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10.8k · May 2015
weekend
Maddy Van Buren May 2015
Fridays nights always start the same
and they go like this:
I've got a hopeless wonder
you've all got bad intentions
hit me once, I can't hit back
it's a ragged jumbled way
to start a weekend
start anything really
and I'm more of a loser now than I've ever been
sitting in the blackout
maybe starved, maybe just tired
knowing someone
it can't cure Friday nights
because I never really knew anyone
seemingly
had the world at my feet
and no one by my side
but you who sits there
you need to listen
because one day I'll be gone
I will have the world on fire
and the nights I needed
and maybe then you'll understand why
I spent so many Friday nights
at the top of that hill
crying
2.7k · Mar 2015
speaking in tenses
Maddy Van Buren Mar 2015
I make myself stop writing of you
present tense
because if you aren't here
I find
I am romanticizing a confused memory
past tense
and you never were that great
or strong enough
to pull me out of
this sinking ship
perfect tense
I didn't think that a lover
could do anything except
but even jesus turned tables
in his anger
and I've found that wanting
leads to speaking in tenses
not yet intact
so I have been waiting on
a new day
a new feel
a new touch
future tense
2.6k · Mar 2015
contradict
Maddy Van Buren Mar 2015
I am writing angry poetry to a boy who doesn't read
I am praying no good prayers to
a God who doesn't listen
And I am making a peace
with the chaos that lives inside me
2.1k · Mar 2015
bathed
Maddy Van Buren Mar 2015
fill a tub with rose petals
as the faucet cries
no time to mourn anyone
now
guitar hums with a slowness
i don't seem to remember
a lonely pain underwater
emotionless motionless
water mends
neck deep
when will the violin scream
when it does
promise me
you can't hear it either
from way down here
2.1k · Jun 2016
Ferris wheel
Maddy Van Buren Jun 2016
I want to go on a Ferris wheel
big and tall
and feed you to my feelings
kiss you because there is moonlight
I'm moonlight,
neon and sunny
I like to dangle my feet
and I'm not afraid
if I get to look at you
and we get to look up
I want to go on a Ferris wheel
but only with you
Maddy Van Buren Oct 2015
you are the headache
and the heart attack
the one I wrote about long ago
back then
I didn't really think
all I felt
it flooded every document
every letter a feeling
now
the hurricane is over
the pain doused
and I'm left wondering
how were all those things
the good memories
left out about you?
I didn't think I'd need
or crave, even
another pain in my brain
and shock to my heart
1.9k · Dec 2015
the intro
Maddy Van Buren Dec 2015
and I'll pour all my sadness into you
should you like what I say and what I do
never let there be a pausing moment
as I had him in winter but he left me in spring
so now I wonder what fresh air should bring
every passing part of me gives way
and after everything here
I am still around
to welcome you in on a brighter day
Maddy Van Buren May 2015
good boys can wait their turn
have me when I'm dead and ready
right now im physcotic
only care about narcotics
this raging traffic inside my head
symphonic, I'm overdosing
always going
catatonic
because I'm a doll hooked on adderall
you wish I'd fall
I know you wanna see me off the ledge
but I'm 6 feet tall
in my fur coat stillettos golden halls
turning gray alleys and we can't breathe
we can't breathe and death's a tease
******* thief
if you ask me
and what I wouldn't give
for a bad boy to just be good
treat her right, one night
to hold a hand with no claws
kiss a face, no bite involved
all these boys from outta town
already dead, and out of ground
giving me heartache, fade in, blackout
it's too **** late
just wanna sleep
take another pill, live-in hell
it's all you ever wanted
la princessa fell
Maddy Van Buren Oct 2016
i think hell is driving through your hometown
in the middle of the night, like a ghost
you wander through the aisles
of the gas stations
hostess snacks and beef jerky
and your cold, dead hands
you picking out a pack of cigarettes
the love of your life a whole state away
never even realizing
you've been dead
this whole time
you were doomed the day you were born
until the day you die
and after that
1.4k · May 2015
a poison of preference
Maddy Van Buren May 2015
no matter how much sugar
or honey you pour
poison is poison
what's dead is gone
and cannot be revived
the boy with a bite
will always leave a nasty mark
on the hands you gift him
and no one will sweeten
the way your corpse rots
it's unfortunate to think so
but whatever you've mixed
at the end of the day
is what trails down your throat
foolish to believe
what's killing you
isn't the poison
but the sweetness you once poured
over and over again
into a glass always half full
optimism filled prison cell
you are blind to think
your poison may not be the reason
you are coughing up your dignity
and dying of his laughter
Maddy Van Buren Apr 2015
an unrelenting headache
only saying words to get girls
to sink into bed with you
as you're too insecure
to ever really
sleep alone
and I know, oh I know
a face pristine
for many reasons
God gave you a look
in lieu of conscience
set fire to your heart,
tongue beating out words,
too many words
I longed to hear
words that made me touch you
you begged for me to touch you
I'm numb since I touched you
pit me against the last
that's all you ever did
but I know, I've known
you keep a tidy home
but there are doors, you say,
leading to nowhere
but I know where
and your closets lock girls inside
trapped in figment
objectified or dignified?
should they be honored
that after you touched their body
and fed them lies
you chose to keep their skeletons
in faroff doorways of the mind?
which only open on occasion
as you reminisce and remember
you never got over her laugh
and her scent never really did leave
and now, here you lay
trapped in bed with another one
but here she lingers
and here she stays
as the new her drops kisses
down your neck; you sweat
and tell her she cannot linger
she cannot stay
her hour glass body run out
sunrise hair faded midday
she's given, given, given
for your take, her mistake
goodnight to your girl
and pray God has mercy
for cruel little heart attacks
like you
1.3k · Nov 2015
advice
Maddy Van Buren Nov 2015
you can be pretty and you can be smart
but that won't make them like you
that won't make the monsters go away
it won't make you happy
all of the beauty and the knowledge,
what you need to be
is dumb
because if you're dumb
it'll make you happy
and if you're dumb enough
they will like you
and you won't ever recognize the monsters
God-willing
1.1k · Mar 2016
a love song I think
Maddy Van Buren Mar 2016
I'm thinking of you
in warmer weather
I still like your thinness
somehow lack of substance
never compared
to your company
I remember a night we fell asleep
looking at each other
and you were just so tired
I tie my hands in knots
and throw fits
waiting for that to happen
once more
1.1k · Feb 2016
heroin
Maddy Van Buren Feb 2016
I fell asleep in the Devil's arms
I lied awake, laid in waste
that there Devil
make sure he wakes up
demon girl should be up
until noon
sorry, sorry
don't put the needle back in
I'll be fine
illness be fine
1.1k · Jul 2015
miracle
Maddy Van Buren Jul 2015
"a miracle baby"
my mother must have said
when I arrived in her arms
and I was happy
"a miracle, baby"
is what I said
when he asked how
I didn't die from all the pills
and I was so unhappy
1.0k · Dec 2015
everything is Eden
Maddy Van Buren Dec 2015
colosseums crumbling
stained glass shattered
I knew these relics would not stay
as everything is Eden
everything is decay
marble will be dust
velvet curtains torn
in the tapestry we put our trust
Rome will mutter, "what more?"
sink the silver
we will follow
as grief is to grief
as palaces to gallows
949 · Oct 2015
damn good worker
Maddy Van Buren Oct 2015
but I'm a **** good worker
at being so unhappy
it takes a lot
to be this naive
I've had to turn my back
on so, so many
**** red flags
and paint the frown
and fill the cup
and empty my mouth
like I empty my stomach
all at once
and walk home alone
and tell my mom it's fine
when I sound bad on the phone
because it's getting bad and I'm alone
and I've had to do so much
to keep my blind optimism
as visionless as ever
I've had to smell my shirt
since it had your scent
pretend you're there
for more than my framework
for more than that
turn my head
when I know you aren't
when I know you're not
when I walk home alone
after we've touched
and I just feel
that I deserve this
to be recognized
as the most hopeless
neurotic,
unconscious
**** good worker
934 · Sep 2015
drunk
Maddy Van Buren Sep 2015
I spent the night drunk
isn't it gross?
I could have been in your arms
instead
I wrapped my lips in liquor
it all swept me away
funny
you used to do that
887 · Oct 2016
I'm drunk
Maddy Van Buren Oct 2016
I'm drunk
here are the things I never said to you
I don't know why we're fighting
i want you to love like I do
I'm trying my hardest not to stare
at the screen of my phone
it's not a picture of you
I want it to be
I'm doing better though
I don't think I need you
I just really want you
as comfort
no matter how many times
you upset me
and pull the trigger
I'm just drunk
and you're what I want
874 · Jan 2016
mercy
Maddy Van Buren Jan 2016
since when did I lose my temper?
sunken beneath my throne
I am crumbling marble
shattering stone
it can't be
let a man ever dare
defy, touch me
I am not in ruins anymore
who had this be?
I am no longer
anger incarnate
the boy became man
and he let my ashes rise,
rise up to the surface
my madness fails me
let a man ever **** me
make love to me in my own
pool of bitter, anguished thoughts
I cut his hair like Samson
and he pet the monster
I keep on leash
doubled over in agony
he wept at my feet
and in turn
I plucked out all the thorns
hidden deep
and surrendered
855 · May 2015
insanity
Maddy Van Buren May 2015
I envy your poise
your solidarity
an untampered grace
of which I could not know
I imagine one day
I too
can keep the words from spilling
trickling from my throat
down the corners of an upturned mouth
I dream that I may keep focus
a clear and narrow vision
until then
I muddle through a landfill
of memory I keep
for old time sake, for god knows why
I tend to make sharp breaks
in word and action
for no apparent reason
except that logic is not my forte
I've given in
to irrational
insanity gave me a voice
and I will not soon
make myself a mute
all for a chance
at normalcy
806 · Jan 2017
an explanation
Maddy Van Buren Jan 2017
i try to open up
and bees and moths and venom
spurt from my chest
my rib cage so hollow
you knock it down
tear the tissue from my outline
i am just a shell
the skeleton my biological walls
built to protect me
broken to tease me
i feel like you've been
hammering on my heart
for years now
so much i can't say
with punctured lungs
794 · Dec 2015
big city concrete
Maddy Van Buren Dec 2015
my skin is hellbent on flames
tears are grease in my lashes
nothing about big city concrete
is lavish
Rock back and forth on cement
to forget I rock back and forth
on your bed
and what it never,
never meant
who dare tell me I'm sinful
instead, pray I stop this addiction
to pins and needles, menthol
stop telling me I'm broken
when I never worked
to begin with
chains chokin'
Rockefeller pout infectious
I will own this ******* world
it will be the death of us
I'm only a rough draft
in the middle of culminations
but this big city concrete
it is death, determination
isn't this all
what I'm running to
chasing
713 · Jun 2015
questions I will ask myself
Maddy Van Buren Jun 2015
in sleepless nights
why do you want everything to hurt
when you could alleviate your pain
you sulk through the days
not caring who you've damaged
your pain is your burden
but you carry it so well
retrieve the memories of me
remember you and I
we didn't harbor pain
but you couldn't bear the harmony
so you cut the strings
and damaged the chords
our symphony's shriveled sound
no longer beat to our drums
your heart had changed tunes
but why is all I've ever asked
would you rather lay in a casket
surrounded by roses
than in the tall grass
on summer days
staring back at me
680 · Jan 2016
3am
Maddy Van Buren Jan 2016
3am
it's 3 am and I don't care how it sounds
I am just going to write what has happened
anything involving you to me has ceased
and anything that tethers me to you is my enemy
fallen, fallen
why would you give me fake love
my security wasn't true
you cash in on my loyalty
I'm broke, I'm broke
I don't have anything for you!
still you found something
I thought nothing left of that me
now I'm here in my bed
afraid to go near the room where we slept
afraid memories will make me call
afraid the phone will just ring and ring
afraid of what I'll do
ring and ring
669 · Jul 2016
see through
Maddy Van Buren Jul 2016
I think about you over and over
until my heart grows numb
and my hands get old
maybe we will feel something
the same one day or another
as it turns dark out
I lose your small frame
as the sky blackens around us
I should have more things to say
but I don't
I just don't
and I never do
642 · Jun 2016
living legend
Maddy Van Buren Jun 2016
all my heroes
became stereotypes
and littered the streets
with decrepit versions of
honesty and fame
I tried to pick up
all their pieces and
put them back together
but the shards of people
cut deep
and I didn't want to bleed
like that
they shall remain
nameless, now,
I don't want to disrupt
anyone's final parade
charade
we all died
in the end
anyway
627 · Dec 2015
fatality
Maddy Van Buren Dec 2015
I made my way through the streets
words echoing,
"you like it rough"
as I crawled to the smallness
and back into the box
full of desperate optimism
deepest condolences
out of date
addresses
cab fairs to
quick messes
tongue tied
his rejection
words deafened
madness
learned lessons
back way
intersections
"no" I said
interrupting,
"mind numbing"
610 · Apr 2016
bad joke
Maddy Van Buren Apr 2016
no, I'm not a bad joke
this is me
I've obsessed over another girl's
Instagram
and I've thought myself
better
when I've been
worse
but what you don't know
is through it all
I've been the same
always the same
I'm not soft
and I'm not who you take home
but I've been happy
some people like me
and the others don't
all in all
here I am
605 · Jul 2016
machine
Maddy Van Buren Jul 2016
am I hard to please?
or are you just
insufficient
a machine, out of order
you've come to do less
for me
than I've done
for you
like a machine,
I will put you away
for someone else
to use
597 · Mar 2015
back to her
Maddy Van Buren Mar 2015
i never cursed a name
or wanted to see graves
but my ears are bleeding
and i thought we were fine
you kept saying we were fine
i'm dusting off our old plans
making maps of the mistakes
connected the lie to the lost words
the ones you didn't mean to speak
an astronomical rate of error
detected in these long forgotten
conversations we were always
trying not to have
but i thought, only hoped
your cold wouldn't find its way
back to her
596 · Apr 2015
tic
Maddy Van Buren Apr 2015
tic
maybe you are my new nervous tick, because let's be honest, I'm a little obsessive. and if it's not you, it's the person after you. the person I can't recognize because I am so blind to everything but what we had. it's my involuntary physical and mental attraction to you that makes me tic, makes a tic, that is my tic. it's repetitive; calling you Friday night after Friday night, believing it may fill me up without drowning me out. but I'm empty, I'm always empty. I don't mean to involve you, and I know you think I do this because you're still my everything, but you're just a something. a physical preoccupation I've yet to overcome, as you're always in reach. cover up the void you've left behind, never fill it - that isn't your place; tics are not mutually beneficial. we in no way help each other. do not know a way to help each other. you aren't my saving grace; you're the bad habit. the phantom limb I need to forget. the tic to fit my criteria: close, but never here. available to hold me, but in holding me you're making my tears. could you ever fathom such a senseless incongruity? and just where are you now? you're holding me in the darkness but I know you don't feel what I feel, won't ever feel a thing. me ignoring the truth of your coldness, the brevity of your affection - tics like your timepiece. maybe next Friday night, it'll be different. maybe next Friday night, I won't need a tic like a crutch, won't be crushed. until then.
593 · Jan 2016
let's
Maddy Van Buren Jan 2016
had your phone turned off
I know you couldn't pay it
I turned mine off too
maybe now we can
finally
talk
574 · May 2015
moving out
Maddy Van Buren May 2015
you say I like change
But insomnia leads to insistency
And all I've spent time doing is retracing my steps, questioning my own lucidity
Drove down the avenues I used to think we're cool
hung around my old friends who used to think it was cool
to pop the advils I kept on windowsills
in case I needed a reminder of
why I don't like pills
and I still don't like pills
Because they burn throats and make me forget the anecdotes I said in doubt
But visions of the future make me forget, regret instead leave these hazed clouds
And this monster clawing at my door,
Praying of an unholy meeting between us
now I can say that I'm sure
That the change is the enemy
But it doesn't want me,
I watch everyone around me go nameless, faceless, bleed
Disjointed, contorted see this reality fade black
All I've ever known changes, but I'll try
and I'll try
to keep a faith intact
566 · Oct 2016
grasping at straws
Maddy Van Buren Oct 2016
falling through cracks
living alone
knowing I needn't take you back
the hurt is the same
withstanding quiet disapproval
forgetting you want to get away
for a moment you are mine
the moment is fading
you've never said to me the right line
I've wanted to love you for so long
I'll do anything, anything
to make you want me this long
561 · Apr 2016
grass graves
Maddy Van Buren Apr 2016
there wasn't anything left of us
I look around the field
my friends
what used to be
dying
I can't sacrifice myself
for memories
that isn't brave
there is no glory
but there is hope between
us and the next
life
I bow my head
and raise my sword
it is time to leave this
what once was
my friends, my enemies
you sleep in peace,
love
Maddy Van Buren Mar 2015
I will make a mountain
from the ashes of your mistakes
and I will fill my lungs
with your air, your waste of space
552 · Aug 2016
___
Maddy Van Buren Aug 2016
___
one minute you are the love of my life
the next you are the crumbs on my floor
and the sirens in my head
I don't blame you for your faults
you can be so distant when I'm only
an inch from your face to mine
the stitches on my legs are breaking
and I've thought about running
from time to time
I don't know if I can get away
do you love me enough to say more
than what you've been swallowing
throughout the years as they pass and go

I go
do you want to leave yet?

I go for broke and you are my only gamble
you give me **** for roses and laughs for aches
I've never wanted to be so distant
than I am now
I'm pulling myself back to,

how, how,
how?
a funny word I said again to myself
how
am I here again
551 · Mar 2016
dad
Maddy Van Buren Mar 2016
dad
if you found what I wrote
would you scream?
I am thinking of my father
now I am thinking of my father
thinking of you
maybe he'd scream about both
I don't want him to know
I'd rather he just think
I'm nice
and detached
544 · Jul 2015
growing up
Maddy Van Buren Jul 2015
the hardest part
about trying to grow up
is that my mom
she never leaves
the garage door open
anymore
and doesn't call me
if she wants to know
when I'll be home
I guess maybe
she may not want to know
if I'm coming home
anymore
530 · Jan 2016
mania
Maddy Van Buren Jan 2016
you want me to be happy
adventure because, why not?
be a free spirit
be a free spirit and
forget about the chaos inside me
because, after all,
I am so, so happy
to be near you
aren't I?
to be for you
aren't I?
your mystery
I dance around
the kitchen table
and put flowers in my hair
every color of
the prettiest rainbow
here I am
God, I'm so pretty
I'm so smart too
but not too smart
I'm just smart enough
to make you feel
smart too
God, I really am just
one of a kind
your kind
the only kind
that matters to be
truly
tell me,
am I just everything
you've ever
wanted?
I'm just so, so entrancing
that's really why I'm here
to be yours
your ******* pixie dream
your ******* sunshine
coked out
queen  
I'm just your ******* doll
I'm so ******* pretty
I'm so ******* different
I'm just so *******
stupid
524 · Mar 2015
a boy
Maddy Van Buren Mar 2015
I wrote a symphony for a boy
who turned out to be deaf
Poems for the blind
Wasted time, logic left
My everything made empty
My sweet made sour
Searched a face for answers
Why I had no power
Words to a boy
******* neatly with a bow
Words to a boy
Oceans made shallow
Wasted time, logic left
Poems for the blind
I gave my heart to a boy
who turned out to be death
506 · Mar 2015
muse
Maddy Van Buren Mar 2015
you've told me you are uncomfortable
my words about you are cruel
that poems should not be
dipped in gasoline and tar
left to burn poison flames
but these words are beauty
they are what you've done to me
I cannot find error in a truth
you chose to create
yet you still defend your ******
that I am overthinking
but I am just writing
I am writing pain and aches
and the tightening in my chest
do you feel it? can you feel it?
I write in good spirits
that someone else may read
the writing on these walls
realize that your love is not worth this
the suffocation
I cannot breathe on my own
and you choose
to critique my life support
do not trample a flower you refused
to water
because I am finding a light
your darkness never knew
I'm sorry
but I am not sorry
that you have to be my muse
502 · Jun 2015
myself
Maddy Van Buren Jun 2015
she told me to be myself
but myself is screaming in my car
at the top of my lungs
going 80 on dirt roads
in the dark
where I think I've lost it all
but I can't stop running through
because it reminds me of you
and how we used to talk
how it was easy to be happy
and easy to forget
all the things you said
were wrong
and I'm crying out in pain
nostalgia's chokehold
she told me to be myself
I think I'm going to be myself
for a very long time
494 · Jan 2017
conditioning
Maddy Van Buren Jan 2017
i am a robot
machine
i was conditioned to believe
success is documentation
standing in line and sitting rows
write down sentences
regurgitate
regurgitate
survive
blindly
now i am successful,
what is there to do
464 · Oct 2015
crawling
Maddy Van Buren Oct 2015
the day I realize
tears are not all bad
and people
are not all good
is the night I won't
come crawling
like some
sad animal
trapped once again
in a cage with only
you and me
464 · Dec 2015
breaking the mirror
Maddy Van Buren Dec 2015
and you want something so bad
until you become a martyr for it
and the new year rings itself in
with yourself soon behind
and the weather becomes different
just like that boy you knew
you thought you knew
and your heart drops
and your stomach sinks
and you look in the mirror
after all these years
and you forgot what you looked like
a color kind of emerald jaded now
and it's like talking to a stranger
all over again
and you wish that you spared yourself the visit
and you wish you looked happier
and you wish you looked kinder
and you wish you looked cleaner
and you wish you looked like all the years
rolled by gracefully
but instead you look darker
and your heart beats slower
and you have to keep quieter
because you're talking to a mirror
even though it wont hear you
and you wish you could strangle that stranger
and make it all over
and in the end you just wish
you broke the ******* mirror
462 · Jul 2015
forever
Maddy Van Buren Jul 2015
I was swerving
all over the road
with bursts of wails
coming from deep
inside myself
tears in my eyes
sputtering little
curses between sobs
and I thought to myself
"that church's sign, it's been up
for forever"
460 · Jun 2015
frustration
Maddy Van Buren Jun 2015
your poems aren't art
God may as well be dead
your words don't fill me
and flowers have never sprung
from my mouth or yours
it's a ******* joke
and a sick lie
a poem never saved a life
because God laughed
and didn't make pain helpful
he made me sit down at the counter
at 2 am
to hit my fist again
and again
over a **** page
and even he knows
this poem isn't art
453 · Jul 2016
different
Maddy Van Buren Jul 2016
look at my pain and my scars
look at the holes that he cut
deep, deep into me
marvel at the openness of my chest now
the light which is allowed in
now that i am hollow
he shallowed my existence
but deepened my humanity
for that, I thank him
for that, I want you to look at me
for what I am now
different
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