Julie Butler

Julie Butler Jan 2017

stripes

I felt and then fell, I
did not even jump
I flew to kiss lips that
knew nothing of love.
I bent and I borrowed
forgetting to say
I held something with you
I do not have today
although there are storms
be there
break and decay
our love it made
hurricanes
look simple like rain

Julie Butler Nov 2016

trait

i have been
clothesline dreaming
screaming fits, saying
i've prayed, praying i'll
say what i mean and
you've been that
poetry pouring out of me
a bleeding but you are the
portions of a reality
i only see when i sleep
my god, it's been
seventy weeks, oh
and the colors i cannot see past
twelve shades of torture your body makes
anytime you do anything
it's all
brown and green and mean to me
i mean i need it
it feeds me i mean
i don't think you mean to
i think it's just
me meeting me sometimes &
that's meaningful right ?
tell that to me at night
to the dark and stars and all of the
quiet questions i guess i guessed the
answers to
tell that to me in my bedroom
ask me the time this time &
i'll tell you about that time i thought about love and saw a burning bed
ask me again and i'll show you
say love again, love
i've been dying to show you

Julie Butler Nov 2016

anxious

I just needed to hear something
soft like
yellow from the lamp or
my love because
I can't stand the haunting hum of waiting
the anxious, ancient hour under my bone
half bent, ticking
picking my flaws like a hurt bird;
it is my time i give away
& unlike my heart
sadly stuck with me
i cannot keep, cannot get
these minutes back

Julie Butler Sep 2016

Trim

The colors of late September
talking and falling again
announcing each other like
gulls for bread
remind me that I've listened

yet every day is black and black
the mask's unsettling sweat builds and
underneaths a frowning girl
settling into it

yes darling, I see the blue
I see the coins stored under my lips
haven't paid off and
you've painted nothing to hide the holes
i'd ask for your hand in this and squint
but you, you must not have heard it

and here i've been
as cooperative as ants /
as sad as fate
with hands as red as the ibis
falling tired and certainly
tired of falling

Julie Butler

Sep 2016

Olga Valerevna

In a free world

you don't need to be drinking to reveal a sober thought
the words are there inside you if you're not afraid to talk
We have too little time to be offended by ourselves
so throw away the bottle and forget there was a shelf
Let time be your instructor, it will whittle down with you
and show you something greater in a way you cannot do
I've read the twelve believers and considered all their words
they're either all too certain or completely all absurd
so let us make decisions with a judgement of our own
give wholly unto others we may never even know
The point is we've been fighting for a point we've tried to make
but loaded every message with a fountain of mistakes

Truth.

#messiah #message

Julie Butler Aug 2016

prepared

My* Monday blues they
start with you.
I am amused I'm not
moved, I
may be reused it is
the day before
Tuesday
I choose blue before
muse I must
stay in my own shoes
I clutch fists it is
no use I trust
come ups from cruel while we
lust what is proof-less
is seemingly useless
I
rust like the useless
like metal, like bruises
so quit acting clueless
I've dropped more than clues and
now I must move for
I cannot keep chewing all of your
lies up for you

& dive,
deep until it doesn't feel like swimming
and look up, neckbent until I'm dizzy

Julie Butler Aug 2016

velvet

it is when I sit with
beautiful things
I am reminded that
nothing ever keeps;
the words might smear or
the air should dampen
and if
you should not believe me
ask the flower what it is like for her
at nighttime and then
ask her to repeat it
explain to her
what it is like to be
lived in