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I like books that end with questions
Iris Rebry May 2014
I like books that end with questions
I like books that end with questions
They make me think
About birds with fins
And humans with wings
And what to do with these pitiful things
Like my life

I like books that end with questions
Because you never get the full
Answer
And you always wonder what could
Have happened?
And if I was that character,
Would it have changed?
And you start thinking again

And I think that's why I like
Books that end with questions
Because I have started to think again
And it's been so long
Since I last began
So I'll try to never
Stop
Continue reading...
I'm sorry but no
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
I'm sorry but no
I'm sorry,
But no,
I never liked you.
You may accuse me,
You seem to have every right,
I've dragged you along like
A fish on a line,
I've caught you like a fly in a web
And no fool,
I'm sorry but no,
I never liked you.
You may have thought so,
With my bewitching gaze,
Those deep puddles of blue
Like sapphires,
You seem lost.
I'm sorry but no,
I'm not returning your gaze,
And starring fondly in your eyes,
I'm staring into your soul,
And I don't like what i see.
So I'm sorry but no,
I never liked you.
Continue reading...
In a friend's house but feel like a stranger
Iris Rebry May 2014
In a friend's house but feel like a stranger
Hearings somewhat talk about pools
And brown things at the bottom
Of a bucket
And pumps
And family plans and I'm standing here writing this poem
And wondering what I'm doing
She is my friend
But yet I've never felt stranger
Because to her family
I am a stranger
Continue reading...
In the torture chamber
Iris Rebry Apr 2014
In the torture chamber
They say 4/3 people
Are bad at math,
I guess I am one of them,
Belonging to something finally.
Belonging to a society that hates the
Shape of the number 3
And when asked the
Cosine of pi,the
Best answer
Is the silence of the dead
Welcome to the torture chamber
There's no need for that sign
The sentiments are already
Felt.
Abandon hope all ye who enter here
There's no need for those famous
Lines they are already
Inside every breathing body
Whose sweat slides down
The sides of their minds
In horror of having to learn the
Pythagorean theorem.
And yet there are some who have
Mastered this death
Some who we call geniuses
Not writers
Not artists
Nor talented speakers
But people who are smart
At what most people are not
Those are the geniuses
Not us
Never us
Never me
Continue reading...
I refuse
Iris Rebry Oct 2014
I refuse
I refuse to explode into a shower of tiny sparkling embers,
Falling through the air like a snow globe when
The going gets tough.
I refuse to blow up like an atomic bomb
And annihilate anyone in my path,
When the going gets tough.
I refuse to hurt others,
Because I hurt myself.
I refuse to hurt the world,
When the world hurts me.
#pain #reality #compassion
Continue reading...
Iris
Iris Rebry Apr 2014
Iris
Why do I call myself
Iris,
when that is not my name?
Why hide behind a mask
I have fashioned for myself?
Perhaps it's for popularity
posterity
Something of that certainty.
But in truth, I have more connection
with Irises, than I realized.

Because I am scared of people,
and I know they are too.
Not all their petals are spread out,
revealing their inner thoughts.
But only a few,
and gradually too.
And I am too similar
to explain,
I reveal more petals to
people I know
than to
strangers.
I clutch them back,
hiding myself
within myself
till I become
nothing more than a
shell
or a mask.
Or a Iris.
Rebry
Continue reading...
Isolationist
Iris Rebry Jul 2014
Isolationist
Some days it want to crawl in a
Corner and die
Of crying too much.
Some days I want to think
That the world does not exist around
Me
And that my heartbeat is
My heartbeat that beats
Like a free eagle in the sky.
Alone.
Some days I want to listen to my own thoughts
And say nothing to no one
Because I'm listening to my head
Phones and not saying nothing
To no one.
And I'm alone
In isolation.
Some days
I want to be alone,
Listening to myself
And wondering if the world
Exists.
Continue reading...
It's been a while
Iris Rebry Aug 2014
It's been a while
It's been a while
Since I opened my lips,
And wrote the sweet words
With a voice that drips,
Sincerity.
Clarity.
Charity,
Hardly ever disdain in this voice
Of mine,
But plenty of it,
In the race of mankind.
It's been a spell
Since I wrote poetry well,
And where's my mind?
Neither in heaven nor in hell.
But on poetry,
How sublime
Continue reading...
Iwrite
Iris Rebry Dec 2014
Iwrite
I write because
My inner soul leaks out onto the page
#life #soul #writing
Continue reading...
Jane austen
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
Jane austen
Your wit
Is like the wick of a stick of dynamite
Quick, sharp, explosive
You laugh and I laugh with you.
Such terrible creatures,
Mr. Collins, lizzy Bennet.
All figures of your brain.
Stay with me Jane.
I need your help.
I need your advice, your wisdom
Of such things,
Dangerous things,
As love.
Do not hide from me.
But give me your passion.
Help me to save Ms. Smith
And be the Emma I knew I could be
And do not let poor be by herself
But be with her.
Write her a gentleman,
Write her true love
Write a new story.
For me
Continue reading...
Living alone
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
Living alone
Part of me hates rejection.
Hates to be shunned into the
Dark corner
Of the world
Dimly lit, dank, dark
Crying.
Perhaps I'll end up being the
Stereotypical old lady
With too many cats
I could bear to give them up.
Continue reading...
Living in the past
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
Living in the past
Today I am living in the past .
I see the same bullies with their smirks
Wiped across their faces,
I hear their same jeers at me.
I feel the same anger boiling inside of me.
I relive my embarrassing moments
Of pure stupidity.
I grow hot with embarrassment.
I'm sure my checks flushed.
I really should live in the present,
But I want to perfect my past
So hard
I'll never do it correctly.
Instead I'll be stuck there,
Never able to escape
My moments of vulnerability.
Continue reading...
Lost
Iris Rebry Aug 2014
Lost
Can't find the map.
Where the heck did I put it!
My grand plan,
My ten step move
Of how to be successful.
In life.
And I lost it.
Lost it.
Lost.
I am.
Lost.
I have.
Lost it.
Continue reading...
Loving
Iris Rebry Jan 2015
Loving
Not romantic I mean
But loving each other for struggling through
For being fellow humans on the planet
For trudging through the sludge of daily life
Do I love my fellow man.
Continue reading...
Lunch on thursday
Iris Rebry May 2014
Lunch on thursday
I could eat the cookie
But I already feel queasy
But you didn't have to cut me off
The song sings
And I type whatever comes into
The cauldron called my brain
Hey, that wasn't supposed to be poetic
But yet I feel as though I can't stop
Being poetic it comes like the
Air I breathe
It comes from the higher power
And I being the speck of dust
Am happy to oblige
So this is lunch
Thursday
And I sit and type
Whatever comes to my mind
Continue reading...
Lyons
Iris Rebry May 2014
Lyons
It's been months since I've last been
The water took the melody line
And destruction became the harmony
Leaving dissonance in its wake
And trees bent to play that
Minor tune
Mud rose inch after inch,
Outlining the beat of this
Soaked symphony
It's in duple meter
No scratch that, it was in triple,
The tempo was about 200 waves per minute
The screech of wood scraping
Wood had short solos
With arpeggios
And the sound of sirens and
Screaming crescendoed this
Soaked symphony
The different pitches were so ranged in tonality that people had
No chance to save the time
To pick up things they need
The splash splash splash was the
Ostenato in the background
Perhaps a pedal tone
And the drip drip drip
Made anyone who heard the piece shudder so violently
They were shivering and
Quivering
Like an arrow shot from a now
Thus the effect of the
Soaked symphony
Played in the orchestra pit of Lyons Colorado
#septemberflood
Continue reading...
Masks
Iris Rebry Sep 2014
Masks
Why do you weak your mask at me?
Do you think I will hurt you?
Do you fear my hate and scorn
To think that you weren't worth being born?
No, I wear a mask too.
But I will tear it off for you.
For I am not afraid of you.
So why are you afraid of me?
Continue reading...
Math class
Iris Rebry Apr 2014
Math class
I sit and look at my planner
Hear the scientist in my head
And wonder if it's life I dread
If I left now
What would I do?
I cannot be a hermit
I must be around those who I
Want to avoid
People
Continue reading...
Math vs English
Iris Rebry Sep 2014
Math vs English
I am a writer,
And artist if you will.
I dig my claws into my emotion.
I grab it with white knuckles like
The ghost of my visions.
I make beautiful things out of trash.
Tell me if you can,
Can you show me hatred and fear
In the cold hard brittle equations
You use?
Where is love at first sight in the quadratic equation?
Or the happiness I feel,
Is that in the Pythagorean theorem?
Tell me if you know.
I'm curious
Continue reading...
Melons
Iris Rebry Feb 2015
Melons
When life gives you melons,
You know you're a bit dyslexic
Continue reading...
Missing you
Iris Rebry Aug 2014
Missing you
Sometimes we talk.
Like every weekend.
We're both busy.
That I understand.
Sometimes I look at
Our Facebook messages
Just to see your profile picture stare
Back at me,
So I don't forget your face.
I miss you.
I want to cry out to you
And tell you I miss you
And love you like a brother.
But you don't talk.
And I feel naked
And embarrassed.
So I shut up
And move on.
Still missing you inside.
A true story.
Continue reading...
Monday
Iris Rebry May 2014
Monday
Sitting on the ground
On ear listening to music
Out of my headphones
And talking at the same time
Double take
Double trouble
Double face
Double life
Double
Continue reading...
Mourning
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
Mourning
It is morning,
The sun is awake
And mourning
Comes with the break of day,
As I wake up once more
To face the world
It's mourning
And I'm supposed to
Cry and be still,
But it's morning,
There are things in their own time
To come.
Morning and mourning intermixing, thought it would be fun
Continue reading...
Museum
Iris Rebry Jul 2014
Museum
Sometimes I go to see paintings
Of people,or sometimes I go to see the
People watch the paintings.
Which is more artistic:
The thinker,
Or the furrowed eyebrows
Of the face thinking about the thinker?
There's more screaming inside
Our eyes than the scream itself
When we see it.
We heard the screaming in our heads
Painting is silent.
Sometimes I go to see the live people.
To see the moving exhibits.
To see what they think
Of art.
Continue reading...
My foot hurts
Iris Rebry May 2014
My foot hurts
My foot hurts
But it's also the rest of my body too
I dance my fingers over my arms
And I feel like I'm sticking
My whole arm in a light socket
I bend over and my
Back creaks like a door that needs
To be oiled
My toe hurts and in turn hurts my foot
And in turn hurts my body and in
Turn makes me tired.
So thanks foot
Thanks toe
Thanks me.
Continue reading...
My ghost
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
My ghost
You there,
Standing there
Between flesh and air
You don't share
The same cares
As I do.
You're nothing but a ghost

You grin
Stretching your chin
To try to see me wince
And convince
Me you're real.
You're nothing but a ghost.

You moan
Hoping I'll groan
And run home
And try not to be alone
With only you
Your nothing but a ghost.

You reach for me
Hoping I'll see
Your transparent fingers squeeze
And I'll freeze
Because I'm too scared to move
You're nothing but a ghost

You wail
Your voice like a gale
And I turn pale
Hoping my heart doesn't fail
Because I think you're nothing but a
Ghost
Yet you have been haunting night after night.
You have been in my darkest nightmares,
Cackling like a witch.
But you never say anything.
Because your my ghost
And I never said anything either.
Except for telling myself
I'm nothing but a shadow of time
That has passed
And I will become a ghost that doesn't last.
Forever
Continue reading...
Mystery
Iris Rebry Aug 2014
Mystery
It rips flesh from bone.
It strips away the the lies,
That surround me like a fog.
I breathe in the thick air of my words,
Like cigarette smoke,
Elementary my dear,
No,
I am not a sleuth.
This isn't a mystery.
I am the mystery
Continue reading...
Nervous
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
Nervous
It might just be the butterflies
In my stomach
Or the ants
In my pants.
Or the beads of sweat,
Glistening like pearls
On my skin,
Or may just be me.
I'm walking out alone
David facing the Goliath of
My nightmares,
Tall and dark
And I'm nervous.
What if everything goes wrong?
Does anyone ever wonder:
What if everything goes right?
Continue reading...
News
Iris Rebry May 2014
News
What I wouldn't give
For some news
Be it good or bad
Something new to tinker with in my mind
Something to glance at to stare at
To take in
To lose my breath at
Anything at all.
Continue reading...
Noise
Iris Rebry Sep 2014
Noise
Where is the silence?
I have music coming into one ear,
Buzzing like an insignificant fly
And the chatter, like harsh dischords of symphony, fill my head like a balloon.
Someday it will pop.
And I must find the silence, to fill
It again.
#noise #music #silence
Continue reading...
No longer a child
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
No longer a child
I'm no longer a child
When my heart gets trampled on,
When it is crushed like
Coffee beans inside the grinder.
I'm no longer a child
When I fly alone,
My fate tied to a lifeless metal bird
To solemn to cry.
I'm no longer a child,
When I walk down the street alone,
A stranger in your neighborhood.
I'm still a child,
When Im homesick all the time,
When I cry for my mother
To hold my hand.
I'm still a child
When I'm scared of the dark,
When the comforter is more
Protection than comfort.
I'm still a child
Even though I'm no longer a child.
Continue reading...
None day
Iris Rebry Apr 2014
None day
Some days it is better
To be silent
Some days it is better
To be as frail as a feather
One day I will be known
For a name not my own
One day I will see the face
Of God almighty
And witness his amazing glory
And none day I will be who I secretly
Hope to be
None day, not some day not one day
But none day
For that is the realist inside of me
The inner critic
They say none day
Because it can't be done
I cannot explain what I have done
None day I will understand
None day others will
Understand my intentions
And I will be
Accepted
Continue reading...
Non fiction
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
Non fiction
Is what we seemed to have
Labeled as
Truth.
Lies are fiction.
Or so we say.
Fiction is what we make up and
What we make up isn't real.
Or so we think.
Non fiction is the boring facts
About someone's life,
All stretched out on a line
Going twice around the world
Before it gets back to us.
But what if fiction is just as much
Truth
As non fiction?
What if we aren't making facts up
But only embellishing
On the inner, whispered facts of
Ourselves,
The inner battle we hold,
And it comes out
Fiction
Continue reading...
Now is the time
Iris Rebry Aug 2014
Now is the time
Now is the time,
When I realize that all that walking
All that sobbing,
All that pillow hugging,
Is because I probably have depression.
Or my life is just a pile of shattered glass,
Not easily fixed.
It needs help from the outside world.
Will the world help me?
Continue reading...
Number one
Iris Rebry Apr 2014
Number one
this is it
the one,
number one.
Do you know what this means?
I have a purple pen
I like pens.
I am the purple pen
rolling a passionate ink
onto the white lined
ballroom floor called
paper, having a
history of many generations
Egyptians, Sumerians,
Asians and Americans,
but never any
butterflies...
I am the butterfly,
the Queen of the sky,
my scepters are antennae,
my gown is fiery black
I am the fiery black
on a chalkboard,
on a cloak
on a
secret.
I am the secret
flitting through conversations,
I am the conversations,
hoping to be spread around,
until I am number one.
I am number one.
at the top of the list,
until someone passes me.
I crumble, I crack.
my palace is no more,
I am not number one,
but number two,
number nineteen,
number five hundred,
number one million
It doesn't matter,
Only that I am not
number one.
My heart rips,
the white lined ballroom called
paper burns,
the purple pen is smashed,
the butterfly eaten
by a bird,
the fiery black turned to white
the secret told,
the conversations stopped.
Because I am not number one.
Will I ever be number one?
Will I ever be close?
I am the phoenix,
rising again.
and I WILL BE
number one.
or will I be?
Continue reading...
One
Iris Rebry Nov 2014
One
I have been one
Al-one
D-one
My t-one is to be below a
Thr-one holding the sorcerer's st-one
Feeling power in my b-ones
I have been the one
Al-one
On the ph-one with no one but myself the one
While the words dr-one on and on inside my mental z-one and I wonder if this is what it's like to be a l-one ranger
A-lone
I have been one
Just thought i would write another poem
Continue reading...
Over dinner
Iris Rebry May 2014
Over dinner
He asks and it's not like I can be rude
Because I'm not that
Type of person
But yet I'll act nice
Pretend to bat my eyes
Perhaps a wink thrown in there
For good measure
But none of the sincerity
Not from me.
The dinner is the dinner
The table the table
And the napkin is a napkin
Laying there by laying there
Only I lack sincerity
Dripping it you'd think i was
Mrs buttersworth
But he grins and believes
I'm the person I'm showing him
Which is really just smoke and screens
And pretty things,
Not the real girl,
The poet the crazy poet
With a heart brain mouth eyes ears
And made of flesh and bone
Not smoke.
I never knew smoke could be so attractive.
#szymborska
Continue reading...
Packing
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
Packing
What do I shove in first?
My suitcase an empty canvas
A blank page,
Which I can fill with whatever I want
But also whatever I need.
I have to think about the future.
I have to assume I'll need
This and
This and
This.
And I will make it out alive
To buy my sister
This and
This and
This.
Continue reading...
Passions 15w
Iris Rebry Sep 2014
Passions 15w
Anyone can be a slave to their own passions, only the brilliant ones release themselves
Continue reading...
Pattern
Iris Rebry May 2014
Pattern
There is a pattern to this
Poems are the soul of the poets who
Write on the paper, not on the
Fabric, blue and pink I'll take one of
Each other looked at one another and
Knew that I was a fool in
Love that dessert, the tang and the
Sweet pea doesn't cry on your
Pillow and sheets I pulled of my
Bed head that's me
And my name is iris and
I see patterns
Continue reading...
Pedestal
Iris Rebry Jan 2015
Pedestal
You are fad and fantasy
you are placed on a pedestal by the world around you,
And I'm sorry.
I know you enjoy it.
But I will not worship you.
I will not love you as they love you.
I will not bask in your light as if you were the sun
and I was a rose
No. I refuse.
You are my friend.
I believe that, but some days, I do
not care if you are dead or alive.
You are more fad than friend to me.
You embrace your pedestal.
Should I bow at your feet?
Should I kiss the ground you walk on?
Others do.
Girls squeal in your presence.
They want you to love them.
Teachers believe in your talents,
more than the rest of us.
I flit everywhere, like a shadow.
Seen by few, loved by few.
And that's the way it shall be kept.
Believe me, you do not want me.
I do not wear the latest fads.
People can be like this, if the world lets them to be.
#popularity #fad #differentopinions
Continue reading...
Peppermint
Iris Rebry Jul 2014
Peppermint
Is electricity
In my tongue.
I can hear the
Zap! Zap! As i
Taste nothing but it's cold
Calm
Cool
Collected
Flavor.
And I remember,
Edison didn't come up with this
Tesla didn't either.
But instead it came up in its
Own
Poking up out f the dirt.
And no one realized it was
Electric.
I take another sip and I remember
Peppermint is my favorite
And I crinkle my nose
In a good way
And my face breaks out into a smile
Continue reading...
Pitiful wretchedness
Iris Rebry Jul 2014
Pitiful wretchedness
Ever feel lonely?
I just want a soul
To talk to.
I'm in
Pitiful
Wretchedness.
I want to talk.
Someone listen
Let me learn about you.
I'm a wretch
A pitiful wretch.
Talk to me
Continue reading...
Poetic
Iris Rebry May 2014
Poetic
I combat my urge to run from math
Class by being poetic
I let the words flow out of my mouth
Like a waterfall and my
Friend laughs as I attempt
To make poetry out of thin air
It's easier to make it out of thick air
You have more to work with.
I tell her I'm figuring out the
Meaning of life is life
Because I don't get what I'm
Saying I just don't want to realize
I can't count to three
As my friend pointed out
During a card game
In which I lied and they called me out
I'm not superman you know
And I can't even figure out
What the cosine is of 23
Without my calculator
And I want to punch
The people who say English
***** because it's hard
They don't see what I see
If English *****
It ***** like a vaccum
Or a straw
A good *****.
And I remember falling asleep with a
Book on my head in the hallway
Hoping for tomorrow
When I get to slam poetry
Continue reading...
Poetry without theory of knowledge
Iris Rebry May 2014
Poetry without theory of knowledge
Still
Void
Empty
Full
Null
Continue reading...
Questions that have no answers
Iris Rebry Jun 2014
Questions that have no answers
Why is a raven like a writing desk?
Why do we wash bath towels?
Aren't we clean when we use them?
How do I respond to your silence?
Why do you hate yourself?
Does this really matter?
Continue reading...
Reading
Iris Rebry Jul 2014
Reading
I can't believe how heavy words are
They drip like wax into my soul.
They swirl and swirl
Until the thick mixture has the texture
Of brownie mix.
Words pile on me.
I feel their weight upon my back.
Cute
Fat
Ugly
Unique
Apocraphayl.
They crush me.
They are heavy.
Words are heavy.
Continue reading...
Reading a book about teen romance
Iris Rebry May 2014
Reading a book about teen romance
And I wonder what I am even doing
With my life
For there is no such thing as a good
Or pretty teenage romance
Every one is lustful, ****, and super
Ficial and I wonder
Where am I
That I don't want that?
Many people do, don't get me wrong
But how many teens hold hands for
All their dates and don't even bother
Sharing their breath, saliva, and lips?
Continue reading...
Reconciliation
Iris Rebry Aug 2014
Reconciliation
We both have felt like charred trees,
Tearing out each other's roots and
Setting each other's roots on fire.
We've fought
Tooth and nail
Clawing out each other's eyes,
So we can't see.
But today you smiled.
And for once I felt bad.
You were alone friend.
And yet I left you.
I meant to be nice.
But what to say?
Reconciliation.
We need to replant our
Scorched roots
And hope that the seedlings
Sprout in the wake of our
Beautiful disasters.
Continue reading...
Returning to the torture chamber
Iris Rebry Apr 2014
Returning to the torture chamber
The stench is repugnant
The smell of division
Multiplication
And the reeking stench of algebra
The rotting odor of trig
Is stronger than the B.O. Of the kid
Sitting behind me
This is repulsive
I fight to stay awake
But I cannot fight the urge to run
Away far away
To the deepest jungles
To the darkest depths
To that cross in the middle of two
Roads diverged in a yellow wood
Why can't I take the one less traveled by?
But instead the torture is about
To begin
Calling for my blood
Calling for my brain
Calling for my thoughts.
Continue reading...
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