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 Jan 2020 Jelisa Jeffery
Emily
I always thought we were the perfect match.
But matches are meant
                                   to ignite
                                         and burn out.
Im living from a suitcase now
somewhere in the city*

I still think about her every day
and how she is so pretty
I'm writing this on a broken phone,
about times when technology will make you moan,
and grunt and growl and groan.

He made it look simple,
am I alone? Why does technology make me moan.
 Apr 2011 Jelisa Jeffery
ivory
You're smooth and lovely and you'll slip easily into my veins
But if there's anything I've learned is that no one knows how to change
I'll fool myself into thinking no, it's not the same
And keep dressing up pretty for another ***** game
The truth is no such animal is ever fully tamed
I'll be one step ahead in knowing this will only end in pain.
© AlyssiaAnderson

Awkward reactions encouraged.
 Apr 2011 Jelisa Jeffery
ivory
There is this woman with stringy brown hair
Blue polka-dotted shirt, the same one
Head droops down
The weight of melancholy stampedes her to near-death.

She hardly holds herself up straight
She barely looks me in the eyes, she is shamed
Every time, she is paler and paler
Every time, gets the same comfort treat, maybe this will help this time
Maybe,
This time.

Chocolate peanut butter flavor with hot fudge and whipped cream
I am the only one who notices her slight shaking..
Fiending? Needing?

$4.61, please
I am the only one who notices the scars on her arms.

"Thank you, have a good day."

And I am frightened that one of them will soon be her last.

I am frightened because I want to save everyone
But I can't.

It's like throwing starfish into the sea, one by one
Still seeing the shore still filled with them.

Everyone around me is drowning and they pull my hair down with them.
© AlyssiaAnderson

Awkward reactions encouraged.
 Apr 2011 Jelisa Jeffery
ivory
You pick me up in your green car, your favorite color, like the tint of your eyes when the light hits right
You act so casual, everything so smooth, everything so easy

(I wish it was as easy for me)

We have these moments when conversation stalls
It's not uncomfortable, just heavy
A mountain range beneath the stillness of water
A rising heat from a hidden fire

(I wonder if you know I'm losing my mind over you
If you know that I know that you know that we know that we really could have something here)

We drink bitter coffee drinks and eat day old scones
Pretending to be bohemian intellectuals, we talk about *** and peace and justice
We play Scrabble:

"Nurses"
"Loot"
"Vines"

Secretly I want to sweep away the crossword chaos and make my own message:

"Be mine now now right now"

But that would be breaking the rules of both games we're playing

Pleasure delayers, keep silent, nonchalant
Take one step forward and two steps back
Show affection, but not too much
Wear your heart on your sleeve, but only in small portions

I don't want to overdose, overwhelm, over exaggerate
And watch another
Run away

(Please, please don't)

And so I dream of you, in your John Lennon t-shirt and shaggy hair
You tell me to give you time
I give you a watch and you laugh at my cleverness but really
I was hoping that it would be enough.
© AlyssiaAnderson

Awkward reactions encouraged.
 Apr 2011 Jelisa Jeffery
ivory
abyss
 Apr 2011 Jelisa Jeffery
ivory
we both have this,
hidden....core
we slowly peel back to reveal
like we're withholding this great wizard
behind some elegant curtain

maybe it's because we both know mute suffering
the kind that sticks around and becomes part of your bones

we say to each other, oh i won't judge you, you can tell me anything
i can handle anything, you can't scare me

and it's true but still we,
are....crawling
back to our shells like hermit *****.
© AlyssiaAnderson

Awkward reactions encouraged.
 Apr 2011 Jelisa Jeffery
ivory
throw away all of our material *******
our iphones and credit cards and television sets
throw them in a bonfire, take off our clothes and
dance around the flames naked chanting freedom mantras
we could do anything we wanted
climb to machu picchu and try to feel the past
drink ayahuasca and play shaman for a day
be wild and open and part of the earth again
for once in our lives we might feel important
unrestricted, powerful
like we have a purpose
and even after the hallucinations fade
maybe the plants will still whisper to us our destiny
when we are sleeping in hammocks and eating bugs
i guess i just wouldn't care if the guts got stuck in my teeth
because you'd be there and encourage me to give up my ocd habits
of always being clean
because you'd make it worth it to not care
i'd give you my soul if it meant we could always feel this way
so wonderfully lost in each other that nothing else matters.
© AlyssiaAnderson

Awkward reactions encouraged.
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