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In a world where traumas are written all over our bodies


He has a bipolar jaw line and a suicidal knee cap,

collapsing and shaking

and reverberating his thoughts through his PTSD lip.

It quivers, and she looks away with an autistic eyelid.

See her a deaf cheek?

Their blind foreheads fluctuate, and their arthritic fingers vibrate.

Reynard’s Disease. Or Disorder IV. Perhaps,

one we’ve never heard before consumes the heart that’s about to break.

....

This was read at the University of Kansas in May of 2013: Read more about this event here:

http://shannonathompson.com/2013/05/10/contest-winners-and-poetry-from-my-ku-reading/
This was read at the University of Kansas in May of 2013: Read more about this event here:

http://shannonathompson.com/2013/05/10/contest-winners-and-poetry-from-my-ku-reading/
 Oct 2014 Leah Rae
Sydney Noxon
Dear ex-boyfriend,
I'm sorry you had to go.
It wasn't fair, but I understand.
Your happiness was just as important to me
as my own.

Dear ex-boyfriend,
I hope you're doing well.
Never will I wish ill upon you,
no matter how much I wish I hate you.

Dear ex-boyfriend,
I'm crying on the floor.
My sadness is a black hole trying to **** me into myself.
I miss you.

Dear ex-boyfriend,
I'm wearing the make up that you hated.
*******.
I do what I want.

Dear ex-boyfriend,
You gave me hope that you would come back for me.
Don't.

Dear ex-boyfriend,
I realized that I never needed you to love me.
I realized that I was right here to do it for you.

Dear ex-boyfriend,
I look back fondly on our time together.
I will always love you.
But you left, and please never look back.

Dear ex-boyfriend,
One day you'll find a girl better than me.
I hope she makes you happy.
 Oct 2014 Leah Rae
Gigi Tiji
spark of life
touches earth
leaves crackle and
explode into breath

in deep romance, my
lungs kiss smoke
and Spirit expands within

sinking and
soaking through skin

deep into my roots dripping
into channels of rivers flowing
freely to my brain crackling
with neurons ever grasping
dendritically to reach
nutritious extrapolations
stormy interpretations
and interpolations

crackling
branches of
white birch lightning
 Oct 2014 Leah Rae
Amaya Bhavya
Hi, I'm Happiness!

People don't invite me too often.
They live in melancholy, I feel forgotten.
My heart is ravaged by sadness.
Everybody wants me but, can't have me.
I'm simple; they make me complicated.
Sometimes people get unnerve because they don't want to lose me.

Hi,I'm Happiness!

I feel desolated.
I come in different forms;
As your lover, ice-cream, family, shopping
..still I'm short lived in your lives.

Hi,I'm Happiness

I'm in your mind;
not your final destination.
There’s pills, potions
but nothing truly
can cure my emotions

© Matthew Harlovic
Thanks for letting this poem trend. It's a nice gesture to wake to.
 Oct 2014 Leah Rae
Kelly Rose
He helped drag me
up from the pit of despair
as no other would
How much loyalty
does that warrant?
His unhappiness
chips away at my armor
I hate his unhappiness
and my uselessness
I yearn for happiness
and contentment
But, his sorrow
erodes it
leaving frustration
and anger in its wake
as I sit and wonder
how long does it
take for love
to die?
10/26/2014
useless am I
in the face of his sorrow
his anger
his pain
 Oct 2014 Leah Rae
Elioinai
Today I observed the flaming trees,
The flakes of gold drifting in the wind,
Like sleepy fairies,
And I thought,
I want to die like a maple,
die like an aspen in the fall,

as my strength is stripped away,
the underlying poetry of my veins is exposed,
and the tough skin peels back,
to show my unsung melodies,
Every note!

and it is a song,
blending beautifully with the cosmos,
Oh, that I would die like a tree,
when you see my barren body,
remember my last red moment,
full of auroreatic brilliance,
 Sep 2014 Leah Rae
Mr X
Maybe there resides a phoenix in you...
Yes YOU,
You, who tried to cut the veins and paint your hands red,
You, who finally decided to just give up on your life.
Maybe inside you there rested a piece of hope,
A hope that tells that Death brings peace,
And giving up, solves all your humane problems....
Is it because of this hope or this phoenix,
That we ordinary humans often end up destroying ourselves...
Sometimes unknowingly,
And sometimes knowingly...like you did.

The truth has always been
From destruction comes life...
But you were never the phoenix you so much longed to be...
You were in fact, just another container for petting it's soul.
From your destruction, there'll never be a new life....
You've just ended up in planting the phoenix in our souls.
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