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1
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
1
Bay
there is a light
streak in you
is it a scar?
Does it hurt?
It looks as though
something moved through you
or under you
leaving
such a stark reminder
that refuses to move with your currents
or maybe there's just
something missing?
2
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
2
Bay
I've always liked that
furry trim of yours
the one made of wood
it seems to be
leaning in expectantly
watching your movements
with a loving wonder
I hear it traps bad things init
and holds you on course
A retainer of twisted old spires
3
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
3
I see you there
through a fold in the treelike
I learned today
that you are stationary
yet I see you there
slowly creeping
here
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
The door has shut
but I have only realized
the solid wood in my face
not that I'm looking
through the cold glass
(how can it be so cold
when you were so warm
to the touch?)
at your light on the
inside
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Cut off
everything I had learned
my new enjoyments
and being
held at arm's length
uncertain in distance's grasp


Cut off
everyone I had met
my new friends
and being
held at arm's length
uncertain in distance's grasp


Cut off
Everything that I had become
my new identity
and being
held at arm's length
uncertain in distance's grasp


Cut off
I am unsure
if I will get myself back
upon my return
or if I will even return at all
I am so separate
I question what was even real
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
My cries for attention
so loud
and tear filled
Ring in the ears
of only the willfully deaf
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Graffiti is a beautiful thing
A splash of the soul
in an unlikely place
character and development
hardship and victory
every detail recorded
in ink
where mother big brother father of all
says should be bare
In the cover of my own
independence
I shadow in and shade
my very ****** skin
until I am a ****** no more
and I can see myself inside out
memorialized in permanence
that bespeaks adulthood
a grown up
graffiti
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Poor you
all alone in a corner
Crowded in
by the dull furniture
say hello to me
I want to get to know
your lines and colors
even if they're all straight and gray
your movements and
personalities
no matter how still
Don't leave me without saying anything
you're so alone
just like me
and I'm sorry
If I ever gave up on you
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
The bird's company
is getting
lonelier
as the flock grows
All I hear around me
ever
a cacophony of
chirps
whistles
squawks
an endless song
of open inclusivity
I open my lion's maw
and release a sad bellow
the birds stop
and scream a unified friend
then it's back to the beginning
verse and verse again
and I'm all on my own
with a lonely view
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
All these pages between us
how will I possibly
express my love
that is not the love
You have?
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
That's not
foundation
under my nails
it's
failure
I have
failure
on my hands
But even worse
I have it
deliberately spread
all
over
my
face
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Take my cold hands
in yours
one more time
I need your
effortless opposite warmth
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Here's another
whiny poem
where I lyrically
complain
about
how he doesn't pay
any attention to me
even though I know full well
that he isn't
obligated to
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
A plane
A pane
so much and so little
separate the two
he and she
they and them
it's all a mirror
of many facets
each sees the other
and themselves
together yet apart
if they could but reach forward
touch skin to skin
glass on nails
so they'd see
their bent reality
unfold
in one whole
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Nothing shatters
more easily
or
more painfully
than the
tender white hopes
of an unloved girl
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Hey
you're new
and I like your face
and your humor
Let's be friends
How do I politely
invite myself to one of your parties?
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
I want to break
the glass
but I'm afraid
the shards will cut you
and then my
hind hands will mean
Nothing to you
I couldn't stop that
bleeding
no matter how
soft my touches
Probably because
my hands would be bleeding
too
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
His presence
begs me to look over
while
the awareness of his presence
Commands I close my eyes
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Give it to me straight
a shot of reality
Don't bother with a chaser
I'm used to the burn
afterwards I'll be numb
anyway
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
My strong convictions
which I had
written out on my arm
are fading
and I'm begging them
to stop
to stay
but
I can't see ten enough
anymore
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
So rich and red
was the blood
when I cut my tongue
on an expression of love
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
She has blood in her hair
the girl she doesn't know
working both ways
imagining sensations that aren't there
inventing words and ignoring old sounds
Let's give her a hand
this unwitting princess
we all want to save her voice
we all want her to see her own crown
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
I'm starting to see shadows
in the peripherals of my
memory
the noises are a muffled
echo
this illness filters
I'm scared
I'm alone
stumbling over what was
always there
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
You missed your chance
his ears were free
But you hid silent
under the canvas where he
can't see
and won't want
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
Oh the times we're living in
I can't feel my body
but for the burning in my throat
Bathed in talent
and guiding experience
fighting a cold numbness
lifting headrush
I lose the meaning
I lose the direction
But not the heart
so tell me
aren't these the times we're living in?
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Nervously shoveling snowcaps
in my face
while watching in vain
for whitecaps
the only calm of the day
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Somewhere in the apology
I lost my direction
a nervous outpouring
commingled with red heat
In the most obvious of places
and well
my train derailed
in a flurry of regret
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
A broken pencil
and some cruel words
a nuisance
an uncomfortable memory of a fantasy
that's all I am
now
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
There have always been
dead smiles between
my teeth
Dishonestly
I resent them
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Let's destroy her
softly
so she knows
It's all her own
innocent undoing
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Shadow and sun
converge on sinkholes
who could have known
Snow could be both so
strong and fragile
to support the entirety
of a complete
and a slight
profile?
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
Go on
Dig nails into my hands
for frustration
at their creating
nothing
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
What's the impression you got?
I got that you were impressed
and now you're gone
so I'm confused and
abandoned
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
Have you ever seen
the inside of bones?
look into your own
the red mess
impossibly deep
pour it out like a slow night
watch it closely
the fragments fall
all you are on the floor
clarity comes
once that experience of
breaking and melting
comes to pass
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Alone
in a darkened room
I have hidden
with the
chalkdust remnants
of a dissembled nation
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
I dreamed that
I cracked bone
or
enamel between my teeth
but I couldn't find it
in the mirror
and
my friend was in a
living hell
where I could see him
and belonged
I woke up
bewildered
and with the most sore jaw
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
It's like I'm
building a house
but I don't know I'm
made to live in trees
and I don't know
stairs are supposed to go up
so I just
spiral in place
with hammer and nails
in hand
and an open white wall
future in mind
trying my best
my absolute best
to ignore the leaves
growing from the vines
wrapped around
each and every vein
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Binding page after page
I have no idea how long
this book will be
Or if it will even end
I don't even have words to write
on their bare backs
but each page goes in
and my hands are numb
Page after page
I bind
I bind
Anyway
Madeline Cirullo May 2014
Such a pleasant storm
hidden silent behind those curtains
of hair
I've carefully cultivated
more than ever before
But one side is exposed
so all can see the care
I've returned to taking
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
I walk alone
strut and tall
I fly
by
all leather boots
and smeared eyeliner
with a poisoned lip
you can't touch
my black lace
or wild hair
I have a ******* tongue
and no ***** for eyes
and a rhythm in my
woman's hips
Don't you see me flying?
smirk
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
The thought of
seeing him
vis-a-vis
drains my
confidence
that soaked me
mère seconds ago
where there was fire
sickly butterflies
thrash
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
Personified
with the floral art
I'm filled with words
maddening it can't stop
it moves my fingers
and I try to employ my eye
elsewhere
fruitless
but a bursting yield
spills through my pen
Does the irony or the
exhaustion **** me?
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
It's the tree of life
get it?
I hope you do because

I'm going in and out
and I need something to
ground me

and you need soil
something to hold
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
My smile
so 'easy'
muffles the sound
of the scream
swirling in my chest
ready to tear through
my heart
and break past my
flashed teeth
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
I would tell you
to do what you want
with me
my body
but I already know
that's nothing
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
Spotlight on an empty field
Where is the knight?
He slumps by a stream
I don't know what he waits for
or why I can't look away
All is concentrated
in that one spot
where nothing really happens
Madeline Cirullo Apr 2014
Awful spirit
reclined in a chair
sleeping in indifferent good humor
Hold your legs up
let us look on sideways
and don't you dare look back
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
My pen is running from me
it knows the power it holds
The danger in my hand
that wields it
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
My tongue is dry
is it from a lack of water
or a lack of love?
I'm not sure but
my head is splitting by the jaw
and your cheap medicinal tricks
won't solve a **** thing
they won't fill a **** hole
Madeline Cirullo Mar 2014
dazed and confused
stuck in a murky stupor
the warmth of spring
and the lure of a free day
they tore down the calendar
and stole my books
so here I lay
unaware
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