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 Nov 2013 Katelyn Knapp
RA
War Paint
 Nov 2013 Katelyn Knapp
RA
You think the thick blackness under my eyes looks like
War paint.
Like I am going out to battle the world and defeat one and all
that dare stand before me.
You think this thick darkness under my eyes looks like
Attention seeking.
Like I am silently screaming for people to notice me
and come closer.
I only draw in those
enchanted by demons
in love with darkness
at home in the night.
You say that eyes are the window to the soul. You are right.
And I am shuttering mine.
But my war paint does not help me battle
the world
My war paint helps me hide the battles that rage
inside me.
I could cry
Wash it away.
Let it go and surrender
and then let you in.
But when you see me
I see myself, reflected
in your eyes
and my own verdict
is damning.
November 10, 2013
my chest ached
until I met you,
until you let
every inch of
my skin be
bathed in the
sunlight of your
laugh, until
you breathed
all this new
air into me.
 Nov 2013 Katelyn Knapp
Ris Howie
It’s been highlighted, underlined, written on the side of my shoe: do not awaken love until it so desires.
It is to love then, not to me or to you, that I owe an apology
Because when they told me love hurts— I invited it to knock me down.

I think you try to talk to me because I knew you best and you like that,
But every time I offered you a tissue you took it as a chance to cut into mine,
And I let you to chip away a shade of my hue with every slice,
Changing the gradient and adding cracks to the contour of my soul.

Every time I slid my skin off for you it was under artificial light,
Painting the yellow pigment of my skin shades of black and blue instead of allowing me to stay golden because shiny wasn’t the right color,
You didn’t need to see your reflection the truth wasn’t interesting to you.

You didn’t take my honor you ignored its existence,
I made love to you without making you love me,
That’s why it’s so funny that now you don’t play hard to get,
you play hard to get rid of.

Realizing I deserved better changed everything,
You had nothing to offer but your own confusion and version of the world,
But I have my own now,
And I’ve colored it to be absent of your blacks and blues.
 Oct 2013 Katelyn Knapp
Mikaila
Days
 Oct 2013 Katelyn Knapp
Mikaila
Nobody sat me down before it was too late
And told me that this world was going to be like it is.
Nobody said to me,
"There will be days that feel like wet woolen blankets
And settle over your mouth and keep the fresh air out.
There will be days when you feel each second like a razorblade,
And days when the minutes blur by in blissful softness.
There will be days that feel, indeed, exactly the way it feels to step out
Into the sunlight on a clear summer morning,
And there will be days- whether good or bad- for which there are simply no words at all,
And those days will always scare you the most because
They can't be captured or understood.
There will be countless days that feel like leaden weights attached to your ankles
At the bottom of a cold sea
And many that slip by like grains of sand through your fingers,
Rough and smooth at once, neither warm nor frigid.
And there will come a day,
Every so often,
When you can see that your days are wearing thin,
The way that a sock wears thin when you have walked a long way in it over the years,
And the threads begin to fray.
These days will make your heart constrict because
No matter how many more you can see marching towards you in the distance
You know there could never possibly be enough of them to save you."
Nobody told me these things.
Nobody explained that it would be this way,
That every day would have its own feeling,
And I would have to learn anew to cope each morning.
Nobody explained to me that there is no cure for living,
For the ache in your stomach that makes you want to give up
Or for the ache in your heart that is so sweetly, electrically terrible you can't stand it.
There is no medication to treat how each day treats you.
I wish someone would have told me.
But,
Then again,
What exactly could I have done
If somebody had?
 Oct 2013 Katelyn Knapp
Emily J
My words are all forced and my heart is all scrunched, and I find myself resisting the urge to steal phrases from writers who are far better than I ever was.
Times change so rapidly, I could’ve sworn it was just winter. Now the leaves are falling again and it’s starting to get bitter.
I don’t have a coat warm enough to catch me up to the change in temperature. 

How our minds change so slowly to concepts we should’ve grasped so long ago. We hold onto familiarity and watch the roots slow, until we are all so lukewarm, and our attitudes so cold.
I peel apart each layer just to watch the bark grow.
Our imaginations never stop and the possibilities are endless, but we find ourselves infinitely alone when there’s no present body to remedy this.
Hours feel like days, and months are like years, just longing for a soul to listen in on our fears.
There’s nowhere we’d rather be than in the arms of a requited unending love: we say we don’t believe in fairytales but we’re all praying for our own version of one. 

What is life without dreams, what are dreams without scars? 
Who will be there to let me know the tears weren’t wasted at large? 
Where does the road of curiosity end and the path of the contempt complete; 

Do we ever get a hint in on God’s work or is our wondering obsolete?

I’m just resting on Your calls for my wandering, wandering feet.
 Aug 2013 Katelyn Knapp
am
I looked at him,
And he was so beautiful.
The way his eyes told me a story
The way his eyes told me the truth.

I looked at her,
And she was so beautiful.
The way her hair flicks of her shoulders,
The way her hair hid half of her insecure face.

As I looked at him,
I knew I needed him.
Everyday,
Every night.

As I looked at her,
I knew I wanted to be with her.
Everyday,
Every night.

I don't know what he thinks of me,
Or even what I think of myself.

I don't know what she thinks of me,
Or even what I think of myself.

All I do know is,
I love how he makes me feel.
Effortless,
Graceful.

All I do know is,
I love how she makes me feel.
Reckless,
Hopeful.

But yet,
I am always sad
I am not with him,
And probably never will be.

But yet,
I am sometimes sad,
We are not together,
And probably never will be.
Maybe I should just tell you how I feel
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