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Jan 2020 · 346
Husband & Wife
Joshua Penrod Jan 2020
The knife dripped with her husbands blood.

His phone buzzed on the bed side table.

She’s next, the wife thought to herself.
Jan 2020 · 235
Guardrail
Joshua Penrod Jan 2020
He put the gun back in the safe and said to himself “I don’t want to end up like Kurt”.

-JP
Dec 2019 · 294
True Value
Joshua Penrod Dec 2019
Don't tolerate anyone
Who is too blind to recognize
Your true value

-JP
Dec 2019 · 393
Explosive
Joshua Penrod Dec 2019
You are everything I've ever wanted
And
Everything I've ever needed
In human form
My heart runs fast at the sound of the syllables in your name

-JP
Nov 2019 · 570
Closure
Joshua Penrod Nov 2019
Let your losses be losses
And just sew up the hurt
Where it bleeds

-JP
Sometimes closure just seems to be too much to ask for
Nov 2019 · 191
And Still I Stay
Joshua Penrod Nov 2019
A warm bed that lacks connection
Is colder than a lonely one

Every day conversations that turn into lies
The simplest of notions asks for an alibi

F%ck another late night
F%ck another petty fight
Confusing true love for black eyes

Raccoon masks for the sake of abuse
Degrading words ware themselves into an emotional noose

I don't blush much anymore
A fool to expect intimacy
When your lips deem me a trifling *****

And still I stay
And still I stay
For the abuser is not only you
It's me

For when I stay
By not walking away
I abuse myself passionately

-JP
Nov 2019 · 349
When You're here
Joshua Penrod Nov 2019
I hate you when you're here
But miss you like mad
When you're not around

-JP
Jul 2019 · 360
Dangerous Things
Joshua Penrod Jul 2019
A gun is a dangerous thing
to put in my arms
But so were you

“Dangerous Things” -JP
Jul 2019 · 427
Celebrity
Joshua Penrod Jul 2019
Celebrity
Bit by bit and break by break
Pain has become the celebrity
Of my heart

“Celebrity” -JP
Jul 2019 · 492
Nevermind
Joshua Penrod Jul 2019
Bury me up to my neck in water

Soothe my like you would a preachers daughter

Like someone who’s sore from bowing at pews

Who’s secretly ****** up

And never amused

“Nevermind” -JP
Human amused tired bewildered alive dead acceptance process religion religious sin truth lies deception real
Jun 2019 · 311
The Sound of a Laugh
Joshua Penrod Jun 2019
It's not the mere sound of a persons laugh,
Rather it's what or whom they are laughing at
That defines who they are

"The Sound of a Laugh" -JP
Jun 2019 · 657
Thank You
Joshua Penrod Jun 2019
I thank God
For taking from me everything He has taken
and
For giving to me everything He has given
For every step has a purpose of its own

"Thank You" -JP
Jun 2019 · 478
Burnt
Joshua Penrod Jun 2019
One minute you're on fire
The next
You're burnt
That's just how it works

"Burnt" -JP
Jun 2019 · 318
Ritual
Joshua Penrod Jun 2019
I was born
                    out of ritual

Cultivated
                                           in an abundance

Of sacred experience

"Ritual" -JP
Jun 2019 · 293
Passed days
Joshua Penrod Jun 2019
Exhausted
Trying constantly
To shed all those days
That have long since passed  

"Passed Days" -JP
Jun 2019 · 369
The Billowing
Joshua Penrod Jun 2019
The Billowing
Risk
Is my second language
It's my
Native tongue

"Billowing Risk" -JP
Apr 2019 · 223
Hand In Hand
Joshua Penrod Apr 2019
Honestly I can't believe I went all out for you
We didn't mean it when we said forever
You aint the same that you once were
How dare you make me feel guilty for it
You wanted the same for us anyway
Hand in hand

-JP
Mar 2018 · 295
Simple and Sweet
Joshua Penrod Mar 2018
Everything you dream to be
You already are to me
Open and honest you came to me
Oh so simple and sweet

"Simple and Sweet" -JP
Mar 2018 · 474
No Place Like Home
Joshua Penrod Mar 2018
I have places to stay
But
Nowhere
To call home
"No Place Like Home" -JP
Mar 2018 · 417
Loving You Blind
Joshua Penrod Mar 2018
Counting the reasons I fell for you
Watching reasons fray
Even if every reason was true
Then they all left me broken in two
And you left me broken just the same

Call the crimes of your magic
That got the best of me
It all looks better from the outside
The posts and pictures we hide behind
Because blind love is the best way to believe

"Loving You Blind" -JP
Sep 2017 · 537
Grateful to Burn
Joshua Penrod Sep 2017
With a zippo in your pocket
Clenching an empty gas can
You watch as smoke deadens the sky
Over the bridges you were grateful..
To Burn

-JP
Sep 2017 · 438
Untitled
Joshua Penrod Sep 2017
Fill her empty spaces
With picket signs
That chant of her beauty.

-JP
Jun 2017 · 517
The Longing
Joshua Penrod Jun 2017
There is a longing somewhere deep deep within me
Deeper than the hurt
Deeper than the pain
Deeper than my depravity
Deeper than my darkness
Deeper than my own human will
That longs to sing out
That longs to shout
That longs to cry
That longs to long to long
To hold onto something permanent
That longs for an anchor in this ever-screaming sea
That longs for a line tied around my waste as I seemingly cascade down this sheer mountain side
That longs for a compass in the evil dense of my thoughts
That longs for a glimmer of a door in a windowless room
That longs for a hidden key in the floorboards of my captors dungeon
That longs for a drink of something wet and not dry
That longs for something more stable than the stilts to which my feet are tied
That longs for something more steady than the sways and swifts of the tower to which I have been hoisted
In all of these things and more I am a survivor
In all of these things and more I am a witness to they’re in-permanency
In all of these things and more I am a survivor
Only because of the revelation of something to which I can cling to
in tragedy, that is convinced it must continue to move

"The Longing" -JP
Sometimes there is a longing for something stable, something sure. That screams so deep inside me. So much so, that I just can't quite express it well enough
Jun 2017 · 743
Boomerang Heart
Joshua Penrod Jun 2017
She said,
You have a boomerang
H
          e
                 a
           r
t
That just doesn't know how to quit.

"Boomerang Heart" -JP
Jun 2017 · 811
Puzzles & Shapes
Joshua Penrod Jun 2017
Somewhere between your heart and your lips
You become a puzzle

With every piece I pivot and fit
There draws inside me a hunger

To love you with every shape and color

Whether one thousand pieces scattered on the floor
Or masterfully put together
May 2017 · 601
Fragile Hope
Joshua Penrod May 2017
Hope is fragile hope is frail
My hope has aged within years of betrayal
Praying for a longer shelf-life than expected
Despite the cracks glued together with worn edges

Through hail storm and fire burn
Somehow my hope has survived
Despite being tossed around
And thrown from way up high

One night a proud display
The next evening packaged up and boxed away
Hope so strong it used to be worth every penny
Now it's torn clean up
Now I'm lucky to find any

So I'm sending my hope off to be restored
Maybe another's hands can make it shine
Just like before

But for now I go without
And I'm placed with petrifying doubt
Weather hope will be there for me
Once more.

"Fragile Hope" -Jp
Feb 2017 · 436
World Ends
Joshua Penrod Feb 2017
So what happens
If the world ends
And I still
Can't let you go?

"World Ends" -JP
Feb 2017 · 814
Humble Beginnings
Joshua Penrod Feb 2017
Every great Leader
Was once a humble Student

"Humble Beginnings" -JP
Feb 2017 · 619
Magic of a Miracle
Joshua Penrod Feb 2017
The Magic of a Miracle is
That a Miracle is no part Magic at all
For a Miracle of course could not be a Miracle
If Magic were ever involved

"Magic of a Miracle" -JP
Jan 2017 · 617
No Difference
Joshua Penrod Jan 2017
We go round and round like wheel chairs
Back and forth like bad decisions
Counting up taxi fares

If I could, I'd kiss you to the moon and back
But we don't have time for that
do we.

I look forward to each half-embrace
Maybe, it could be full some day
Some day....
Some day we'll see

I already know I'd go where you go
Follow you even if it's to the end of me
No one ever wants a good thing to go away
Why should I be selfish and think I'm any different

There is no difference
You say it makes no difference
And If I can't make it different
If your mind is made up
Then I make no difference
To you

"No Difference" -JP
Dec 2016 · 931
Deployment
Joshua Penrod Dec 2016
Every piece of layer embedded
beneath the cracks...

Underneath, the surface of her soul
ached...
Ached for him to return back home,
Back home to her.

"Deployment" -JP
Dec 2016 · 449
Hollowed Ground
Joshua Penrod Dec 2016
Watch them as they
Wage war on innocent souls
Upon their hollowed ground

"Hollowed Ground" -JP
Dec 2016 · 1.1k
Mistletoe
Joshua Penrod Dec 2016
Mistletoe
Our kiss under it
With no space between us

"Mistletoe" -JP
Dec 2016 · 3.4k
Roses Roses
Joshua Penrod Dec 2016
Roses roses rose
Smiling in all their secrets
Hidden in roses

"Roses Roses" -JP
Dec 2016 · 1.2k
Church Bell
Joshua Penrod Dec 2016
In her smoke, a heavy burn
Leaving him thirsty and parched
She taught a heavy lesson to learn
That loving her and her alone,
Is a church bell ringing above an alter dark

"Church Bell" -JP
Nov 2016 · 558
Truth of the Storm
Joshua Penrod Nov 2016
The storm argues, the professing innocent sky
The angry drunk of lightning, grieving grey bruises on the clouds
Leaving Her too weak to do anything but cry

Hoping the blue she once knew might return

In the last of her efforts she stretches color,
Arking over the abuse of the sky

In an effort of promise, to love once again
Nov 2016 · 456
Leave Me Be
Joshua Penrod Nov 2016
Leave Me Be

I never wanted anymore then what it was I asked for.
I'm tired of waking up thinking about you
And losing sleep doing the same.
This isn't what you want every time you speak,
But you want nothing more every time you act.
There isn't much I want, and even less I need,
I hope in speaking action I can ask you to

Leave Me Be

This whole ordeal takes the nostalgia out of my coffee cup
And pushes me away just as much.
Soft and gentle is how I tried to let you down,
For it would be best on both ends, if you might simply

Leave Me Be

Turning my back on someone like you, I could have never done
But, here and now have forced my steps.
Oh if I were a man who could commit to resolution,
Little do I know, I am.
Resolute all right now I will ever need is for you to

Leave Me Be

So love me in truth and love me in lies or love me not at all.
In any direction the leaves may fall,
We fall opposite forever and always.

I wont talk of heaven or forces of God,
For those I don't claim to see.
But, what I know and tried to show
Above all and underneath the in-between
This is not a request as much as a need.
I wish I could hate to say this but please
Learn to,

Leave Me Be
Nov 2016 · 889
Brand New World
Joshua Penrod Nov 2016
Dust by dust and word by word
You formed me from the walk-able earth..
Reforming the wind while turning it into breath
The very first milestone beaten with the very first step..
The garden giving the eyes something to see
Some type of solace born into simple majesty..
Making the ground good for walking
The same way syllables are proving grounds for talking..
Everything new without the need to begin again
And it’s all-overwhelming given the wealth to take in..
A brand new world

"Brand New World" -JP
Sep 2016 · 1.1k
Liberator
Joshua Penrod Sep 2016
Could I in my own efforts, pick myself up if I were dead?
Could I in my own efforts, heal the wounds which I continue to inflict
Could I in my own efforts, prepare to mend the sickness for which I have no cure?
Could I in my own effort, become the person I want too, but don't have the means to become

Could I in my own efforts, harness the power and the strength that I simply do not possess on my own
could I possibly in my own efforts, conquer something in my past that I have failed to over come

The answer is elegant yet most simple, of course I could not!
Could I in my own efforts fall to my knees
Could I in my own efforts, weep and lay still
Could I in my own efforts, move not one inch
Could I in my own efforts, utter a cry for help
Could I in my own efforts be liberated?
Not without a liberator good and strong to break down the gates
And I ask myself will I call for such liberation

The answer has come when I fear I shall not be liberated.
And so in my state I confess that I, am in need of a liberator
Sep 2016 · 831
Battles
Joshua Penrod Sep 2016
No battle is won by merely one man
It is won in the blood stained garments of many
It is not dictated by the resolve in his final stand
But the impact of the burden carried by all, on every step of the journey

“Battles”-JP
Sep 2016 · 1.6k
It's Not Love
Joshua Penrod Sep 2016
It's not love unless someone is broken
It's not love unless they're able to break your heart
It's not innocence unless it's something that can be taken
And it's not trust if you can't trust them not to take it

It can't be passion if it's not underlying with hurt
And it's not value until you come to face with what you aren't worth
I't's not true unless it's threatened with a lie
And it can't be forever as long as something has the ability to die

It's not happiness without the faded photograph of misery
You only know what it can, when your certain of what it can't be
Knowing when to stop only because you know when to go

And knowing when it's over is the last thing that comes
And the first of the last things you will remember about her

"It's Not Love" -JP
Sep 2016 · 1.2k
Old Soul
Joshua Penrod Sep 2016
I am an old soul
I never asked for explorers to progress
I never asked for inventors to invent
I never asked for science to discover or scholars to detect
I never asked to go from Steamers to engines
I never wanted to trade vinyl for headphones

But I’d always trade city lights for a mountain range
A worn out skyline for an open plane

Why do we complicate our lives in attempt to make them simple?
And why has living simply, become to most something trivial

I am raptured in this soul that refuses to age
In times that are always persistent to change

"Old Soul" -JP
Aug 2016 · 399
Rhythm Your Heart
Joshua Penrod Aug 2016
Rest now my child
Worry not what your fortune may tell
For you will always be with me

Hold fast to the path where your feet may fall
Even when your midnight eyes become oh so weak

Take my hand as I lead you on
Past every dark into the land of the living

Rhythm your heart steady and strong
To endure the good plan you are already fulfilling

“Rhythm Your Heart” -JP
Aug 2016 · 1.1k
Her Door
Joshua Penrod Aug 2016
Then what is a door that is open
With beauty before me I walk
Though I go drunken to her door
Beaten and black
Guarded by brilliance

Here I am there you are
One hand on the trigger one hand on the hand  
Let both of us together leave our lives
Wealthy and wine flushed
Who would exchange compassion for a drink
Oh Lord almighty who hast formed us weak

I will have done with it I will not stand
The pain is real here's your life’s end  
It is over, what is over?
In her door alone I stand

"Her Door" -JP
Jun 2016 · 1.4k
My Everything
Joshua Penrod Jun 2016
You are the kind of marvel that reveals the suns bright side
The kind that calls the moon to bring out his warmth
You kiss the glow of the ever setting dusk
And wake up the early rising dawn

You are my sun and moon
You are my dawn and dusk
You are my earth
You are most simply darling,
My everything

"My Everything" -JP
Jun 2016 · 397
Midnight Shade
Joshua Penrod Jun 2016
I stop in the midnight shade of the trees
Under the shadow of moonlit courtesy  
Where angels ascend and descend

On the cobblestones of eternity
In the casting of certain uncertainty
Doth my soul completely depend……

Yes

Within this certain peace I find
Surpassing the trap of my fickle mind

Yes

And peace shall carry me unto the end    

"Midnight Shade" -JP
Jun 2016 · 2.6k
Shallow Grave
Joshua Penrod Jun 2016
Don't mourn a shallow grave if it's what I prefer
I want to feel winter as it cools the skin of the earth
So I can feel Lucifer churn my ground from his sorrow of going astray
To feel the pulsing of the sun, while no more a witness unto the day

"Shallow Grave" -JP
Jun 2016 · 699
I Fall
Joshua Penrod Jun 2016
I fall
Down Down Down
I fall infinitely
I am and continue to bask in the revelation of gravity's honest pull

Drop Drop Drop
Down Down Down
Fall Fall Fall
I find honesty In the moments where I grasp nothing
When I come face to face with decision, obligation
and
The things I cherish most

Drop Drop Drop
Down Down Down
I Fall Fall Fall
In anticipation of the very bottom
I see not what awaits at the end of my decent
Drop Drop Drop

“Fall” -JP
Jun 2016 · 662
Questions
Joshua Penrod Jun 2016
If I were to lie here would you lay with me?
If I took a boat to the end of the world
Would you be by my side as I looked over the edge?

If I found the place we call heaven would it look and feel something like you?

If I were to walk a thousand miles would I find devotion in your shoes?

If you and I grew old would we share memories of a world together?

If you and I learned to love could we begin to fall into it with one another?

Who am I?
Not a prophet of the future

But if we were looking at the end of time, would we spend these last moments completely whole and together?

“Questions” -JP
Jun 2016 · 754
An Expression Called Love
Joshua Penrod Jun 2016
What if love gave way to hate, and hate as equal to love

What a wondrous deed it would be!

To leave Athena confounded in the heavens above

The gods suspended among amusement and jealousy

How tranquil would the movements of adoration and goddess be

If hate were thief to an expression called love

"An expression called love" -JP
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