hands, and your eyes are the most dangerous part of you, because you can see what they won't. the dragon dies.

six. you laugh and drag him down with you, drowning the prince under the willow tree. he was foolish - to think you'd need saving, as if anything here could be more dangerous than a girl with blood on her hands and screams in her head and insanity in her bones. as if a dragon had any chance against you and everything you've seen, everything you've *done
.

seven. you hope they will forget you. memories can be let go - don't you know this all too well? there was never a before the madness, only an after.

eight. you die too. you don't hear them any more.
Jul 2015 · 422
when gods die
glassea Jul 2015
the earth gasps in one thunderclap
and the sky cries sunbeamed rain

the rivers run with mourning blood
as the mountains strain to move

the deserts now grow green from
oceans rising with saltwater tears


maybe for the first time we wake
to remember things we used to be

(children of volcanoes and death
worshipers of forests and stars)

or maybe we slumber on
as around us, the world crumbles
hey idk what this is even
Jul 2015 · 320
and
glassea Jul 2015
and
and i loved you like the ocean to the shore:
reaching, reaching, touching for a heartbeat -
before drawing back again, tentative.

and i missed you like the sun to the moon.
i guess we were never meant to touch.

and i forgot you like the water to the flame,
for you burned bright, once long ago,
until i turned you out and left you behind.
Jul 2015 · 205
dear god
glassea Jul 2015
i'll make you a deal:
let me be okay tonight,
and i can die tomorrow.
Jul 2015 · 562
ley lines
glassea Jul 2015
ley lines,* she says,
and i say they're not real.

but i remember
whispers at three a.m.,
making each other laugh
when we just want to cry,
secrets told on sidewalks
and ski lifts.

but i know
that she's the only one
i can be not just myself,
but anyone with.

but i know
that she's the only one
i've shown my words to.

and maybe -
maybe invisible strings
that laugh at distance
to connect us together
seem a bit more
real.
to my best friend.
glassea Jul 2015
in her eyes are cities rising, falling; they rise once more with kings and queens, with democracy and change for the better, with heartbeats once unheard beating out sonatinas

her voice is a battlefield all its own: cries of man and beast and god, all hungry for war, but the aftertaste is bitter like olive bark and sea salt

she smells of blood when she laughs and rain when she cries (her screams feel like thunder)

her face shows what has been, but the soot on her palms hides what could be; only the fates can see it clearly

*oracles were not made for gods to love, but to keep them in their place
Jul 2015 · 181
before
glassea Jul 2015
preemptive missing you
is the hardest part of love
because you're still here
but in my mind you're gone
is it inevitable that someone's heart will rip
Jul 2015 · 585
board games
glassea Jul 2015
i used to think that i could beat my depression.

roll the dice and lie awake until midnight
thinking of all the ways tomorrow could be worse.

skip a turn and sneak down late at night
to steal a kitchen knife - just in case.

take one, three, seventeen pills
to reach the unknown bonus round
where for once i might win.

and if i lag behind the players beside
just cry until they drown in my tears.
:)))))
Jul 2015 · 257
volcano goddess
glassea Jul 2015
THIS ONE?

SHE WILL BLIND YOU WITH HER FIRE
BEFORE ABANDONING YOU TO THE DARK

SHE WILL SLIDE INTO THE SEA BELOW
BEFORE REACHING FOR THE SKY ABOVE

SHE WILL DESTROY AND SHE WILL CONQUER
TO HER, THEY ARE THE SAME
the deity in question is pele
if you were wondering
Jul 2015 · 400
everyday
glassea Jul 2015
why is it that the global things are overlooked?

we are amazed by miniscule creatures,
delicate circuitry tracing green with gold,
replication and division of cells.

we are amazed by stars we'll never see,
men looking down from orbit,
galaxies collapsing in supernovas.

we aren't amazed by things limited
to this terrestrial world.
we aren't amazed by global epidemics,
or people fighting for peace,
or this strange thing we call love.

we aren't amazed by the everyday
but maybe we should be.
not so much poetry as philosophy
Jul 2015 · 214
civilization
glassea Jul 2015
I THINK YOU AND I COULD BE
THE NEXT UNDYING DYNASTY
haha what is this ****
---
i'm a descendant of a chinese emperor, actually
Jul 2015 · 360
the hidden mask of words
glassea Jul 2015
i'll ask you a question:
what starts a revolution?
injustice, suffering, pain,
or ideas, dreams, aspirations?

i'll ask you a question:
who starts a revolution?
bolivar, castro, washington
or shakespeare, cervantes, thoreau?

i'll ask you a question:
what sparks a revolution?
why, it must be clear.
the authors, artists, creators -
they start a revolution.
all the conquerors can do
is finish it.
Jul 2015 · 299
introversion
glassea Jul 2015
we live in a world built for extroverts

where our punishments are
"you can't go out tonight"

oh wow you sure showed me
humor?? what
Jul 2015 · 203
exp[love]de
glassea Jul 2015
ALL THE LOVE YOU LEFT ME WITH SHAKES MY HEART LOOSE FROM ITS CAGE

AND IT HAS NOWHERE TO GO BUT **OUT
Jul 2015 · 368
persephone's
glassea Jul 2015
flowers that shiver
grass that dies
and love that lasts
Jul 2015 · 393
starstorms (ii)
glassea Jul 2015
i can take starstorms from my lips
oh, watch them conquer!

an epidemic,
an infectious disease

they spread like the leaves
that gleam silver-green

like ideas.............

(this explosion will be
another nagasaki)

i can take starstorms from my lips
and they spread like the lies they are
part one #1243769
Jul 2015 · 296
narrow
glassea Jul 2015
we are ready for the rule
but never for the fall
seriously everyone needs to read ishmael by daniel quinn
Jul 2015 · 302
sodapop
glassea Jul 2015
your words slip down my throat like flat coke
sweet, cloying, leached of emotion
i do not know when you grew old
but i know that now you're just
unsatisfying
Jul 2015 · 247
inconceivable
glassea Jul 2015
that the sky is finite -

that empires
should fall -

that despite our
dreams, lives
words
we, too,
cannot stay
we are nothing more than a gasp
Jul 2015 · 255
(but)
glassea Jul 2015
maybe one of these lifetimes
we can die happy
reincarnation just makes me sad mostly because i am trash
but also because of the idea of being and being and being again and each time breathing a little less, laughing a little less, loving a little less, until you are nothing but a husk and maybe everyone in the world is a reincarnation but murderers are the ones that have existed the longest
goodbye
Jul 2015 · 683
think
glassea Jul 2015
there are skulls and ghosts
and an aura of death

and the king, he walks still
along the rooftops and gallows
until helios chases him dead.

and ophelia, she went gasping
beneath the weight of her thoughts,
finding air only in death.

and hamlet, he screamed his lungs out
before taking his mother's legacy
and drowning in her blood.

and if you think for too long,
you'll learn the real poison is...
my book was hamlet by william shakespeare. there weren't enough words so i had to go to the next line. oops.

act 1, scene 4, lines 3-4
HAMLET: what hour now?
HORATIO: i think it lacks of twelve.
Jul 2015 · 223
willows
glassea Jul 2015
I DON'T WANT TO BE OPHELIA
BUT BENEATH A BLOODLESS SKY
I'M DROWNING TOO
Jul 2015 · 883
shower thoughts
glassea Jul 2015
it's funny that we bruise black and blue
when the anger behind them is so clearly red
Jul 2015 · 1.9k
pallas athena
glassea Jul 2015
i don't want to be beautiful.
too often, beautiful things do not last.

but at the same time,
your words make me feel
like my skin is incandescent,
despite the shadowstains
of my soul.
Jul 2015 · 448
first degree
glassea Jul 2015
my hands have been red since the moment you left.

there is blood under my fingernails,
staining once-clean skin,
tainting my every word.

there is blood under my fingernails
and if i squint their half-moons
might maybe once upon a time
look like your always half smile.
(now i know why you could never
give me a whole.)

there is blood under my fingernails
and i do not plan to clean it.
maybe i want strangers to know
just what i am willing to do.

there is blood under my fingernails
and when they find me here,
staring at your corpse and
echoing my silent screams,
there will still be blood
where i cannot reach.

your blood is under my fingernails.
i'll come for you in the afterlife
and rip you apart again.
i just got this image in my head and was like "YES let's write about some ******"
Jul 2015 · 333
a ten word story
glassea Jul 2015
maybe now i'm free
to fall in love with mysteries
given up on numbering these ten word things. oops
Jul 2015 · 404
take note, medusa
glassea Jul 2015
this is what she learns:
when people call you a monster, you do not apologize for being the thing of their nightmares.

you show them just what makes you monstrous.
Jun 2015 · 258
girl = dragon
glassea Jun 2015
DRAGONS BREATHE FIRE

I BREATHE WORDS
AS GOOD AS FLAME

SEE,
YOU CANNOT FORGET
HOW MY SCORN BURNS
i love writing monsters
maybe it's because i feel like one
---
posting a bunch of backed-up drafts if you wondered
Jun 2015 · 304
stimulant
glassea Jun 2015
"how are you not tired of being?"
*the adrenaline of love
it was going to be a ten word story
oh well
Jun 2015 · 371
a ten word story
glassea Jun 2015
please, leave me here.
let me drown in your silence.
i don't remember what number i was on for these... oops
Jun 2015 · 237
starstorms
glassea Jun 2015
welcome to the chaos of
my falsified being

truly, i lie elsewhere -
among grass blades
and glass leaves

truly, i lie elsewhere -
in a sea of solitude,
a tear-stained beach

here's where my glory lies:
in a desert oasis,
in a mountain's breath

no, no, that's not right -

here's where my glory lies:
i am not glorious.

here's where my secrets hide:
on the edges of my words
as they burst into starstorms

this destruction helps only i
i'm a chronic liar
Jun 2015 · 283
verdad / olvido
glassea Jun 2015
when i was young
i thought the monsters
came from the dark.

now i know better.
the true monsters
hide not under the bed
but behind human skin.

the true monsters
attack not with claws
but with words.
but who was the true monster: the monstrosity, or his creator?
glassea Jun 2015
my ribs must be made of diamond.
how else could they keep my heart from getting to you?
Jun 2015 · 205
bearing the load
glassea Jun 2015
did you know that
at any given moment
you are being pressed down
by lead-heavy air?

and you thought
your body was weak.

and you thought
you were ephemeral.

and you thought
that you could not be atlas.
apparently all the air weighs close to a small car. it's so cool. i love science.
Jun 2015 · 592
ferris wheel
glassea Jun 2015
life's like a ferris wheel
the apex is breathtaking
but when you slow, stop
you don't go back up
who's ****? me!!!!
Jun 2015 · 352
in somnis
glassea Jun 2015
i see you in hypnotic leaves,
moving with the Sistine breeze,
unseen currents holding us
to the ideals we left behind.

i see you in colorless sky,
twisting among stars left to die,
waiting for supernovas
to swallow our minds.

i see you in hearts beating red,
in thoughts i had better left unsaid,
in faces i left in the name of love,
in sentiments i cannot unwind -

i see you in a sharp-edged dream...
there's a reason i don't normally write this kind of thing
Jun 2015 · 440
my dear liver
glassea Jun 2015
your love is my epidermis.
it's the largest ***** in my body,
covering me head to toe,
hair follicles dotted
amongst smooth skin.

you're my intestines, baby,
because stretched out
you're longer than you appear.

when you whisper to me
it's like my liver -
your words galvanize,
purifying my existence.

and we come together like
the chambers of the heart,
like the phosphorus bonds in my
deoxyribonucleic acid,
like dead skin cells
making my hair longer.

we come together like my teeth
when i chew pepperoni pizza.
people always go celestial so i was gonna write a serious poem about love on the molecular level. turns out that i can't write anything but crack. #noregrets #sorrynotsorry
glassea Jun 2015
please don't be like us -
petty, weak, selfish,
hypocritical and warlike and
far too vengeful to prevail.

see, we are insubstantial
in our ignorance.

see, we would rather
scorch the love from our bodies
than feel its unique agony.

o foolish mortals!
we are gods, not idols.

do not make yourselves
in our image.
it seems we never got this letter
dedicated to the victims of racism and bigotry
Jun 2015 · 843
kickboxing
glassea Jun 2015
and i set myself with shoulders back
knees bent, eyes burning forwards -
all to pound my emotions into the floor
so i don't have to look at you anymore
Jun 2015 · 254
a ten word story (xvi)
glassea Jun 2015
if you rule the earth
i'll just rule the sky
Jun 2015 · 256
you're going to pay
glassea Jun 2015
WE ALL HAVE OUR DEAD, OUR GHOSTS, OUR REGRETS. BUT YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO MADE CRUELTY FROM THE PAIN. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO TOOK THE PAST JUST TO STAB IT INTO MY THROAT. AND I THINK THAT IN THE NEXT LIFE, I MIGHT DO THIS TO YOU. MY REVENGE IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO MAKE YOUR IMPOSSIBLE EXPLODE. SO WATCH OUT, DEAR. KEEP YOUR EYES LOCKED ON THE REARVIEW MIRROR AS I MASTER MY PAIN AND MAKE IT BARBED WIRE. LEAVE A KNIFE UNDER YOUR PILLOW WHEN YOU SLEEP. LOOK OVER YOUR SHOULDER. NEVER LET DOWN YOUR GUARD.

**YOU STILL WON'T SEE ME COMING.
you turned your inner ghosts into outward demons. no matter what it takes, i will do the same, if only to see the look on your face as i take my due from your lifeless form.

(this turned out more medea than expected)
(i like it)
Jun 2015 · 2.1k
namesake
glassea Jun 2015
did you know that
there's no such thing as
a perfect name?

one day i'm catherine
and in the next breath, esther -
boudica, scathach, chiang;
virginia, sacagawea, rosalind.

i change like the ocean
so don't try to name me.
don't try to limit me.

you cannot keep me
from being great.
"there's no such thing as a perfect name." - jhumpa lahiri, "the namesake"
Jun 2015 · 413
make a change
glassea Jun 2015
let's start a new kind of revolution.

let's burn idioms at the stake
and throw similies to the wind.

let's be madmen with
ink for blood,
paper for skin,
rebellion for bones.

let's tear down the words
and build something better.
Jun 2015 · 372
flammable • inflammable
glassea Jun 2015
i'm the flint. you're the match.
let's burn this forest down.

those who mean well
cannot stand in our way.
Jun 2015 · 301
stars on earth
glassea Jun 2015
we are strangers in this world,
far from our homes in the night.

everything we touch burns.
at our core is the impossible
and it fascinates the beings we meet.

dying stars feel only peace.
human bodies are powerless against them
but they feel joygrieflovedespairmore.

we are fallen constellations
yet this backdrop of terra nova
is more beautiful than the sky.
stars will never fall
but, if they did...
Jun 2015 · 177
a ten word story (xvii)
glassea Jun 2015
i've been suicidal
for longer than
i've known the word
this is really self-indulgent and ****** but hey
glassea Jun 2015
yes, i move, i live, i make mistakes;
water that flows and blends, i feel
the fierce vertigo of movement:
smell the jungles, touch new earth.

yes, i move, i search for anything
suns, auroras, storms and forgetting.
why are you here wretched and worn?
you are the rock that i pass by.
Sí, yo me muevo, vivo, me equivoco;
agua que corre y se entremezcla, siento
el vértigo feroz del movimiento:
huelo las selvas, tierra nueva toco.

Sí, yo me muevo, voy buscando acaso
soles, auroras, tempestad y olvido.
¿Qué haces allí misérrimo y pulido?
Eres la piedra a cuyo lado paso.

-- Alfonsina Storni, ¿Y tú?

---------

THIS IS NOT MY WORK. all rights go to alfonsina storni, whose copyright status i couldn't find because she's argentinian, but she's also been dead for more than 70 years, so. please let me know if you have more detailed information about the publication of this poem in particular.

went for meaning more than structure. translating is hard. I WANT TO DO MORE.
also have i mentioned how much i adore storni? this is easily my favorite of her poems. tu me quieres blanca? nah, y tu.
maybe i'll do another one for rhythm etc.
Jun 2015 · 380
sailing to troy
glassea Jun 2015
i think i might be iphigenia.
everyone sacrifices me
for the "greater good".
Jun 2015 · 258
a ten word story (xviii)
glassea Jun 2015
take me by the neck
hang me from the sky
Jun 2015 · 265
a ten word story (xvi)
glassea Jun 2015
nobody said it was okay
to not fall in love
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