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5.0k · Feb 2015
giraffes don't dance
Julie Butler Feb 2015
rightfully
i'm left
i've been wrecked
now arrest me
with your legs
'round my neck
this is wreck-less
i'm a wreck, see?

an ocean filled with sharks
swimming faster than I blink
& all the sharks inside this deep
are all swimming after me
do I surf it out and see
what's waiting up for me
that i attack, i should bite back
like i'm the only one with needs
girl I have wings
& I have feathers
they're just much heavier than yours
they aren't wispy, they aren't soft
it's kind of like i'm made of swords
i'm still a bird
or just a girl
with way too many worlds
I'm sure of what I want
i'm just not sure of where to go
who's to say like who should know
when i've been blinded by your glow
it's just with all of this unknown
I do not need to want you more
3.2k · Jul 2014
shipwreck
Julie Butler Jul 2014
Breaking bonds
Like haunted hearts
Inside lost jars
From sunken ships
Lost at sea
I'm lost you see
& I can't tell you that
Cause it's not up to me
[Anymore]
2.8k · May 2014
boneless
Julie Butler May 2014
Stand up for what?
To collapse back down
my ankles turn to water
whenever you're around
I can't stand up
when i don't know what i stand for
like my brain is in the clouds
but my heart is on the **** floor
or a platform
my face is in a sandstorm
and i can't form words
with my lips between your teeth
our bodies now declare war
and my throat begets a siren
that your backbones can't ignore
your shoulders hold me down
while i beg for
just
a
little
bit
more
2.4k · May 2015
avocados
Julie Butler May 2015
this cracking open
ripped sail
widespread fingertips, broken nails
inside an effort is intention
inside intention is a story, experience
& all these lessons I've learned
are getting used up forcefully
is this the way it's supposed to be?
cause it feels strange
when do Ravens sleep
& what does that feel like?
where did I go?
I think I know something.

wild nights, bending and stretching
bending & bleeding
I'm tired of feeding on this word

eating syllables
I am not hungry for

constantly
unconsciously
incessant counting consonants
four letter words
for poor pleasured girls

honestly

we're all crawling sideways
a billion different sidewalks
searching for what -
leftover organs, trace-lines
another time, some other life
another night

keeping quiet
2.3k · Mar 2015
candles
Julie Butler Mar 2015
loosely
I allow myself to think of you
as not to become foolish
and truthfully
it's all I end up doing;
I play the fool in the schoolyard of your voice
I learned to listen without ever making noise
I fight and fetch *all of your sounds

& I can't stop your pour of longing
in & all over my mouth
2.2k · Sep 2015
height
Julie Butler Sep 2015
on quieter occasions
& they were all just moments
I'd close to meet your truth
different coasts, different rooms
that, I'd noticed in you
cause I'd kissed like this too;
like the kiss itself had a mind
it wanted to mean what it was doing;

I generously swallowed my pride

that there is never a right time
never a right place
for anything

it always just comes down to honesty
and reason

and I can't reason with my truth anymore
I don't know how to stop
how to end this, *being in love with you
honestly >|< Julie Butler
2.0k · May 2014
crystals
Julie Butler May 2014
You're transparent
But I've found that clear pages are very hard to read
1.9k · May 2014
muscle memory
Julie Butler May 2014
the tongue is just a muscle
that helps our face to taste things
your tongue allows the hustle
that breaks the grace
of tasting
your tongue juggles the struggle
when you eat me like a pastry
my thighs are now your muzzle
and your knuckles **** my brains clean
sorry not sorry
this is where my head is today
1.8k · Apr 2016
she's not sorry
Julie Butler Apr 2016
3pm *****
a ballerina learning to slow-dance in jeans
is the stolid way you call me pretty

I've known better, never to settle
as I order another, please
I can forgive me
But we've just been kissing
& pity breeds missing you, weak

I'm never bored, never sorry
watch you pull me from the ground
much like those Macbeth witches
I could have guessed
you aren't around

but you talk like you're so sorry
only to wipe it off of your belt
Steel-toe folktale, go home
& tell it to somebody else
1.5k · Jan 2016
the usual
Julie Butler Jan 2016
gorgeous doesn't
do you
justice
when I just wished for the chorus
singing our lousy song, I
stayed up late with it
I
counted the sheep
they fell asleep
I'm
clutching the sheets
stop thinking there's a
Dreamgirl
quit pouring that red-cheek idea
down your throat
a few more
fast
the song should end soon
sore knee love
should end soon
professional pretender
bending blinks
more drinks, bartender
loving you gets
expensive
I'm paying with my
well-being
I'm being lied to by sunlight
cause I can't trust anything
after it leaves
1.4k · Nov 2014
fine
Julie Butler Nov 2014
I'm ready to bow out
Give up
& Leave it all behind
Teach me how to give up what I believe in
When it was so hard for me to find
Peace of mind
Some peace of mind
Would do me good tonight
Another fight with my might
& one more bottle of wine
1.4k · Aug 2014
Mimosa
Julie Butler Aug 2014
Maybe it's the
champagne or
maybe it's faith
But it's strange
anyway
That we've never
shared space
kind of
deranged
in a way
that I can't
kiss
your
face
I hope it's okay
that I say it
It's on my mind
everyday
I've had so much champagne
I can't deny what I'm saying
it's insane that your face
blinds my right of purveying
or in saying
sometimes saying
it's a game that we're playing
i'm not playing babygirl
it's [your name] i've been saying
it's your face i've been blaming
on every single curve
catch me cursing the verse
your name leaves on my shirt
i disperse it
well of course it's a curse
a voice
I haven't heard yet
so of course i'm submersed
& of course it is yours
& you
the most gorgeous of all
and me a thrown ball in Autumn
watch me fall
watch me fall
watch me fall
watch me fall
ready for fall
1.3k · Nov 2015
remind
Julie Butler Nov 2015
all she did was
reach for a glass
and
my eyes became like pens
drawing my love
with every stretch of
her legs
building up until i
felt like the snap between
the stem and the apple
twisted a little and
so completely consumed
1.3k · May 2014
Emilia
Julie Butler May 2014
Emilia

What a beauty I saw
as you strutted on past me
Singing a 70's tune on the sidewalk
looking absolutely classy
Your hair was long
and your skirt, kinda flashy
your eyes were set free
from your cute little glasses
your voice was like a blade
you sliced me like an apple
you were a glowing caramel latte
in a crowd full of *******
I remember your presence
luminescent as the moon
over a castle in the forest
and how you light up every room
you're in my blood like we're one body
I rep you proud with a tattoo
there's not a day that I don't miss you
or a minute wishing I didn't have to
my soul sister
my best friend
who lives too far
and i can't stand it
1.2k · Jan 2017
stripes
Julie Butler Jan 2017
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
1.2k · Jul 2015
gesture
Julie Butler Jul 2015
blown proportions
using bodies as poetry
to run from & out of verbs

upon request you just said
mine and
what a delicate thing
to still believe
in something
1.2k · Dec 2015
hoax or
Julie Butler Dec 2015
it's one of those
things; how
coffee, after dinner
sounds good but
you can't sleep when you get home &
how the trees look so beautiful
dying and gold
still, outside it freezes you
down to your bones
it's when you feel like that
last slice of cake that
got left out
it's this
breathing to scream but
don't open your mouth
I've been
digging for reason
buried in doubt
to believe in what's good when
that isn't allowed &
I've swallowed my gun
it was loaded with love but
it shot out my lungs
I learned love's not enough
1.2k · Jul 2015
hour and a half
Julie Butler Jul 2015
it is
in-between sentences
diagonal;
directing a conversation you can't have/
the need to protect the pride

Lie on something similar, like
thick grass; emptied cartons of
unfinished favors, leftover excitement/
somewhere else to put your perfect hands
silver, white seconds
pumping your gallop
against the lips, out loud
louder
against the sureness of breath-beside-sleep
louder until we open up
breaking it down for my sanity
tell me you felt me, once
just
to my diaries of you
my need
dried coral reef
doesn't grow under palm trees, darling
pumped from
your need
& why you should be . . .
so very
so very
*brief
with
me

?
1.2k · Mar 2016
tropical
Julie Butler Mar 2016
aren't you
sorry for leaving ?
I've dissolved like salt
because I've become it
I'm fluent now, in being silent

Paced myself over and over
breaths because I have to
naming them after you,
because I forgot what need was

flatline me another time, love
tonight so I can sleep &

these are weekends;
those are mouths meeting.
I'm going to quit calling it love
& call for a favor cause

the wave is wild like the whale
just ask her;
I'm riding all of them on
shoreline shoulders
a continent of rhetorical knuckles
buttoned toward my throat

no mercy in floating through the roof
it was never a boat that saved us
only bones
my moral roots
doing whatever you say
1.1k · Jun 2014
unlikely friends
Julie Butler Jun 2014
Body stomping
like crushed bones beneath lead feet
my cheek meets the ground
my teeth start to bleed
hi it's nice to meet you
says the concrete to my jaw
I said I didn't know you cared so much
it's not often that I fall
1.1k · Jan 2015
Abigail
Julie Butler Jan 2015
you've got a face like a diamond
I'll cut to the chase
like somebody designed it
for a woman that's so hard to find
let me find you & sleep behind it
you're a dime boo
it's blinding
and if he says he don't want you, he's a blind fool
cause you're mind food
you're a crowned jewel
they gotta **** with me to get ta you
you're better than fried food and good news
you better than Cher songs and new shoes
and I wrote this just for you
cause I heard 3 seconds of a wayne song and lost my cool
cause you're the coolest
and if i was part of a news cast i'd weather your blues
& I ain't even gay for you
I just think you're a ruler and wanna break rules with you
I wanna watch people skate like there's nothing better to do
and when the day is ******* done
i'll be like
dude, you rule
you rule
you rule
you rule
you rule
cause sometimes you gotta write raps to your best friend
1.1k · Jan 2015
classy
Julie Butler Jan 2015
I've lost my grace tonight with whiskey
& sitting patient on a plane
I'm driven crazy by your face
& how it's swallowing my brain
I feel so
i n a p p r o p r i a t e
with the things I want to say
my hands are idle with intention
& your spine's calling my name
who do I blame this on tonight
for wanting you so bad
my nails are living for the day
they trace the inside of your back
I cannot focus now at all
I've got these i d e a s like scripture
I'm drawing down the halls I've fallen on
to make a perfect picture
the thought of you exhausts me
& I'm not ready for your swoon
for this my hands they do profess
under your dress
in your bedroom
1.1k · Sep 2016
Trim
Julie Butler Sep 2016
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
1.1k · May 2015
dogs
Julie Butler May 2015
I do not love like this
I don't love like this
but I am learning

I burn between kissing you
what I can't have wholly
& somehow I am full
too aware of what I'm doing to be foolish
I rule out sound
birds
birds
you've taken both turns
I am laying
I am left
but am not without

I must front torture to embrace love -
without fire, I cannot burn
I cannot live without that heat
char instead of ink just to write it down

we are singing a song now
quiet
you are asleep & I am dancing in the heaviness of your breathing

this bed is not a nightclub
your knees hurt
& I have never seen anything so beautiful
1.1k · Oct 2014
airplanes and whiskey
Julie Butler Oct 2014
Let me replace the filth
with something more beautiful
(when i did it was peaceful)
I'd like to erase the guilt
but i can't
cause it's useful
and you
you're not truthful
at all
you're removable
and that's all that I need
to prove that I can move through it all
and thank god I learned fast
that you're not who I thought you were
cause there's better than you
everywhere that I've fallen
& even when I stand up
& dust off
I laugh at the silly stuff
when your words mean nothing
and everything turns back on
when I shut you off
& you were my rock
that I just threw down a mountain
1.1k · Jun 2016
aren't you
Julie Butler Jun 2016
oh limp morning, take me early  
I taste June like burning
sometimes soft like cinnamon
filling up for hollow afternoons.
French-kissing myself and
all my, finely laced thoughts about you
all of that heat spread in pots
I call a garden & slowly I let you
spread me thin again
1.1k · Oct 2015
t i r e d.
Julie Butler Oct 2015
I didn't -
fall out of love
I tumbled, backward;
overly-tired
chocking on Z's
and poetry:
my, indecent way of
overexposing my
love for you
and
no one likes to be embarrassed
but
I'd rather be that than
without you
so I tortured myself
I strangle my own neck
over and over again
with palms that
want nothing to do with me;
I'd rather
fall asleep
under water
than
breathe this way
*anymore
>|< Julie Butler
1.1k · Dec 2014
Relieved
Julie Butler Dec 2014
I'll start breathing again
& release this exhale
From the hell that it came from
Like swallowing nails
I inhaled every smell
And like fire it stunk
I was a tree
You were mean
How you burned down my trunk
But it's done
It's all done
I'm not worried about you
& the noise that you made
drilling holes in your truth
I'm not stressed out or cold
I'm not bitter or sad
What we had was an accident
Now it's gone & I'm glad
I can stand up with excellence
I got you off of my back
Like I lost 1000 pounds
That I never want back
1.1k · Apr 2014
lies
Julie Butler Apr 2014
liar you lie there
like a prey-hunting-spider
waiting for flies
or half-blind admirers
in your web made of falsehoods
your heart's hard like fossils
I thought it would feel good
until I laid down horizontal
but it was only partially harmful
because I too get rather hostel
once I gargle what you marvel in
and swallow all your awful
1.1k · Apr 2016
planting
Julie Butler Apr 2016
ecstatic, lateral / irrational longing
ticktock time bomb waiting for your
slack to tighten, get back to me

whiskey-stung bottom lip under
white sheets and thunder
hollow hands hold out heavy-
drowned secrets from my left lung
make the nights last longer
make the air even against the thought of what you sing when I'm leaving

recount the loudest bouts from which I crumble
worship one thigh at a time, my god
why don't they come with a warning;
the morning put stones on my bowing
another good reason to kiss you
another's lost lover, ocean story
red-wave cravings
I'll pay in great shades of grey & plunder
shave my legs and go
right back under
1.1k · Feb 2015
grain
Julie Butler Feb 2015
take my chest
take my chest
and all of it's ache
away with my breaths
that you take everyday
take my tongue
take my mouth
cause I don't need to speak
these words, my mind
I eat & lose them
take my teeth
take my wants and take my needs
all they do is cause me grief
take my knees
you make them weak
would you please hold these things for me ?
now take my ribs
you take my ribs
& I do not want them back
you take my lungs
you take my heart
and all of her attacks
please take my head
you take my head
and hold it in your hands
tell it what you want
cause it does not understand
I give my organs
make you hold them
I gave you all of me
and if you don't agree
than please tonight, just take my eyes
and with them take these dreams
I cannot sleep
I'll never sleep
when you're all I can see
1.1k · Jul 2015
rise and
Julie Butler Jul 2015
stand up for your truth's
darling
I want to love you through them

my love of you's been
reduced to knots

& not the kind that keep

or thoughts
love reduced to blinking
through tears that chase my sleep

I'm falling under reason

that I know so I should stop

but my heart won't stop it's beating
it's like my blood's refused to clot

impossible to forget
you knew I loved you all along

it was a bit of truth I needed
you couldn't give to me at all
1.1k · Nov 2015
track
Julie Butler Nov 2015
she chewed through my ribs
& attached me to wings

subsistent, pretending
I don't need a thing

she pushed through my body
propelling a shriek

her hand fits me close
& her sleep fit my sheets

but I'm done with she's perfect
I'm shrinking in blinks
& I'm sick of this
balancing stilts built on dreams

& I've stopped all this tripping
my shoes are on tight
but I'll  
fall asleep
hoping
you slept good tonight
>|< Julie Butler
1.1k · Apr 2014
Stroke
Julie Butler Apr 2014
Like the clouds
I’m just floating

I change shape without 
knowing

just floating

i’m doting

misquoting myself

i’m smoking 
and blowing 

d e c o d i n g 
m y s e l f 

but probably just smoking

and joking myself 

i’m really just s m o k i n g 
and
choking myself
1.1k · Mar 2017
open
Julie Butler Mar 2017
that slow blink never helped you (y'know)
and thanks but
my voice sounds the same, still
i can't count on
whatever rule about numbers you used
it is useless

and even
a forest of poets couldn't dig it up
or a ship, full of it
i'd swim under the mad waves
away from them

so, by my bones i speak
every language i need
finding more that
love is like a field
kept by wild things
as open as a child's eyes
with
all of this room to
keep growing
1.0k · Nov 2014
outrageous
Julie Butler Nov 2014
I'd like to find these
silver linings
through all the rust
but it just reminds me
( of )
your metal heart
my steel rib cage
how i licked my fingertips
to flip through your pages
how everyday
busts me in s t a g e s
do I stay this way
or rearrange it
i'm a deranged fish
swimming in cages
that i build for myself
& choking on phrases
that mean nothing to you
so why waste time
trying to say them
i'm trying to save this
( idea )
for myself
instead of swimming in circles
for everyone else
it's outrageous
1.0k · Jan 2015
chapters
Julie Butler Jan 2015
I woke up tired today
even for me
I felt tied down to my sheets
tides sliding through thoughts of you
watched you glide down my shoreline
wash you out from my teeth. to. my. feet.
I think it's your eyes, darling
they're like colliding stars
I tell myself not to look
& start clutching my arms
I tell my heart to be silent
causing my chest too much harm
I was fine until your name
came and rang all my alarms
now the courtyard of my quiet
was taken from me
like breath after breath
until I no longer see
& in that very first second
I learned of that face
I knew nothing more than
maybe
it belonged in my hands
& pulled it close so I could taste it
1.0k · Apr 2015
& out
Julie Butler Apr 2015
hour after hour
like rust on top of rust
I've confused lust halves
for must haves
& taught myself to ******
until I learned to trust myself
far more than any soul
it's just, I fell in love with me
and so
I'm good to let you go
1.0k · Aug 2015
cups
Julie Butler Aug 2015
to run
stay
stand
believe

to love as an action
not as a feeling

to breathe
and to see
as with intention
& not as a need

and to need

these needs are burning wants
& I want everything in terms of
*freeing
1.0k · Nov 2014
blonde
Julie Butler Nov 2014
I guess I know just what you're thinking
But you know not of what I do
When I'm sitting in my room
Daydreaming only about you
I guess you feel a little foolish
I guess I acted like a fool
I wish you knew how I was feeling
I wish you knew it's all for you
1.0k · May 2015
swam
Julie Butler May 2015
it's a front-flip
got away

align out thinking we felt like this
envying teeth
the way your bottom lip curls
I curve at your corners
climb inside
someone give me shoulders to walk with
legs to speak
I'm tasting you from behind my eyelids
cause my mouth knows better
hope
1.0k · Apr 2015
selfish
Julie Butler Apr 2015
they call me: gypsy, runner, thief
be you my gold, my feet, my greed

meet me on streets
we have not seen
unwarrant wants, deep breaths, relief

I will not front;
give you my teeth

we're breaking rules, my dear
we're weak

I am not yours

o b v i o u s l y

claim me
this own
without defeat

I'm chasing dreams
but i don't sleep

my pillow smells like you
like need

so lost behind
what I can't seek

f i n d i n g that time holds no belief

that I was freed
c u r i o u s l y

I watched you leave my street
quickly

that I should wait
so p a t i e n t l y

to bring your body back to me

I will not beg
I wouldn't plead

but I would have you still believe
you'd still have me if you should leave

should you come back I would agree

for you i'd gather everything
not rings, but things that you might need

I'd love you deeper than the sea

in love with you , i am
*a l r e a d y
1.0k · May 2014
Voodoo
Julie Butler May 2014
Intuition of a witch
Is not one for weak bones
You see our glitches make you twitch
It's now our bones you call home
I see everything
And anything
You're trying to explore
You're walking through a tunnel
and suddenly see a door
Twisting at its ****
Has you stopping in your tracks
You see now how I've got you
Turned from your own path?
We witches get these itches
That turn our chests to metal
That we specifically build into cages
for hearts to sleep and settle
1.0k · Jan 2015
if. only.
Julie Butler Jan 2015
s o m e t i m e s
late at night
while I'm gawking at the sky
I make up spells with the stars
I play your face in my mind
and with your chains I am guided
through space & inside time
there is a life wherein you're mine
a silent light behind my eyes
it does the opposite of blind
& I am enlightened by this find
I say your name quite q u i e t l y
that even the birds feel so inclined
that i'm reminded of your smile
every time I watch them fly
you're like a diamond in a dream
that shines inside of wind-chimes
playing songs during my sleep
my own *r o m a n t i c
lullaby
the brightest beam I've ever seen
you belong beside the sky
& sometimes
just s o m e t i m e s
things aren't always as they seem
you know you can't say that to me
for I know exactly what i've seen
try and do what is best for you
1.0k · Jul 2016
stomachache
Julie Butler Jul 2016
while I chase the sunshine
& clouds framing the
shape of your mouth like
who am I to think she can fly or
get that high
but it's Sunday.
I am
asking the air a favor
that your thinnest shirt might
remind you of me
that the next time you run
the sun could burn you some
that we might get a drink and
blink a thousand times in a bar
is nonsense
is
weekend news
like a shovel to help make your pretty bed
call me your
friend and
tell her yes
wake up again and against it
ask me
if I am
in love
1.0k · May 2014
house boat
Julie Butler May 2014
I've constantly been floating
my body is a boat
& i can't see which way i'm going
no one wants to climb inside
these lonely oars
they aren't rowing
but these waves
pull me away
from the shores
i call my home
the water's cold
and without knowing
there's a hole
inside my sole
there's a flood inside my stowage
and i'm sinking rather slowly
I know not of where i'll go
now that i am no longer floating
at least i know
that fish have hope
for boats with holes
to build a home in
996 · Jun 2015
she's
Julie Butler Jun 2015
running marathons of

chasing something

something like the

breath you laid on my shirt

what cancer to this body
by how you treat my cells
is irrational

& why all of this sitting ?

I would run to you

but

I know what's twisting your doorknob

and it's already sent me away
993 · Nov 2016
trait
Julie Butler Nov 2016
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
979 · Jun 2015
go to
Julie Butler Jun 2015
love is
it is;
it's
to wish you
well-off
not to dissolve

while melting
and honey,
I'm melting

why can't I
can't I
can't
I can't
catch this
catch my
gasp, ******
this breath

why can't I have it ?
I've had it
with
astronaut emotion
head in outer space
what goes up
must come down

but I've been

d
o
w
n

drowned & coming up for air
at the last second to explode
the need to inhale
something
you or air

I c a n n o t decide which feels better
976 · Nov 2015
strum
Julie Butler Nov 2015
learning that love is
no more than in moments
I couldn't trade ours
so I frame them in poems

& I've turned down the Joni
turned down the heat
you left on my tongue
you poured
to my feet

I'm starting to see
I have
been-seeing-strings
& I hate that I hate now
believing in things

but I love to remember
& I'm starting to think
that all through these nights
& with every drink
that I still sink for you
& get weak just breathing
>|< Julie Butler
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