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461 · Nov 2014
Testing Level Two
Portland Grace Nov 2014
Two shots down,
gunman,
*****,

Broke down,
side of the road
side of the bed,

Follow me,
fall asleep,
I went through the wrong doors,
I fell down the stairs.

You're a ******* thunder storm.

Walked three paces to the west,
turned around
you shot me in the back.

Five rounds of blanks,
and I took
the one shell shock,
of a hollow point.

Where there was once,
strawberry fields
with sun and bare feet.
We've left nothing
but cold blood on ice.
Portland Grace Mar 2015
I am still learning to be sad,
without the weight of it,
sinking me like an anchor
(because it doesn't have to)

And I tell myself,
that I don't need anybody
to validate my feelings
and that I can tell myself I'm okay.

But tonight,
I am sad,
and tonight
I don't feel okay,
and I feel lonely,
and I feel unimportant,
and (worst of all) I even miss you a little bit.
And I feel all of these things starting to crush me,

And I tell myself that I am better now, and that I am okay.
And that it's okay to be sad.
458 · Jun 2015
The Siren's Mating Song
Portland Grace Jun 2015
Please be mine,
let me call you my darling
let me rest my head in the crook of your lovely elbow.

I want to be the next thing you need after your morning coffee.
Please be mine.

Twirl my hair in your lovely finger
rest your head in my lap when you are sleepy,
oh won't you please be mine?

Let me kiss your cheeks for weeks,
sit on your lap at your desk,
call you at midnight with slurred words.

You will love me so much,
if only you'd be mine.

Sleep next to me faithfully when I start to dream of other things.
When I stop gripping your hand as tightly,
and you know somethings wrong but you're too scared to ask.

You'll love me so much if you're mine.

Won't you be mine?
I'll make you laugh,
I'll make you cry
I'll make you think everything is your fault.

You'll smell my hair in your bed but I won't be there anymore.
You'll feel more alone than you have in your whole life.
Won't you please be mine?

You'll hate me
You'll yell at me and then you'll feel even worse
and you'll hate yourself too.

I'll kiss your lovely cheek and walk away.
I'll probably never cry.
Oh, won't you please be mine?
457 · Mar 2015
There is no ice left
Portland Grace Mar 2015
Back when the world was cold
and the rain came
almost every day

When flowers were soggy and
drowning
and we were eating the cupcakes your mother made
on your back porch at midnight.

When my world revolved around
"You look beautiful today"
Or
"By God you have the smallest hands I have ever seen"


(There was a lot of thunder and lightning in Nevada County last year because the climate just couldn't decide if it was
hot
or
cold)



My world was gray and damp
but in your passenger seat I convinced myself I loved the rain.

I dont love the rain.

California has been in a drought,
and we haven't spoken since Christmas.

I remember all your scars and blemishes
but I can't remember why I loved them.

I haven't worn my winter coat at all this year.

And I still hate the rain.
457 · Jun 2011
Cycles
Portland Grace Jun 2011
Your hand in mine,
Security.

But is that, all this should be?

            Once.
I could have.
Would have,


            Loved,
You.
Like you should be loved.

          Once.
Would have loved too,
Needed to,
Love,
And be
          Loved,
In return.

But instead I give you,
my insecurities, deceit, confusion,
B
         r
    o
           k
     e
          n
   n
         e
  s
          s.

And when,
I see,
you can't
F
I
  X
it all,

I              run,

Leaving you,

in my



d u s t.

Confused, and broken.
Because
I
am,
Confused,
       and
          Broken.

And none of it's fair.
453 · May 2011
Diffrent Matters.
Portland Grace May 2011
We are



So




Very



Far away.





In maters of miles.




But





With you.



I've never


Been closer

In matters
of heart.
448 · Apr 2013
Letting you go
Portland Grace Apr 2013
I drank my last of you,
in my coffee this morning.
I put every memory into the cup,
and stirred it with sugar
before I swallowed it down.
It was very bittersweet,
but I need to let you go.
I can see how happy you've been,
happier than I ever made you
and I am happy for you,
even though it hurts.
So I put all of you,
into my cup,
kisses, words, memories
and drank them down
because it is time to let you go,
and move on,
I will always love you,
but it will be a different kind of love.
*Goodbye, Kolt
Portland Grace Sep 2015
I will undress your scars,
I want to open you up like the top of a tank,
climb inside your rib cage,
and drive over all of the things that have hurt you.

Climb over,
the peaks that make you feel small,
crawl under,
the barbed wire back streets,
taking shortcuts,
because I don't want to wait, I need you now

You've got flowers growing out of you fingers that only I can see.

The clock in the kitchen is going to tick like it always has,
and the fan is rotating dust in the same half-circle,
and your arms are sometimes around me,
and sometimes they're not,
and the clock and the fan and you don't know
what it's like in my chest when your gone

I shattered glass just to see where it cracks,
I shattered glass just to watch something die.

There's books that I've read that talk about the savior,
they say that his eyes look like running water,
and his voice makes you feel softer,
but I don't think that the blue in someones eyes would make me feel much different than the green in yours.
And I've never cared much for being saved.
Portland Grace Oct 2014
I tried to take your pictures down,
pulled the tacks
right out of my head.

You're a sticky fellow,
and behind the pictures,
there are scars on the wall.

I want to say,
"Remember that one time... when we..."
But I don't want to remember.

I want you to go away.
So I went away.

You're still here,
but you're not here.

We haven't spoken in months,
but why does it feel like you won't leave me alone

I see you every night,
I wake up and sometimes,
I can still feel you on my mouth,
smell your skin.

You're so far away.

How does something so dim,
burn so bright?

I'll probably never know,
why people sleepwalk,
or what I ever saw in you.

How someone who can be so terrible,
can be so
magnificently wonderful
simultaneously.

You were
temporary ink,
but it feels like
a ******* tattoo.

*I'll bleach all my walls
until your stains are gone
444 · Oct 2013
Forests
Portland Grace Oct 2013
I think that you are beautiful
and you deserve
everything on this earth
but I can't give you the world,
because you already are
all I can do is float on your oceans,
and sleep in the shade of your pines,
and lay with you watching the stars
and pray that I am enough
439 · Apr 2013
Clip
Portland Grace Apr 2013
I liked the way your hands felt on my waist,
and your fingers felt in my hair
and your lips felt on my cheek,
and your breath felt on my neck
and the ***** felt in my stomach
and the smoke felt on my lips
and I liked the way I got to forget about him for a night
if only for just one night.
Portland Grace Jan 2015
Men put tiny fences
on mountains
and call it theirs.
435 · Oct 2013
Craters
Portland Grace Oct 2013
I wanted you to love me,
so that I could love myself
but that's never the right way
to go about things,
I thought your lips
would wash away my heartache
but now
I am drowning in it.
431 · Feb 2011
That winter.
Portland Grace Feb 2011
Alaska said to say Hi,
By sending a freezing storm of white
As the breeze brushes my nose,
And sends a line of shivers down to my toes.

Your cheeks glowing with red.
You stuck your hat upon my head.
Good ridence winter,
I'm warm inside.

Our hands wrapped up in gloves.
Still clasped so tightly.
I just have to say I'm freezing.
And your arms will hold me tight.

The black Ice makes me slip,
As we walk down the street.
And you have to catch me.
As we laugh softly.

And hold these moments tight.

I can't see the path home.
The snow has covered my eyes.
So we stay.
Where we are.
and hope nobody turns on the lights.

I would stay in that winter.
For the rest of my life.
It was cold and wetter.
Than i've seen my life.
But you were there to hold me.
When my shivering turned to violently.
And you told me.
That I glow when it snows.

Winter, don't leave.
I don't want spring or summer to come.
Just take me, and keep me.
Locked in your freezer of white.
Until I'm ready to die.
426 · Jan 2015
Untitled
Portland Grace Jan 2015
Some days I wake up and I look in the mirror, and I look at the person staring back at me and wonder, when did I become the ghost of a shell of a girl? I remember when my eyes used to shine and I would look at my reflection when I walked by windows, thinking I was really something to be.
It's a little past new years, and I've come a long way from a year ago, two years ago, three years ago. Sometimes I smile and I light up again and I mean it. I really do. Some days I still fall back into the rhythm of numbness and I think about cutting ties with everyone around me because I don't want to drag anyone down with me.
Everyday unfolds in front of me like a mystery, and I guess that's the same for everyone everywhere, but when I wake up there's ultimately one question I ask myself, "Will this be a good day, or a bad day?" And the truth is I never really know the answer, no one does. Some days I can get hit by frozen rain and I brush it off because I remembered my umbrella and I was a little bit stuffy anyways and the wind feels nice when it brushes my cheeks. Some days It's sunny and bright and there is every hope for my future but I still struggle to form words and I can barely even hear myself when I say "You're okay, you've always been okay." There are hurricanes on my fingertips and if I stand too close to an edge sometimes I convince myself I will jump off.
I am healing and growing and learning and trying. I am a mess of perfections and imperfections, obsessions and discontent.
I am a warped record that once had something to say, but the sun and the rain and the moon have damaged me and I keep repeating the same lines as though time might change their meaning.
My room was covered in the names of the people who hurt me, changed me, broke me, so I stripped off the wallpaper and repainted my colorful walls with the dullest shade of beige they had at Home Depot. When I looked around at my bare walls I packed my bags and moved 800 miles away from everything that reminded me of his ******* acne scars or the way I almost broke my mothers heart. The desert dried me out and I am learning to look at sunrises again without hating myself, and I am rewriting stories on how to love myself even if I don't always feel like I should.
I can hold the hand of someone new, and feel something without drowning. I can feel wanted without being scared and I am even starting to tell myself that I am good, even though most of the time I do not feel very good.
I am learning and breathing and kissing and feeling.
I am okay, I have always been okay.
423 · Aug 2011
Something
Portland Grace Aug 2011
Once I had Ideas
             of what love should be.

And I'll tell you the truth,
             The colors were brighter than this.

Tears were myths and smiles plenty.
              But that's not quite how it goes..

So are we wrong? Is this not love?
              Maybe, maybe not.

I've compromised so much,
            to make you feel okay.

To keep you in my arms,
            when all I feel is pain.

You can't even be alone with me,
            you think I am a bore.

So what am I left to feel?
          That you love me too?

I try my hardest to believe,
          I mean something to you.
Portland Grace Oct 2014
Where words once flowed like a river,
I dammed up my mouth
with your soft skin,
you have stolen my art from me,
slipped them right off my lips, thief.

The truth is,
I have been pouring my words into you,
for quite sometime,
you eat them like candy.
I have not been able to put down your hand
long enough to grip a pen.

A month ago you told me that you loved me,
there were tears in your eyes as I told you I was leaving you.
You told me you loved me and you loved me and by god I loved you too.

Sometimes I kiss you and I swear it's so sweet I could choke,
sometimes I spit you back up because you've spoiled in my mouth.
Portland Grace Apr 2015
I had a dream that you wanted to **** me,
you told me you were going to drown me in the lake,
you were going to drive your car off the pier and we were going to die together.
I begged you not to do it,
I was terrified,
and trying to convince you that we could make us work,
you didn't have to do this.
Crying and screaming and trying to get out of your car but you wouldn't let me.

(I got the same feeling in my stomach that I got for our entire year long relationship)
(Like I was trapped and didn't know how to get away from you)

I woke up and I was so happy that I am still 900 miles away and that I never have to speak to you again.
419 · Jan 2015
O, I am Slain!
Portland Grace Jan 2015
Leather bound,
lavish and
rough.
Turned through
stiff pages
with nothing on them
but dust
and curse words,

When I finished reading
cover to cover,
I thought I might
rip open it's spine
and destroy the whole thing
so that no one else
would have to.

That *******
first edition
****** *******
closed book
swallowed me whole.
Portland Grace Dec 2014
I'm back home,
sleeping in the bed we made love on.

We haven't spoken in a few weeks now.

I miss you.
I didn't think I would,
and I know I shouldn't.

I hate you,
I hate so much about you,
I hate all the awful things you did to me
and I hate that you hate me now too.

I walk past the places you kissed me,
I sleep in the bed where you first told me you loved me
(remember? You said it when I told you I was leaving you.)

I know about all the manipulations and the lies,
but somehow,
when I think of you,
all I can think about
is the way you would tell me how small my hands were,
you would fold them in yours and kiss all my fingers.

Our weekend rituals.
The summer weeks where your parents would go to Nevada and we would stay in your bed all day.
When we built a fort out of blankets in my room and spent the whole weekend watching netflix in our castle.
Your stupid ******* tiny car with your spiderman plush ball on the dash.
(I still have the Iron Man one you gave me in my dorm room.)

I'm drinking the same wine we used to sip,
until you stopped drinking.
So I started drinking by myself,
(You said you loved it when I got drunk because I kissed you more)


I never wanted to love you,
I knew you were bad for me,
I knew you were going to **** me up,
and believe me, you did.

But I can't stop thinking about the way you would kiss my shoulders,
the way we would sit in my car in the rain listening to the Killers after school, how we would drive down to Roseville for no other reason than you thought I deserved a nice dinner.

Sometimes, just for a drunken moment, I forget that you were literally the worst thing that ever happened to me.

(I hate that I still care about you)
(I hate that you ever ******* came into my life)
409 · Oct 2015
October, again.
Portland Grace Oct 2015
I could have only breathed you until the day that I died,
but you exhaled me like a stale cigar,
not even letting me get close to your lungs,
you choked and coughed
and threw me in the trash,

I gave you all that I had and you threw me away
I can't even remember why I still miss you
407 · Aug 2015
The past few weeks
Portland Grace Aug 2015
Little coffee spills,
on your desk
with my lipstick
on your mug,
and my hair
on your pillow.
Marking the places
I have been,
so you won't forget
how I taste.
Portland Grace Nov 2014
I need this Melancholia,
I need this
hard breath
of cold air,
freedom of
roaming hands
and
stomping feet.

I need
blankets too tight
clothing
too loose,
to help
dissolve,
discard,
and decide
who
what
I am.

There are,
pine trees
in my blood,
and
cactus thorns
on my skin.

I am bent,
and freezing.
My paint is chipping,
and I am starting
to c r a c k.
Rusty and rotting,
but not broken.

My pipes tick,
and are slow to start,
but I am still moving.

I need
broken bottles,
empty bottles,
half way through me,
then back out.

I need
cascade into darkness,
inky smears
from too much pen.

I need
high on my own supply
high on my own high,
sinking
walking
breathing.

Things have been so weird lately,
I need the chaos,
the uncertainty,
the madness.

I'm feeling around in the dark,
on my hands and knees,
picking up the pieces.
I'm blind,
but I'm putting myself back together.
401 · Jun 2011
Too late for realizations.
Portland Grace Jun 2011
I cannot speak
Your name.
I cannot hear
Your voice.

The sight of you
makes me heart



drop.

And the sight of you,
with her,
makes my heart




drop


even




further.

So why, first love, tell me.
is it, that
I still play
all the songs
that I know,
will remind me,
of
you.

Tell me, first love, why,
when my dreams,
stray,
to you,
I awake,
happy.
And my day,
enhanced?

First love,
it is not fair,
to say,
you broke
my
heart.

Getting over
you, is
a choice.
A choice,
that I am
not ready
to make.

Because
all
this
time
a   p  a  r  t ,
has made me
realize,
the truth.
That I am nothing without,
you.







But it's too late.




Right?
400 · Jan 2014
Stone Skinned
Portland Grace Jan 2014
I am open space and you are hard wet rock,
you lie in one place for as long as you can remain solid,
I fly between here and there
anywhere that
I can breathe new air
you are molded by your surroundings
I carve away at mine
you will hide beneath my winds
I will rest on your
sun bathed smooth skin.
I am always changing
you are exquisitely stable
we fold into each other
blind
for I've never stayed in one place
and you kiss your routines
like a mother tucking in her children
I want to know how you think,
and you are terrified
of how I dream for days
without waking up.
When I jump from the bridge
you will be the break in my fall,
please
don't let me shatter.
399 · Jun 2011
Love? Dreams? Skin?
Portland Grace Jun 2011
I can smell
                     Your skin.
                                          On
                                                     My Skin.
Your
                               Breath,
                        Was
  On
             My
                       Cheek
Only
            A
Matter     of
                 H o u r s
                               Ago.

So           does     feel        F  o  r   e    v   e        r ?
     Why            it        like

I will admit,
  I do not know,
    The first thing,
       About love,
      Or realtionships.
    But what I feel,
  When your skin
is on my skin,
or when your
   breath is on my
     Cheek, it's like
        There is nothing
           Else going on,
            Only you, only
           Us, time isn't an
          Issue, and all I
        Can feel, is you.

So if that is not, L o v e,
Then maybe it's H e a v e n ?

Whatever   IT       is,
                                  I like it.
I am living, in a dream, and it's
          R E A L.
Portland Grace Apr 2015
I never meant to hurt you,
I never wanted to hurt you,
and I'm sorry that I did.

Remember when I told you that people are messy?

I wanted to fall in love with you easy,
but you are not easy,
You are obsessions and rituals and raw skin and apologizes and I tried to keep you floating.
You were an anchor that I wasn't strong enough to lift.

You had soft skin and I loved the way you felt but you hated everything about yourself and couldn't even listen to me when I told you why I loved you.

And if there is one thing that I should know by now it's that you can't fix someone with just kisses.



I wanted to stay by your side but I am trying so hard to get out of my own murky waters and we were drowning each other.

I'm sorry for everything
398 · Mar 2011
Lost within walls.
Portland Grace Mar 2011
Your smokey breath upon my face,
you shouted your casual cruelties,
humiliated me in places deep inside.

Look through me now,
for I am no longer here.
I ran long ago.

Don't try and find me,
I am lost within my walls,
I fall every second,

I'm not much of a blamer,
but this was not my fault,
you pushed me to the edge.

And I fell.
393 · Jul 2014
Stuff We Did
Portland Grace Jul 2014
Side by side,
me and you
whispers
of the stuff
we are going to do.

Side by side
you and I,
sleepless nights,
morning rides,
You be my Bonnie,
I'm your Clyde.
There's so much stuff
and such small time.

We'll walk down piers,
to ocean tides
just you and me
side by side

We'll go to Italy,
and Japan and Spain
we'll cross the world
all the same,
hand in hand
you and me,
Everything is meant to be.

Days turned to months,
and soon to years,
and I love you even more right here.

Tomorrow is early,
tonight is late,
I won't say forever,
I won't say fate.
But I'm off soon,
my dearest, my love
my little spoon,
my little bug.

I wouldn't make you any promise
I couldn't keep,
I can't promise you kisses
next week,
two weeks
eight weeks,

Side by side,
you and me
exactly where I want to be.

so when I'm leaving
six weeks away,
remember my kisses
and how I wished I could stay.
And count on your fingers
and all ten of your toes
all the stuff that we did
all the places,
we still have to go.
390 · Jul 2011
Complications, of course.
Portland Grace Jul 2011
What can I say, when I can't say anything? But there's so much I want to say.




Who can I go to, when I can't go to you? But you're the only one I want to go to.






What can I do, when I don't even know how to talk to you?
390 · Nov 2014
November
Portland Grace Nov 2014
Watched and waited,
your body
ebbing and flowing.
An ocean
within me.

Tall,
and
sprouting wings.
When I closed my eyes,
I flew away.

Freckles,
I'm a sucker
connecting dots,
making constellations
out of you insecurity.

I told you,
you were a galaxy.

When you broke my heart,
left the pieces,
shattered
in a photo frame,
I picked up
the star dust
and blew it all away.

and when I shut my eyes,
I realized
I could still fly
390 · Feb 2011
Fall Out.
Portland Grace Feb 2011
I look at this blank page.
And wonder where to start.
It wasn't just a stage.
It wasn't just an art.
Before I was a child.
Before I didn't care.
The side effects are mild.
Like aching bones, and new found hair.
I take my place, my rightful place.
The place that I have earned.
My taller shoes, my made up face.
Trying to remember all the things that I learned.
I fell from grace, of course I did.
It happens to all they say.
I ran the wrong, I cried and hid.
I looked the other way.

I look at this filled page.
And wonder where to end.
It was just a stage.
It was just a bend.
I am still a child.
And I still don't care.
I will still get riled.
When at my heart you tear.
I never claimed perfection.
I just claimed human life.
I desired your affection.
But living will suffice
Portland Grace Jan 2015
I wrote you a book,
did you keep it?
Did you look?
When I stole your glances,
out your cracked window
two stories up?
Did you eyes follow me down your steps
when I slammed the gate?
When I spit on your lawn,
with my heart in my hands
that you tried to give back,
but it was already too late?

I wrote you a book,
four volumes long,
but all with same plot,
and the same stupid songs.

There's a chapter in there,
somewhere towards the back
it's covered in blood
and it's written in black.

Somewhere on a mountain,
high above the sea
there's a woman in red
and she's smiling at me,
she says
"Stop running in circles,
because you can't stop looking back,
chin the **** up
and plan your attack"

There's a stain in the stairwell
where blood leaked from your hands,
in December at midnight
under layers of sand
there's dust that shouldn't
have choked that young man.

When I checked your watch,
grabbed your wrist in an alley
and threw out the time,
into the trash can beside me

and picked up my words,
and left you there in street
with blood on your hands
and no shoes on your feet

I wrote you a book,
I wrote it for years,
I wrote it at night,
so that you wouldn't hear,
when my pen scribbled *****
and nightmares appeared

There's a cork in the bottle,
I put the glass down,
I emptied the bath tub,
and painted my frown
and looked up at your window
as I slammed your front gate,
no tears in my eyes
but I watched you the same
as a man who could murdered me,
and make me believe I was to blame.

I wrote you a book,
I never wanted to write,
did you read it all,
did you tear out pages,
and pin them on wall?
Did you throw it outside,
when rain started to fall?
Or did you skim it over,
for a second or two
then put it back down
thinking this can't be for you.

When my memory smokes in your mind,
like some rekindled flame,
I hope you remember
my face and my name
but not all the sins
my book burned on your brain.
386 · Dec 2014
T.K (A dumb poem for you)
Portland Grace Dec 2014
I'm sorry,
I hung up on you tonight,
and a few nights before that
(And a few nights before that)

I didn't mean,
to close the door
or turn off the lights,

I just needed
to open a window,
feel cold air,
and sit with my thoughts.

You are
a yellow bird,
and
you make everything
a little brighter

And I'm sorry
that my words
sometimes
clip your wings
(I really don't mean to)

I wish that things were easier.
We both know all to well,
that things don't always end up
like we want them to.

But you're (almost) here
and that matters
and you matter
and I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, I'll write you something better someday but yeah I'm sorry about tonight.
380 · Apr 2013
Progress
Portland Grace Apr 2013
I went on our old trail today,
with beautiful people,
who I care about a lot
and I saw our initials on a tree,
and I remember standing there,
watching you carve it with your key
and the way you kissed me when it was finished.
I remember a lot of things we used to do,
sometimes I think I remember them better now
than I did then.

But I smiled today,
and I rolled down a grassy hill,
and I laughed with my friends,
and a boy called me beautiful,
and I don't remember the last time someone called me that.

I'd like to think,
I am making progress,
because today was the first time,
I realized life can be good
without you.
379 · Feb 2015
(again)
Portland Grace Feb 2015
I thought about all the wasted words,
the blood on the walls,
and dry skin
from the compulsive ways
I had to wash my hands
after he ****** me.

I thought about old scars,
new scars,
and newer still scars.
Scars that would burn from the inside,
until my skin would crack
and I would come pouring out,
again.

At least I have something to write about.
(again)
Portland Grace Aug 2015
How do I tell,
exactly where my love stopped?

A river pools into the sea,
there are still parts of it there
but most of it got lost,
in something vaster.

Your name still feels like home sometimes.
368 · Sep 2015
Interlude
Portland Grace Sep 2015
Of course, these things happen
You forget where the light switch is,
so you sit in the dark for a while
trying to figure out
why the room doesn't feel so bright.

People are faulty,
they crack and shatter,
like crystal glass.
Sparkling and singing until
they are collapsing on the floor
at 3 A.M
for no good reason other than
a flash of a memory,
that they thought they had forgotten.

You tasted like something I wanted to be better for,
I could feel all of the room to grow,
grow to meet your years,
and your lips so far above mine
but it would be
solo-growing
and I have always needed
a hand to hold.

I wish I could know myself the way,
my girl knows me,
and I could tell myself
what to do,
because it's easier to hear the words,
when you aren't pretending you don't feel them.

Maybe I handled this carelessly,
my hands have a tendency to shake
when I feel things deeply,
throw everything in front of me
before
properly assessing the fall.

I miss my home,
with mountains and trees,
where the smell of pine clears your thoughts
but my home is burning.
and so am I
364 · Jan 2013
Cramped
Portland Grace Jan 2013
Swimming through  
a                                           Dark
Sea, drowning
within my own                  Thoughts
I need some light
but when                             Will
the happiness flow?
I feel as though I may        Break
underneath the words
no one has even said to      Me.
353 · Jun 2011
Better than love
Portland Grace Jun 2011
You say
           You don't
                       Know what
                                       Love is.
                         Maybe I don't
                  Either.
     But when
You say my name.
                                               I have an Idea
                                                         of what it means.
                                                                   To care about someone
                                                                          So much, that when you
                                                                                Go to sleep, they are in
                                                                                      your dreams, and when
                                                                                         you wake up, they are
                                                                                      in your head. When you
                                                                                     kiss, you don't see sparks,
                                                                                 You see images of the future
                                                                             You want to have with them.
                                                                          And if that's not love
                                                                       Then I don't want love, because
                                                                    this is best feeling I've ever felt.
Portland Grace Jul 2015
When I loved you, you were April mornings and bagels with extra cream cheese.
When I lost you, you were untouched cups of coffee, growing colder and stale through the day.

When I loved you, there was muddy shoes and shortcuts off the main road,
When I lost you, I wandered around trying to find my way back to the trail head.

When I loved you I was younger, I was lost, my hair was longer and thicker, and my heart was lighter. I slept with lights on and drank my coffee with more cream,,
When I lost you I thought that was the end. I thought that the world around me had stopped spinning and I cried for nights upon nights and lost 10 pounds because I couldn't eat my food.

When I loved you I thought that I was happy,
When I lost you I realized that I had never really been that happy.

When I loved you I learned about forgiveness, patience, and how to care about someone.
When I lost you I learned about acceptance, solidity, and how to care about myself.

When I loved you I thought the world looked brighter and grass didn't itch the same.
When I lost you I saw that they sky has always been the same, and grass will grow in unexpected places.

When I loved you, I thought it would be forever. We were so young and wanted so much from each other.
When I lost you, and long long after I lost you, I realized how easy it is for things to change, and how these things won't break you.
& I do still love you (in memory)
352 · Aug 2015
Oh man
Portland Grace Aug 2015
We are made of bones and muscle and water,
And I don't want to remember the last time that you held her,

Her bones too heavy for her weightless frame, as she mopped up your sins and took all the blame.

Us humans, we're made out of atoms and star dust,
Slowly sinking to hell through the dirt of the earths crust.
And you can walk through the flames alone if you must,
And you can dress yourself in metal and wait til you rust,
You can spit accusations until you feel you're just,

Tomorrow a train will pull into a station, and a man on an altar will make his declaration,
And tell her he loves her and tell her he cares, and then the same night take her sister downstairs,

And where is the moon when the sea needs it's tide? It stays right in sight with no place to hide. No need to assure, it will rise in time.

We are made out of passion and ******* and lies,
And we kiss our mothers before we open our thighs
And we put our heads in hands to muffle our cries


Your morning coffee tastes bitter in the afternoon,
And you always leave my bed too soon.

I'm made out of ashes and you're made out of flames
And when the dust settles, we are quite the same.
And I know what it means to be brave when I say your name.
350 · Aug 2015
Nothing in the 'verse
Portland Grace Aug 2015
If the day will come when tides don't flow,
and water can't find the time to rise,
where birds don't chirp and crow,
and mothers hear no cries.

If the day will come when the earth is still,
so quiet you can hear your own heartbeat,
when trucks stop driving, at their own will,
and the radio feels defeat.

Tectonic plates quit drifting,
TV's all click off
Bicycle speeds stop shifting,
The sick don't need to cough

What a world our world would be,
if there was no need for noise
What kind of things would there be to see?
If all the sound was destroyed.

So speak to me tomorrow,
when we stop this blessed lull,
for now we can't tell sorrow,
just pretend that we are whole,

And I'm sure I'll hear your laughter,
when the stillness finds it's end,
but write down in this calm chapter,
I hear your smile in my head
Portland Grace May 2011
Your memory looms,
but that I was expecting.
I guess
I though you would just fade away,
dissolve with the air,
and there would be nothing left.

I am stronger now than I was then.
You made me that way.
It doesn't hurt the way it did,
nothing does.
I finally grew
strong enough.
To be happy.

I put back up the walls
which you had helped me tear down.
Maybe not a good thing
But it helped me
get through
everything
that I would have needed
you,
to get me through.

The whole point of,
this.
Is to tell you,
that I'm glad you're happy.
And I'm glad I'm happy.
And that's that.
345 · Aug 2014
Happy.?
Portland Grace Aug 2014
Pigment shaded
I'm in the light now,
out of the dusty room
dark circles beneath bright eyes
pale skin
I think I became
luminous?
I felt like I was melting.
So sure,
everything was okay.
I wasn't okay,
and neither were you.

I'm in the light now,
it's hot here,
but the desert burned away
my doubts.
I'm cleansed again,
and all of my freckles
are returning to me,
lining my nose
there's roses in my cheeks.
I feel like a child again.
343 · Aug 2014
Tempe, AZ
Portland Grace Aug 2014
I'm so happy,
here in the heat
away from all the things
that remind me of you.
*(but some things still do)
343 · Oct 2013
Sky Light
Portland Grace Oct 2013
There are many things I need to do,
want to do,
am going to do,

Many places I need to go,
want to go,
am going,

Things I need to see,
want to see,
am seeing,

But to look into your sleepy eyes,
on the other side of my pillow each morning,
that by itself
would be enough for me.
339 · Jun 2011
Questions with no answers.
Portland Grace Jun 2011
Something beyond.
Something.
But where?
But what?
What more is there?
Secrets.
Why?
Hushed tones, always.
For what?
For Whom?
Nowhere.
And where's that, exactly?
Diminishing. Fading.
Falling.
Why?
Because, Sweetheart, that's the way life goes.
330 · Mar 2014
Strings
Portland Grace Mar 2014
I poured myself into you,
as if you were a mold.
My imperfections spilling through your skin,
till you coughed up my failures.

I looked at your hands
and I found my callouses.

Broken and stained,
I slept on the couch.
Your skin started to feel cold,
I could feel it flaking off.
I have deteriorated you.

When I cut my own throat,
you choked on my blood.
328 · Jul 2011
You know, I know
Portland Grace Jul 2011
You know
  I love,
   Everything,
     About you.
       You know,
         That you're
           The only one
             For me.
               You know
                 I always
                   Think about you.
                     You know
                       You're the only
                         One I see.                                                                            I know
                                                                                                                    I can be
                                                                                                                 A little much,
                                                                                                               Hard to
                                                                                                            handle,
'                                                                                                         But easy to touch.
                                                                                                        I know
                                                                                                     Sometimes,
                                                                                                  I don't think
                                                                                               Things through,
                                                                                             All I know,
                                                                                           Is that,
                                                                                        I love you.
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