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Portland Grace Oct 2013
I built a home inside of you,
I pulled your arms around me
as though they were the only walls I had,
and I carved my initials onto your lips
like the ones still on the front concrete of the house I was born in.
It didn't matter what was outside of us,
where we were together
the lights were on, the bed unmade, and the fire was nowhere near dying.
I built a home in you so long ago,
and I've moved so many times
it felt good to have a permanent residence.
But I should have known better,
than to have built my life inside of someone,
Because when you were sad,
the roof would leak,
and when you were angry
my walls would shake,
and when I left you,
my home crumbled
and I felt naked and cold
so I slept on our abandoned foundation
trying to pretend
that you were still there beside me.
*You were the hardest goodbye I have ever said
Portland Grace Mar 2013
Red dirt has a stain,
that goes deeper,
than cotton.
Cactus needles,
have pricked
more than just
my skin.
Dry, Hot air,
has warmed me
in places,
not touched by the sun.
I feel so at home
in the desert
Portland Grace Apr 2015
Oceans ebb and flow,
as do I

Sometimes I think that I will drown here.

There are falling cliffs on the coast of California,
and I still don't know if there is a difference between sand and stone.

I used to say his name out loud when I was alone just to see if it still tasted the same.
It did.

There's things beneath tons of water that no one has ever seen.
There is no light to see them, anyways.

I'm the only one who has ever thought my eyes look like the ocean before a storm.

I don't own a record player but I have four records and I can't use your turntable anymore.
Portland Grace May 2013
I remember,
how the beach felt
beneath our feet.
Arms wrapped around my waist,
as the tide carried our troubles
back into the sea.
Salty lips,
yearning to taste each other.
Crashing waves
soothing happy hearts.
Now the beach is bleak,
and I am afraid
that I will keep my promise,
of loving you forever
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.
Portland Grace Sep 2013
When I fell for you,
I didn't know
about the scars
that you are bound to get
from being dropped
from such great heights,
and the blood has dried,
and the bruises that were once
beautiful shades
of lavender
have now yellowed
and faded,
but those ******* scars
you've left all over my body
and heart,
they are there
for the long run.
Portland Grace Jul 2011
I ******* love you,
I ******* love you, and I don't know what to do.
When I hold you in my arms, it scares me.
It scares me too care about someone like that.
And when you tell me that you love me too,
It scares me even more.
Because either you're lying,
In which case, you'll hurt me worse than anyone ever has.
Or could.
Or if there's a small chance you're telling the truth?
Then I'm never going to be able to let you go.

Sometimes I just want to run.
I want to run away from it all,
From you,
Just to see if you'd follow me.
If I mean that much to you,
that maybe you don't want to let me go either.

When I look at you,
All I can think is how perfect you are.
And it scares me,
because I think,
what does he see, when he looks at me?
Portland Grace Jun 2011
Terribly Emotional,
Terribly Sensitive,
But not so terrible,

                            Maybe.

The sensitive heart can s e e ,
   things a stronger heart
      cannot.
            Feel things, a stronger heart
                cannot.
The sensitive heart, is not
w
  e
    a
      k, as some will tell you it is.
The sensitive heart is
CrEaTiVe, and much
    Stronger
than it will let on too.
Portland Grace Dec 2014
I was born a little fat baby,
with eyes shining blue under a cloud of regret.

I was their marriage bond,
A single mother and her manager
and this new crying child that neither of them knew what to do with.

They didn't know what to do with each other.

I was raised on shattered glasses,
broken trinkets,
and holes in the wall
all souvenirs of my father's anger and my mothers fear.

I was raised on sleeping on my brothers floor
because the screaming was too bad to hear on my own.

I learned my lessons on submission on my mothers fingertips,
as she would sweep the glass,
wipe the blood,
and make breakfast while humming, as though these things were just another part of a family dynamic.

And when I was 15, and I threw back a shot of ***** for the very first time,
I found I had learned lessons on dependence
from my fathers daily sin.

My parents tried to un-write their failures in me,
Telling me all the things not to do,
as they handed me a meticulously crafted manual
on exactly how to do them.

I was a shining baby,
and when my dad started to see his regrets in my mother,
and then in me,
he left the state without a single goodbye.

I was a shining baby,
with blue eyes and soft hair,
and I watched my mother cry for months,
as she moved us from fresh start to fresh start.

I was expected to be a prodigal daughter,
forged in the ashes of the lives
that the shining baby burned down.

I crumbled,
I am not a prodigy,
I am a ******-up girl
with enough mistakes stacked up at my young age,
to make my father proud.


I don't want to be a success
I don't want to be a failure
I don't want to be
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.
Portland Grace Jul 2016
Every person in this world has probably danced at some point in their life. They moved their feet and closed their eyes and felt the wind rush around them. Lucky few, have clasped hands with another and twirled and dipped across polished wood, holding someone close. Dancing doesn't have to be with your feet, I've danced a thousand dances in my mind, in my sleep, in my heart.


Now, this isn't about ballet slippers or perfectly timed movements. This is about small moments that touch you somewhere beyond your consciousness. When you're in your kitchen making coffee and you find yourself singing a song in your head that you haven't heard in years, and you shuffle about your morning remembering what it was like to be 9 or 16 or 32 again, and you feel your old steps and your old heartaches and fears and joys. And wishing you could go back for one last song, one last kiss, one last goodbye, one last dance.


This world is all going to end someday. For you and for me, for this planet, for this race. And we can go to work, and go to school, and eat the best we can, and fall in love and fall out of love, we can mourn and remember and follow and lead. We can dance everyday, you just have to know how. And you do know how.
Portland Grace May 2013
Salted words cut with bad intentions,
snorted off the childhood coffee table,
that held more shot glasses,
than black brimming mugs.

****** you up a little,
to peer small eyes over the counter,
daddy passed out
on the kitchen floor.

cigarette stained shirts,
and ***** filled mason jars
tucked beneath lace and cotton
so mommy won't worry,
the habit is in your blood.

Didn't even know that daddy liked
two lines of blow
with his coffee every morning,
****** you up a little, huh?

I'm not one to dwell,
but wait,
yes I am.

Six years since I last saw
your ugly, drunken face
that everyone said
looked so much like mine
'the spittin image'

Shattered glass on tile floors,
from shaky hands after too much Kessler,
Pained stomach,
Heaving into plastic or metal or porcelain
to spill the burdens
of a troubled childhood.
Might ******* up a little
Portland Grace Feb 2011
Cinnamon rolling hills passing out my glass confining piece of hell.
Wake me only if your telling me death is closer than 80 years.
Oh dear heavens, give me a taste of beauty, give me a sniff of glory, give me a whisper of love. Give me a sign that things will get better.
The dimly lit candle we ignited last summer, we shoved under our beds with outgrown clothes and dust.
Crinkled wrappers and checker tables and postcards and magnifying glasses.
I remember when I still looked forward to waking up.
Snowball effect of water trickling down my face, gallons and gallons and I still don't feel better.
At this point your words echo off my skin like a canyon of crystal glass.
Hold my icy hands, and hold them close to your heart, in hopes of warming up my cold head. My gears haven't been working right since the freeze.
They say thats what it does to you, but it's all in your head. And the pills are made of sugar, and the monsters are just a bad dream.
I fantasize of a place where there's no floors or solid ground, and your always falling, and matter isn't real. The only thing real is the wind in your hair and the air in  your lungs and the beating of your heart and you are alive.
I'm running out of answers. I'm running out of questions.
My voice is scratchy and I can't scream anymore, my eyes are dry and my heart is raw and my head is numb. I wonder if I've finally just faded into the wallpaper and I can finally go to sleep and not wake up.
Oh dear heavens please, just give me a sign that things will get better.
Give me something to hold on too.
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 Jul 2013
Wrote and rewrote
six separate drafts
trying to describe
how much I enjoy your freckles,
as well as your company
but I'm scared
because when summer ends,
like the gorgeous spots on your shoulders
you will fade,
but I don't want to let go
Portland Grace Feb 2014
I asked where it began
and I looked at the boot tracks,
out the back porch
to mark where it ended.

You took three scars with you,
one on your palm
I burned my initials
with the skin on my neck
on your right shoulder,
where your ink lie dormant
you couldn't sweat it out
when we made love
and one on the inside of your lip
where my teeth drew blood,
I wasn't much
for kissing foreheads.

You became a part of the mountain,
I fled to the sea
I broke you and bruised
me.

We cut each other with knives
mine of selfishness
yours of chaos.

I thought of you
when I thought of beauty and rain,
eyes like the creek behind your house,
hands like my fathers.
Splashing puddles
can't stop a monsoon.

One year past,
you are dust beneath rubber,
browned leaves upon a dust shelf,
thrown into the trash,
picture frames
onto the top of my closet,
Your name was never tattooed to me,
though it felt like that for a long time.

Yesterday
I think I went the whole day
without calling your name
beneath my breath.

I have won,
my heart back
you had it
for far too long.
Portland Grace Feb 2013
Stepping stone,
so low
I will behold your worth
as no one else does,
I will kiss your bruises,
so delicate
so insecure
brim your gaps,
make you strong again
*I like broken things
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.
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.
Portland Grace Jul 2014
Stuck on the puzzle,
I would hang myself up for weeks
searching.

Where is the last place you heard me sing?
I forgot how exactly
that one tune goes.
but when I turn around,
I can almost hear
you hum it.

I was told to stop
looking back
I will **** myself,
if I grovel in the past.

Nights have always been rough
I'm scared you see,
darkness
It's like I am still a child

I peek out my windows
turn on my nightlight
bury myself in your shoulders,
but where are you?

Stuck on the puzzle,
looking for the missing piece,
but you weren't it
you never were.
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.
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)
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 Feb 2011
The sun is the only distress.
As we lay 'neath the blue sky.
Without a care.
Our skin was hot,
Even as the sun went down.
And the stars had never looked so bright.
But the brightest thing,
Was the smile
Laying in the girl wearing it.
Who's only distress was the sun.
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.
Portland Grace Feb 2011
Black circles traced upon my hand,
mind wandering off into space shuttles plunging into the ocean,
and radiation heat waves crumpling our hearts.
Walk away, don't look back.
Wipe away your doubts and drown your regret and keep looking forward,
because at some point the past won't matter
and we'll be single cells again
and we'll find our way back to this same exact place,
so perhaps we should be leaving breadcrumbs
to help the others along on their way.
Paranoia creeping up your spine as you turn around
to face the devil of your mistakes.
Turn around and don't look back. If you don't fuel them they can't touch you.
Portland Grace Jul 2011
The thing about                       love
              or
                        something close,            is             all            the          space       in      between.
When we're together, it's perfect. Everything is wonderful, the colors brighter, the sounds softer, the music sweeter.
             But when you leave.......... well what then?
Excitement for the next time, our eyes will meet?
Well         yes,        yes.


                     But....
There's always buts.
      But doubt,
Does he even miss me?
Is he            avoiding me?
Will this be just like last time?

I tell myself,          no.   Stop being foolish.
Childish.
Pathetic.




Or when I want to                         see     you,
and you don't want to                  see     me,

He doesn't like me anymore..
There's someone else...
He's bored of me..

I tell myself no, he's busy.
He has other stuff to do.
He's tired.....
of me?
                                       I don't even know.
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.
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 May 2013
I breathe you in like dry air,
exhale your memory,
so soft, so light,
it glides off my lips like last summers
flavored tobacco,
I miss the way things used to be.
I have a sadness in my heart,
rotting away all traces of
what I once was,
I am erasing myself,
I believe.
living beneath the shadow,
of stale promises,
and old secrets
Regret pulls me deeper under these waves
every ******* day.
Sliding under barbed wire fences,
and looking out at
space,
I could of sworn,
I was invincible,
but I will have to find
new armor,
that will never smell as good,
as your cotton t-shirts,
and faded blue jeans.
*I am sorry if I hurt you,
but you will never know
how much you have hurt me
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.
Portland Grace Jan 2015
Men put tiny fences
on mountains
and call it theirs.
Portland Grace Mar 2013
The second cup of coffee,
the first was not enough.
I need more gold caffeine.
I need a lot of things
We used to drink it together,
now I drink it by myself
every morning
I'd bring you a big cup
and you'd ask me if I made it with love
of course I did.
Now my own cup,
tastes bitter
regardless of the amount of creamer used.
I'm on my second cup of coffee,
the first was not enough
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?
Portland Grace Jun 2015
That home is not a place it's a feeling. It's a feeling that wraps you in warmth and when you get there you know, because how could you ever feel like you feel when you're home?

2. That home will change. Home will adapt. You will come to the house you were raised in after being away for a while and you will your hand will shake as you open the door. The bed where you lost your virginity will feel stiff and old and you will realize that this doesn't feel like home anymore, that home is 800 miles away and sits with your stuff in boxes and with a girl with brown eyes and your favorite smile.

3. That time changes people, and time will change you. You will kiss the boy you swore you loved with all your heart a few years ago, just for the hell of it, and you will find that time has changed you both and you can't remember why his lips used to taste so sweet.

4. You will grow apart from people you don't want to grow apart from.   And that's okay. There will always be memories shared, and things you will miss. You will move on and talk infrequently and wish them the best.

5. You will hate how quickly things have changed. You will look back and you will think about high school and the excitement of leaving and wonder why you never fully appreciated where you were in this moment. You will feel pangs of regret, but they will pass.

6. You will bring to your home town habits you picked up while in school. You will take tequila shots in your kitchen at midnight because you're bored and you will shotgun a beer because it reminds you of home, and you miss your dorm room more than you would like to admit.

7. You are not invincible. When you leave school, you no longer have exams and work and parties to hide behind. Life moves slower here. You have to look at yourself each day with a new kind of acceptance, and that acceptance might seem harder here.

8. And you will be more alone, and this is a part of growing up. You went a year without regularly talking to your friends. It will hurt that you are not as a part of their group anymore. It will feel odd that you no longer have people to hang out with everyday. That your best friend is across the country and no longer shares a room with you. That you can't go to the guys down the hall's room to see what they are doing. That you will have days where no one texts you, no one talks to you, and this is all okay. You will learn about solitude and moving on and loving yourself. And of course, you will be okay, you've always been okay.
Portland Grace May 2015
I am sun-kissed and I glow in the moonlight,
my eyes reflect like water,
and summer makes me speckle and freckle
and I crave rivers and mountains
and other things that make me beautiful.

I am long-legged like the spiders you hate,
my hair is red like roses and smells like springtime,
I am soft in a way you imagine clouds to be
and I no longer fear you or the dark.

I have grown out of sidewalk cracks,
I am a ******* garden and you can't step on me anymore.

I am too tall to be contained and too beautiful to be detained
and I will never again haunt myself with things I couldn't be.

I am too much to be too little and somewhere you always knew it.

So when you talk to me like you think I still love someone who made me believe I was just an ugly girl,
remember that there are flowers growing inside me,
and I washed the taste of your sharp tongue out of my mouth months ago.

I am an ocean with waves and depths and storms and beauty and there is so much to me that you will never get to see.

You were an anchor weighing me down confining me to one stark place of myself,

I am so much more than you ever saw, I finally know this now.
And sure, this one is for you and everyone else like you.

Love yourself, love yourself, always remember to love yourself.
Portland Grace Jan 2013
Crushed up light bulbs,
inhaling glass
because **** man,
whatever gets you high.
Although often,
it just makes you low.
chop , tap
and
bang!
You're off to neverland,
for a few hours
days
weeks
'till all the pixie dust is used up
and you are just a
shaking sweating infant
waiting to be fed.
They say getting high,
doesn't make you trip,
it widens your vision,
and allows more information
and light
to enter your skull
Dilated pupils
it opens your
third eye
they say.
Maybe thats why
the world looks so much better
after a few lines
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.
Portland Grace Jun 2013
I am going to watch Fellowship of the Ring
and recite every line,
just like I always do,
and instead of feeling like a sad loser,
I will remind myself
that someday I will watch it with another,
who shares my passion,
and like Celeborn and Galadriel,
we will rule over Lorien,
together.
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?
Portland Grace Sep 2013
To the boys who never loved me,
but pretended they did,
if only for a night.
To the boys who never loved me,
and used my body as a surrogate for the voids in their heart
left by others
or by themselves,
I am sorry.

To the boys who never loved me,
but our nights of passion left memories so sweet,
not in your heart or in the palm of your hand
but right on the tip of your ****
where you remember the way it felt
with your fingers in my hair
and my breath on your thigh.
I am sorry.

To the boys who never loved me,
but claimed they did
or told me lies
to get beneath my fabric,
where disappointed they found,
that I was not the long term answer to their insecurities,
only a nighttime siren,
plagued with sadness
that made you slowly back away
when you got deeper than skin,
I am sorry.

To the boys who never loved me,
I am sorry.
I am sorry that I could not be her,
the one you thought you had forgotten,
I am sorry that I could not fix you,
and I'm sorry that you could not fix me.
I am sorry for the nights of *******
where we tried so hard to make love,
and instead we drowned in our own self pity,
and made resentment instead,
I am sorry.

I am sorry for the promises I broke to you,
and the promises you broke to me
all stemming from the fact that too often
we think intimacy will bring us together
when it has only ripped us apart,
I am sorry.
I am sorry you could not find yourself in me,
or that you found too much of yourself in me,
I am sorry that I was not enough,
I'm sorry for the things I have done to you,
and the things you have done to me.


To the boys who never loved me,
I am sorry.
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.
Portland Grace Oct 2013
I liked the way,
I watched your
chaos
from the sidelines,
but you outstretched your hand,
like you would ask for a dance,
and you pulled me into
your wonderland vortex
*I have never been the same
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.
Portland Grace Jul 2013
I would give you rivers and seas,
if only I could
encompass the tidal pulls
to bring them straight
to your bedroom window.

I found you lingered
in each drag of my
ever growing
cigarette addiction,
but addiction means trapped,
and I like to think of myself
as unchained.

Deep cuts on my forearm,
from falling off barbed wire
trying to reach you.
My friends will swat my hands,
when I reach for the scabs
I have a awful habit
of re-opening wounds.

And mornings are better,
when awoken with light kisses,
but they make nights alone
much worse
Because I long for your heavy breathing,
and your soft skin
to lull me to sleep.

I walked on ice so thick,
for so long,
your easy waves
and astounding depths,
caught me off guard
sometimes I forget how to use words,
because we talk so much
without them.
Portland Grace Oct 2013
I wondered why I didn't find the sunshine,
in the sky, but in your hips
And why I couldn't ******* feelings,
anywhere but your lips,

I asked myself why I held you,
as if you'd float away,
why I always glanced behind me
unsure if you would stay.

I danced your shadowed shoreline,
like a kite without a string,
a ship without an anchor
a crown without a king

You told me not to worry,
you told me I'd be fine
you told me you'd protect me,
but we ran out of time.

I told you I would leave you,
I told you I'd get scared,
for I myself am broken
And I fear I cannot be repaired.

And you were such a wonder
the way you bent without a cause
and buried me beside you
reactions without pause,

We walked on ice together,
to often we fell in,
you'd pull me down beneath you,
our love was wearing thin

And now beside the rubble,
I should of known it from the start,
we never the grand production
just a piece of broken art

A boy of failed promises,
a girl of untuned strings
In trying to build a home on solid ground,
we forgot about our wings.
Portland Grace Apr 2013
Able-bodied,
and minded
and happy.
A fish
in water
too deep,
or maybe too shallow.
Hands, rough
skin, clean.
Wait for the tide
to roll in.
Wake and walk
float,
or drown
depends on how deep
the sorrow goes
I will hold you under
Portland Grace Jul 2013
Open gravel,
winding to
your off-road heart

left turn to
forever,
but I pulled a hard right
into
heartbreak.
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)
Portland Grace Nov 2013
You moved
inside of me,
and I sheltered you
from your
self-made winter.

You left icicles
spiking below my *******
so I tended my fire
and melted away
your thick walls of frost.

We moved through
summer to autumn,
autumn to winter
and now
in the cold
our frozen breath,
laughing at each other,
My very best friend.
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