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Em Mar 2021
Live your story free
Unbounded by the world
For you are the author of this story
The protagonist
I am simply a character in your book

Come take my hand
We can get lost in the forest
Raise our fists at the gods
We’ll sing to the whispers of time
And swim in galaxies

Run
Run free
Don’t let them stop you
Don’t let me stop you
Bullets in my head
Blood from my heart
I smile
Go
Forget me
I am simply a character in your book
Em Apr 5
Make us fragile
like a flower
Unoriginal, textbook
Crooning love songs behind a hat on the street
I’ve seen mice with more calluses and sinew
Tough on the teeth
Grainy and cheap
If I die, I’m tender and sweet

Make us soft
like the morning’s first snow
Harbour us, carve us
Show us off on your front porch
beady eyed and smug grinned
Then rain falls and I’m run-offs
Footprints and mud
Snowman head smeared on the driveway

Make us sensitive
like your childhood TV dial
We’ll dance, we’ll bow
Until our minds get lost in a fog of
wrong signals and wrong sounds
It’s all static and I’m all electric
My breath my skin and my sight
Then you’ll hit and swear at your box until it learns not to fight

Make us young
Like we once knew
Skinned knees, knuckleheads
Holding out our hand and taking our then incomprehensible
comfort and safety
Time will have its pound
The world will have its way
But now I’ll savour this grain that was weighed
From old hands to blemish-less mine
Em Mar 2023
You painted yourself a martyr with
your blood upon my blade
And now my Damascus is tainted with
your tears and rusted pain

I was forged and beaten in quiet flames
for the risings and singings of slain
And my steel would ring crystal upon their thrones
as we show what’s womanly fame

But centuries later from charred fists
I’m set into glass and displayed
Where clasped hands and smug eyes declare my dream
and exampled as womanly fate

Yet remember
Remember
It’s in your bones and blood
Smell the ash on your face
Taste the rain and the race

We were made for walking
And stomping feet
To seek their eyes and maim

For the wanderer listens for the voice in the dust
And the lost will gain what was tamed

Sisters and brothers,
Prayers and shame
We’re warriors of water and way
We had turned to a nation of gold and rubble
We’ll turn to our stones and blade

Dig dig dig
There’s dirt in our nails
and the memories in our name
Where the weeds blossom in yellow fire
We’ll drag them into our nameless graves

I was tempered and torn in the waters of faith
Where I birthed and I sang and I laboured away
Where I’ll raise an army in the songs that I wrote
And the stars that I named in my chains

Today I will shatter each shard as an edge
and I’ll cut you as you swallow my hate
And my blood will cover as testament and crown
as you prepare for my womanly reign
pretty late for woman’s day, but I think it better late than never
Em Sep 2021
I steal golden apples
From the mouths of the statues of masters
Every night,
I sneak into the garden
Fountains tinkling poems
Rocks whispering symphonies

The sightless eyes of the moon
Track my every breath
Indifferent, uninterested

I bite into my prize
Each sweeter than the last
And I crave,
Crave the fire and ash
That burns my throat when I swallow
That clogs my lungs and eyes

And, the thief I am,
Came crawling back each time
Addicted to the sound of fervour

And every night hear me
Howling at the moon
Every night,
Crumpling into embers and smoke
Baring my soul to a deaf world
Drowning in the sounds of stolen words
Em Sep 2022
There is a lull in being
a singular heartbeat among
the mess of your room

The window is dark
with the suspension of city quiet
and the hum of incessant silence
Existing, existing

Sitting with hands bleeding
fire and flowers and fraudulent feelings
and the floating ache of lungs

The perfume stings your nose
and you learn to love it
and then you learn to hate it
Hear a voice (your own):

The apple falls, crisp, red
It fulfils it grand role
Eaten, sacrificed
The seeds see far,
noble, shinning destiny

The apple falls, clinging, dead
It rots as it descends
Putrid, abhorred
The seeds grow an executioner
choking, mindless hunger

I’ll tell you a secret
You smell of corpse-sweet

You are not your own
You are not your own
You are not your own
You are not yourown
Youarenotyourownyouarenotyourownyouarenotyourownyou

My fingers tug my limbs with puppet string
on a stage made of automatons
and I’m so scared I’ll blindfold every smiling audience
who’d come to see me dance
that one day I’m left with an empty room
only filled with audio studio claps
Em Mar 2021
Beware!
Beware!
The great Beast of the World
Beware!
Beware!
They’ve come
They’ve come
They’ve come

Beware!
Beware!
The mighty, ferocious roar
Their anger have no limits
Their hunger have no bounds

Beware!
Beware!
They’re lurking everywhere
They lives in those we scorn
And within those ***** throngs

Beware!
Beware!
They’ve come to get us all!
What have we done to deserve this fate?
Such innocence yet we fall

Beware!
Beware!
Gather your gold
Gather your letters
Gather your shoes
Your bread and your butter

Such savagery
Such monsters
Flaming tongues
Knife blade garbles
Seeping into every nook and cranny

What have we done?
But give you a place to sleep?
What have we done?
But give you a way to live?
We are like you
Working in the fields
We only reap a different harvest
Of course not just coal and fuels

What have we done?
But give you recognition?
What have we done?
But put you where you belong?
Your tears are woven into our blankets
We wear your blood in stone
Don’t tell us we stand on the same rock and soil
We live a different birth

What have we done?
But give you food to put on your table?
Of grey water
And rock hard rye
That we found in a rotting corner of our pantry
Out of the goodness of our hearts

Oh why have you come
To lock us in your cages
We don’t belong where you live
Don’t come don’t run
And tear us into shreds
We only did what was right

Don’t come knocking at our front doors
With your jagged claws and yellow teeth
And those swollen eyes and lips
Don’t come and trample
All over our front lawn
And take what is rightfully ours

Heel!
Heel! I say!
What has gotten into your head?
We have worked together so well
You and I
What has become
Of dog
And his Master?
Em Mar 17
I hate the way my face
sloughs off in chunks when I stare at the mirror
I pull a frown, and a piece falls from the cheek

Each time I scrabble sluggishly at the sink
slapping back the flesh with a sound like mud cakes from when we were kids
When mirrors were for checking fallen teeth
and soft toy drama plays

Not a play by play surgical cross section with
every dermatologically perfect stencil I’ve scrolled past
Projected across my forehead

Not a soundtrack for
the way my bones would crack and grind
If I could squeeze and mould it just right


I hate the way that if I stand still enough
I can smell the curdling of my inadequacy
Mixed and folded into the screams in my head
until I can’t tell which ends and which begins

I laugh and joke and fear so desperately
that they don’t burn through my wax covered skin
To find all the holes I thought I beat out of me
when I learned I stayed cleaner in pretty packaging

Give me your eyes
so I can see out of them
Gaze upon this stretched out body and observe
Which wine pairs well with me,
being forgotten or being known?
Either way, I’m intoxicated on your judgement
and drunk on the guillotine of the youth
Em Jul 2023
Butterflies are scavengers
Fluttering colours over a corpse
So read between the lines

Monarchs
Something, something
And death
did you know, purple emperors prefer rotting flesh over flowers
Em Sep 26
Standing in the blue light
Visible for all but eyes
I’ve got ghosts that take my place for me
Golden dust when sun goes low
Sifting through the air and snow
Don’t forget me when I never show

You’ll know when I come home

I’ve got things I have to do
***** dishes, ***** shoes
These bleached hands are not meant
for you

This blood, these veins
I’ve traded it all off for
Grand escapes
Can you tell I’m making it up
each day?
It’s too late to say that I’m not
the same

Go ahead, pull the trigger
This is bigger than us both
Even if it’s just beginning
There’s be meaning in it too
I’ve made my bed
Will the world sleep in it?
Even if you’re late
Can you say that it looks pretty?

Mongrel in an alleyway
Bleeding but I’ll never say
You’re the snow I stain my virtues on
Skin me like an animal
Gentle hands and carved out bones
Will you still smile when you catch sight my ghost?

Only you’ll know when I’m home
Em Mar 2021
The world moves
A silent creak and pull
The people run
An endless marathon

Thousands of words
Passed between souls
But one
May shatter stone

Time doesn't flow
It rushes
Gushes
Reaching out for something
It can never hold

Lives and faces are swept
Faster and faster
In the leaping torrents of life
Faster and faster

The world moves
A silent creak and pull
And yet I stand here alone
Frozen In Time
Em May 2022
You kneel over,
hurling,
hands on gravel on tire stench on rubber
And there, on the streets
blood

Do you feel a pain too?
Right there, in your stomach
A little at the back, to the side
like when you run for a bit and stop and then run again but you forgot that it gives you stitches but it’s too late and it stabs and—

Do you feel it?
You grin at me with carnage teeth
We’re bound, aren’t we
Ritual and bone
Do you feel the needle?
or a cut
or a knife
or a bullet
or a— oh
you don’t feel it

I’m staring at the sky now,
your head’s the moon
your eyes the stars
my blood rain from your storm cloud lips

I— I think I’ve had enough
It’s been fun, I wanna go home
It’s— it’s been—
hold on

My chest is the rotten mouth of dying lion
Yep, crank the clamp wider, that’s right
Bad teeth in the back, come on
Yank it out

I’m still on the road
It’s a crossroads, I notice
It’s the only thing I can notice over the vice on my ribs
and the sight of your back

It’s crowded here
There’s the Hurt, doing shots in the living room
my Breath, snorting chemicals in the corner
the Night, shoving its tongue down my throat
And you, host of the Party of the Century

You walk away, silent as always
I think my veins still swell in your mouth
iron minting you a new silver tongue


I hope you taste nothing else
Em Mar 2021
The birds of the sky
Peck at my flesh
In the forest of bones
Of bones

I watch this quiet affair from afar
Silent, crouching
So as to not disturb
The thin veil of nature that has settled

Men in blue suits
And shiny shoes
Believe that power comes
From rising numbers
And diplomatic wars

But I
I have seen real power

Of the calm and rage of a brewing storm
Wind grasping, grasping
As electricity runs over my skin
As I root in place in the face of God

But I
I have seen real power

Of life where no life should be
Saplings growing, growing
Against the ashen backdrop
Against death and death and fires and hell

But I
I have seen real power

Of rivers and oceans and shapes in the waters
Constantly swelling, swelling
So dark and deep and whole
So dark and mysterious and promising

But I
I have seen real power

Of ice and hail like shattered glass
Stretching far, far beyond
With the cold beauty of a killer
With the sharpness hanging in the air

But I
I have seen real power

Life existing as an extension of decay
Decay, decay, decay
To return, return,
From life to death
To death to life
Over and over

The trees understand no concept of fear
Just the roots in the soil
And the branches in the sky
And everything between simply
The next life

Maybe someday someone
Will trip on my skull
Or find a fox who had his fill of me
For the end is simply a promise
Of life
One feeds the other
Over and over

Oh
True power
It was never really there
Just energy
And cycles
And the stillness of existence
Of time so colossal
It looped in on its self
Bending gravity and light and ideas and-

Oh what am I saying
Why are you here
Listening to the whispers of old ghosts
Old bones
Live your life
Forget the sleeping beasts
And the purpose of things
We are but little people
In the the scheme of the giants
And the dreams of the ancient
And the whisper, whisper of-
...
Em Jan 2023
I see the light
in the corner of my window
before it morphs
Into the face of Hades

Death will guide my breathing
into this open space
and drown any meaning
Of air and it’s grace

I will see beyond all
that explorers have yearned
and the city heads tremble
Forlorn

For the street dusting folk
have accepted this fate
long before they were born
And will sing at the face of Dawn

When the sea reaches down
to take my hand
and sing me a cry
So foreign

I’ll remember that sleep
is no different from waking
and I’ll wait with no hurry
No claim

And we will soar
through the fires and
hailstone histories of man
Spit oil and embers on brand

For smoke becomes smoke
And poison becomes poison
And our bones a lovely crown
for our children
Em Apr 2021
Boys will break hearts
Like little glow sticks
Break it a little
And let it show

Glow stick girls
Walk down the streets
With glow stick eyes
And glow stick feet

Glow stick hearts
Glow so bright
Dripping light onto the ground
But even suns will fade out

Break your heart
And bleed on the couch
Make the cushions glow
Let everyone know

Find yourself a glow stick boy
As discarded as you
With glow stick glass
And glow stick eyes
And just let yourself be you
Em Jul 2022
Every eye in the grain of the walls
Center at my spine
It crawls
Searching, staring

Fear
It’s white and blinding and
it sloughs off my throat like
An invasive buzz of
“Why”
“Meet me”
“I know”

I clutch my hands tighter to my chest
Cradling the last untouched petal
From my rotting person
Skin marred with unspoken rules
Flesh scored with glares

And even that is ripped away

I’m so tired
So very tired
It’s so easy to sink
Fall back to black
Dark
Silent waters

Every noise is a spider
On a web of vibrating consequences
I’m a doll splayed for dress up
On a stage made for the world

And now look at me
Crawling along the ledge
I tiptoe on the ice but
My feet are strapped with coals

Blind me, deafen me
Put me in a grave
If the day I get to keep my story un-judged
is the day my book burns
Then set yourself a campfire
Upon my weary bones
No privacy
Em Jul 2023
In the madness, I found clarity
The singular eye in the storm
rolling and twitching
Promising pain and whispering understanding
And with that clarity
I stood laughing
Blood soaking my hands
The storm is peaceful
I look up,
and see nothing but carnage sky
Em Mar 2021
It smells like rain today
The sweet scent of fruit
Golden rays
Gone
Now just the smog of cars
And the washed-out sky
As we long for the days where the gods roamed free
Nectar dripping from our lips
And gold once ran in our veins
Em Mar 2021
Looks like this is the end
Dead stop
Full stop
Bus stop

Nothing much to do
Just sitting
Staring
Horizons daring

It’s quiet
It’s calm
It’s not too bad
Just whistling grass
And tiny ants

Wonder, wonder
What has life brought?
Hither, huther
What use is that thought?

Away away
Where the wind hikes
Like little maidens
Over hidden pikes

And the rumble of rubber
And the smell of dust
Putter putter
Get on your bus

And leave behind
Your philosophical mind
For someone else
To follow
For those loudly quiet times
Em Mar 2021
Why Kookaburra
Hiding round the stone
Sulking in the graveyard
Silent and alone

Alas! Alas!
I’m selfish, cruel, a beast
I am a thief
A thief of time
Yet I don’t take
I give

Why Kookaburra
Do you shy away from trees
When flocks of birds come resting
And food is wild and free

Alas! Alas!
They will not receive me
Deceiver, am I
Laughing at the fools
I bring suffering and cries
And roost with empty wings

Why Kookaburra
Do you say these things?
You are a special bird
With nature to be these

Alas! Alas!
They think they know
Indeed
If survival’s not the key
Then what is left of me?

Why Kookaburra
What brash insults you speak
Accuse us of such deeds
Perhaps you must acquit

Alas! Alas!
Did you not say to be me?
To fly up on bird’s wings
Oh so high
And do what I need be?

Why Kookaburra
Look around and see
The world loves and lives
For those who sit and sing
People are difficult to satisfy
Em Sep 2021
Quiet days with the fan turned low
Soft wind across knuckles
In solemn contemplation

The dog sits, begging for scratches
And there’s only me,
the air
and all the rumbling thunder
of thoughts and headspace
In between
Something itches behind my eyes
Maybe I’ll scratch it if I dream

— The End —