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Kate Browning Apr 2012
She brought cookies, in a
Ziploc bag, to my door.
I tugged on Mom’s
Carpet-textured sweater.

We swung on a swing
And she showed me
Her loose tooth. I pointed
At the Band-Aid on my knee.

The color of honey,
Inside a plastic
Bear, is what
Her hair looked like.

Red, black, neon yellow;
Caterpillars flooded
Our shared cigar box.
Then the tree-leaves fell.

We stomped our Sketchers
Behind her mom
And mine. They filled
Baskets with glue sticks.

Yellow buses opened
Their tall doors. They mouthed
At us to grow. The caterpillars
Laughed. So I grabbed her fingers.
Kate Browning Nov 2011
Time melting on your tongue,
Cerebral cortex banging until numb.
Wasting sleep with a book.
Dodging a nightmare word by word.

Pixilized contact never to last
For on the other side
Are the destructive eyes
That tore out your insides.

Chapter after chapter
****** rises and falls.
Tragic ending exposed:
You, all alone.

Lean on cats, novels,
Maybe even dopamine.
It won't change a thing
For your birthday, all you'll get is tears.

Crutches you choose
Crack, and can't hold the weight
Of the pathetic life you live
As your personality slowly disintegrates.
Kate Browning Nov 2011
On me like peeling skin;
A part of me but dying.
Flaking off, drifting down,
Forgetting that you belonged to me.

Summer is here, but doesn't
Smell like Summer smells.
It seems like more bugs
Are dying in the light.

Friends surround me like
Junk at a yard sale.
Familiar, but about to
Be lost in the distance.

Belonging isn't what we want here.
It doesn't matter how
Important you make me feel,
I'll never feel it.

When I'm here with them,
I'm there alone.
The people who were there
Aren't allowed to care anymore.

Society loves to dream,
Take pride in themselves,
Dreaming their dreams,
Leading new crowds.

But dreaming a dream, to me,
Is more than pride or sleeping.
Creating memories that weren't remembered,
Forgetting the ones that were.

You're here with me,
Except not in reality.
No one to talk to,
No one I need.

Rapidly tripping
Just to fall to sleep.
You're all I have left
To dream about in dreams.
Kate Browning Nov 2011
Straining your neck to get a second look
At distant locks
Shaking "I tried"
Turning door knobs inside out

Anxious patterns spinning ties
Sweating for warmth
Stepping into socks, enclosed travels
You're too cold to exist

Grabbing anything you can grab in sight
Twisting your mind
To escape living ecstasy
Dreams of you and me

The moon falls upward
The sky falls below while the cars fly
Like a limousine to me
You used to be considered fancy

Six feet under, in my mind
Forgotten parts of cringing discoveries
Lost and found inside miscellaneous medicines
Remodeling harsh eyes

Confused expressions set on autopilot
Degrading, regenerating
Organs and miles of dusted feet
Lost between them that are you

Emotions trample your face
Tracking slush in the cracks of your flaws
Where is the army fleeing?
Desire to feel them burn

Spines form to given foam
But as you lose yourself they trade for former homes
Laying themselves down, unaligned
In different storylines

Dictionaries have answers to everything known
Owning all meanings, meaning nothing at all
Labeling individuals and all things
From avalanches to eruption of mankind

Fix my eyes on you
Scribble languages on napkins
To bring education from there to near
Forget this just to remember.
Kate Browning Oct 2012
He was there with
me, now he's there
with her. Or him,
them, maybe all alone.

He makes things better
by slipping endorphins and
stimulants of all different
shades down his little-boy throat.

He used to tickle my
sides and put kisses on
my shell, that held my
cerebellum in all nice and snug.

We would go no where;
Never get anything done.
We would make small
talk about growing up.

I would think about him and
think that he wasn't enough.
He was nice and gave
me all that he had got.

All of the lonesomeness, all of
the sad, all of the mad crept about.
Past my hazel irises and
began to erupt, mushing out.

Out of my ears, my pores, some right
out of my mouth. That day in March
my hypothalamus flip-flopped and
resigned from its job.

The boy who was there fell
right out of touch. An automatic
reflex kicked in quicker than
a frog catching a bug.

My legs lay criss-crossed and
bony, unshaven as I picture
him picturing his old best
friend, who he left and lost.

He day dreams of being aged and
playing Go Fish. Crackling at me
to draw, I grab his prune-textured
hand. In real life he starts to cry.

He sets down his room temperature can
of Mountain Dew. Grabs a couple of different
colored pills and goes out to party
in attempt to help him not remember.
Kate Browning Dec 2011
Slipping away from lips
Pushing syllables down devices
Listen now for repetition
Tires the sobbing minds that consume hope.

Ripping through Kleenex boxes
Craving for the transformation
Of the environment's filters
Stick out from the extroverts.

Relapsing into treasured and agonizing
Scenarios, collapsing to the ground
Buried beneath false pipes
And dripping water fountains.

Analysis of health states
That the only wellness left
Is spirituality, eroding
False beaches, pretending to be needed.

Pondering the journeys missed
How "life is so sad"
When gravity grasps you, as you clip
Your toenails, he watches strangers stare.

Indescribable malice captivates breath
From the inside, puncturing pitiful intestines
As you think about him
Thinking about anything but you.
Kate Browning Jul 2012
Straight as a ruler
she skimmers the walls,
hissing, "Leave me alone
because I'm lonely."  And so the
bugs, one by one, clunk and fall. 

Tulips douse themselves with dew,
hiding from common sunlight.
To her, they're tearing up like third
graders in time out, so she moans
and groans and waits for the weary.

She wants to be friendly, make friends,
and maybe even cry. Yet she plots and
plans as if she were a master mind.
Constantly reminded that not one
person would know if she died.

Peek in the tree house,
the basement, the yard.
Check for blue stains that she
Dripped on the rug. Lurking and
craving to be smaller than dust.

She pokes and prods at all
of their blinds, as they slice
thin arms allowing veins to cry.
Glance up to see a girl in blue, they simply
explain that their eyes are too dry to.

In the laundry room past
mud-coated boots and holey socks,
she pulls off her blue garments.
As they soak in sud, she
proceeds to drown them in bleach.

While hanging on the line,
she fills up an abandoned sand
bucket with paint bluer than
her eyes. Placing one foot after
another, flinching inside.

It absorbs up her skin,
leaking into her pores, thinking
of how she can't affect anyone at
all. So she holds her head under
the paint a second too long.
Kate Browning May 2013
Our brains run on the
Same frequency, a precise
Pitch. Subconsciously stumbling
Into a cranium-themed cohabitation.

With Bics in hand
We catch inconsistent and
Rapid glimpses of a
Contemporary "real" world.

Shape-shifting from one
Ideology to the next.
Using time as a distraction; it's
Human nature to pause for countdowns.

They're all painted over. Oceans and
Gulfs covering lava and intrapersonal
Insides. Scrape it all off and you'll find that
Without all of the adhesives they bruise

Easier.
Kate Browning Nov 2011
Enhance discreet insanity,
Step onto the balcony.
Vent through your lungs,
Leave your skin behind.

Everyone desires
A dancing fool. Publicize
The art of embarrassment.
Ears are simply an attachment.

Branding opinions mouths,
Shooting out tension through
Distinct fingertips. Let your
Hair wave naturally.

Only one knows what you are:
Bolts, metal exterior, flashing eyes.
Give up the truth and scream
Your mind. Fall for your own kind.
Kate Browning Jan 2013
I.
Never tell anyone anything.
Never remember anyone.
Never explain yourself to anyone.
Never cry in front of anyone.
Never imagine a happy future.
Never picture yourself with anyone.
Never miss anything.
Never care about anything too much.
Never be mean to anyone.

II.
It is dark and cobb-webby in here and I have got to
Shake it out.
Untouchable: my skin grows chilled and
Raw. Lack of interaction,
Severed from a collective
Norm.
Step aside the dark.
Don’t be naïve.
Believe in it.
Never believe in good.
Never believe in a savior.

III.
Never believe that you worthy of anything
Or anyone.

IV.
Light candles.
Read Vonnegut.
Never let anyone know.
Kate Browning Jan 2012
A jump rope lisping
Through loose gravel and rhymes.
Resembling orchestras and rapidly
Scratched-out novels,
Evolution of an indifferent ******.

Delicate lacework stitched
Beneath the youthful
And frail. Disintegrating
Like a bird’s nest, once
Air conditioning expires.

Scampering between markets,
Wavering while waiting
In redundant lines, as you
Carelessly caress outerwear that you
Waited in line for yesterday.

Placing yourself professionally
On seats, beside plainly colored
Briefcases. Quivering arms
Tingle, as the blood
Relinquishes.

Wordless entities fill
Empty rooms, as pressure
Builds from the exterior and in.
Tarnished sneakers sink and slip,
Amidst cunning quicksand.

Mangled and thrashed,
Fabrics that used to be
Accustom to merry-go-rounds, and dry
Eyes. Gently laced hemming,
Lacerated at the seams.

Stroll down whimpering sidewalks
That sting for vibrations, fixed
By a stranger’s oblivious feet.
Jerking outerwear closer
As no emotions pass.

Synthetic joy overcomes
You, when droning
Minds think alike.
Wriggling and skulking
To cease the crunching of time.
Kate Browning Mar 2012
Creased felines crossing lines,
Pressing claws into dust.
Western hemisphere,
Reviving the pilgrimage.

Bubbles and logs
Satiate their under garments.
Enhancing hair follicles
Resembling shards and spurs.

At a woodsy bar,
A tabby liberated the fangs
He rented last holiday.
The bartender shook with perplexity.

Reacting simultaneously-
A minor character, Little Leon.
The dusty town called him
Leon, for he was alone.

Little Leon got taller
In a basement full
Of water. The dusty town
Was an adjustment.

The tabby and Little Leon
Faced off for recognition.
Leon wretchedly charged
The floor boards with sopping ends.

Crayon versus colored pencil;
They chose their weapons
Anxiously.  It was
Bring your son to work day.

The bent bartender
Spared his child’s eyes.
“I’m not your little boy,”
The child shrilled at him.

“I don’t want trains,
Or fake guns meant for play.
I miss my mom,
And dresses on Sunday.”

Cats on a pilgrimage,
Rarely stop from
Slurping a drink. Pity refilled
Cups, as tails twitched in trial.

The tabby and Leon
Came to a halt, seeing as
Punishment was engraved atop
The bartender’s grungy mitts.

The clowder gathered,
As the Tabby scolded the man
Behind the bar. “Remember where
you leave your beverage.”

And that was that.

Leon’s internal complexity,
Being left with only himself,
Dissipated. There are others
Who feel more alone.

Tabby picked up his crayon.
His spurs clanked
And spun, as his guided
His feline friends out the front.

Tumbleweed skidded
Outside the bar.
The bartender finally saw
That his son was not a son.
Kate Browning Nov 2011
Vital organs wasting away
On a life of my own,
Shattered to nothing.
Push me out of a moving car
Settle for less than road ****.

Meet my eyes, trip inside
Witness the abuse of my soul.
Shake the emotions of loss
Away, yearn to drown in clarity.

An avalanche will do!
Trampling your mind.
Paralyzing your limbs.
Movement of no kind.

After the terror is lost in the snow,
Remember the horror of
The girl, who was left alone.
Travel with her, place unknown.
Flee from society's priorities that roam.

Drool for captivating mankind,
Bury past loves in trashcans. Take
Whiffs of their boxed-up selves,
Rotting away like the ******* the road.

Realize this universe
Moves in a circle,
Everyone knows nothing.
Emptiness and ignorance suffocating
You, the girl, eyes, and trashcans.

Nothing.
Kate Browning Nov 2011
Brains constantly devoured,
Forged as the unknown.
Intellect decieving creative diction
Pardon errors and revise.

The hours you spent
Absorbing anything but sleep,
Piles up to the layers
Of stars and air.

Stop being the person
You thought you were.
Brush off values you knew,
Learn to teach something old.

Tear ducts flood out
Sodium enhanced contracts,
That binded you to affliction
Yesterday, and all hours that remain.

It doesn't have to stop,
And it doesn't have to start.
Sit through the releasing
Of depressing minds.

Cope with the contract
That you desperately signed.
Let them hear you weep
And see your pathetic eyes.

Stars shine with hope,
You shine with sadness.
Thirsting for more oppertunities
That allow you to feel something.

Now that there is nothing left
To feel, and nothing left
To hate, forgetting them
Is chronologically ensuing.
Kate Browning Mar 2012
Different voices whirl
Around brain mass.
Pang for a tone
That hasn’t gone mad.

Create a realm
Where memories,
Of November,
Are cut out and sold.

Tell the voices
To draw a tale.
Boxes popping about;
From dry air.

Screeching rhythms
As you fold
Onto men,
Like Saran Wrap.  

Authority can’t resolve
Genetic stigmas.
Hidden formulas appear,
Toxicity enthralls.

Grasp her bony joints,
Bathe in unkempt hair,
Let marsh stricken irises
Put an anchor inside.
Kate Browning May 2012
He crinkled the daily
paper and thought out
loud, "You're my
best friend."

She scuffed her
kitten heels, prodding
for more. Far inside she
told herself to take it lightly.

He knew she knew
that he knew it was
temporary. Acting as if
she made him happy.

She sunk deep in
the velvet green
couch. Cons and pros
of being the leaver or the left.

He stared past Valentine
cards and the spot on
the carpet, where they
laughed and spilled tomato soup.

Their faces drooped and became
that soup. Sodium and protein
soaking into the ground
every which-way.

She resided and sat
up out of their yard-sale
bought couch. She set her
mind on staying by his side.

He toppled over on
the yard tools he never
touched. Now next to his
side was the Earth's crust.

She was left in the air
and he laid in muck.
His voice played over in her
head, "You're my best friend."
Kate Browning Nov 2011
Stomachs churning, aching mind;
Losing the goodness you held yesterday.
Blinking once, twice
Wishing you were asleep.

Motivational speeches
Become daily conversations,
As they yank at your eyelids
To keep you alert.

Debating with no one,
Not even yourself,
About the economy
Crushing worlds.

Burning your hands
For money you never see.
How did money get so famous?
Foundation of selfish dreams.

Running individuals' lives
Since the Barter System.
At least with that, you had time
To fall into REM sleep.

Corruption is all
This place comes with.
Unless you're dead.
Then all it comes with is dirt.

Tuck me in at night.
Surround me with nothing,
Until I remember
The goodness I held yesterday.

Tell me stories,
And release the eyelids
You tried so hard
To keep ajar.

Let me drift up
In pure oxygen,
That allows me to breathe
Without thinking.

— The End —