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graveyard shift
the night is paved in darkness
all the things i miss
i want them back, especially
the heart you stole from me
walking on air is
as easy as breathing it
when Im with you the
stars are not so far away
I dream in endless color
  Jan 2017 Nadine Sharise Hayes
Cas
Hearing you call her your sunshine
hurt me in a way that I didn’t expect.
It didn’t hurt the way a toothache tastes
or the way it smells when someone else
blows out candles on your birthday cake;
it hurt the way it stings to look underwater
in the ocean, but I find myself doing it anyways
because the provocative view is worth the pain.  
You are salt water seeping into my tear ducts
but I’m always stupid enough to open my eyes.
i liked it better
when love was a lovely rose
not a prickly thorn
when you carried soft eyes for me
and not a heart of stone
I stopped waiting by the phone
I stopped pressing my glass to the wall
straining for vicarious sound
I stopped waiting for distraction
to prevent me getting bored

I am alone
I am alone
but feel loneliness
only when I feel I ought to
The rest of the time
it is music
or the silence in between

I stopped pacing the floor
as if movement meant
I was doing something

I stopped looking for love
as if desire were the same
as feeling something for someone

As if holding out for change
was as good as holding a person
as if sleeping alone
caused dreams without reason
as if snatches of warmth
gave purpose to the seasons

I stopped collecting forget-me-nots
I stopped bleeding out my liberal heart
every time there was suffering
or hate in the spaces where
love should have been

I stopped waiting for someone
to doctor the still
where sorrow pervaded
the canned laughter of living

I stopped looking for someone
it was only then
I could start forgiving
C
I want to know
the secrets you keep
buried deep
beneath your surface
ones you weep
into the night
I want to be
the dark that guards your light
keep safe your soul
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