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My brittle skeleton has become an abandoned motel
and you
were its last visitor.

Why didn't you enjoy your stay?

I made a trail of light kisses across your forehead
like spreading mints on your pillow in the morning.
I peeled back the curtains
to let rays of light color your cheekbones
and swept your troubles underneath the wooden sofa legs.  

A motel's only guests
are faint silhouettes of those passing through.
How did I believe you could be permanent?

I have cleaned every inch
of this haunted cottage,
but when I dust the mantel of my shoulder blades,
I only find your smudged fingerprints.

I cannot scrub you from my skin.
It flakes,
it scars,
but you are still embedded there.

How did I mistake touching for feeling?

A closed sign now dangles around my neck
This vacancy can never be filled.
Poem 1 of my Poetry workshop class. The prompt was to write a poem with the audience of "you", the speaker is "I", and it must pose at least one question.
your arteries are wired to
sound an alarm if thieves
come to rob you of your heart
but I swiftly stole the wrinkles
on your brain so maybe you’d forget
the mole below my left eye, the
faded birthmark embedded in my left shoulder

if that makes me a criminal dress
me in tangerine, let me play
tug of war with a noose

I took a polygraph test last night, the examiner
asked if I still loved you
I whispered no but the needle painted
the cadence of your voice instead
I guess you could call her a stranger,
she's afraid to get too close.
Attitude buried deep in her skin
her pain, heartache
[She fakes a smile]

They want to understand,
what goes on inside her head.
Her laugh, monotonous,
her skin could break.
[and she's beautiful.]

I want him to see the pain he caused,
the hurt inside her eyes.
The love she felt,
[undeniable]
For him?
[unworthy.]

You forget the pain and live in the moment,
never sharing how you truly feel.
Do you look for separation
or does it find you?
[Are you ashamed?]

With no desire to be amicable,
you believe you have true friends.
Tossing and turning thought the day.
Yearning to remain alive.
[Her heart still beats.]

Opinionated irony,
I see it in her eyes.
Life will turn out the way you hope
when you find your only someone.
[True love.]

Confusion spreads like a spider bite
and strokes then through her words.
A shocking splendor of melancholy lyric.
[Shot through fangs.]
Amazed me.
[Realization.]
 Oct 2013 raðljóst
Anna Vida
The life of a teenage girl
Is tumultuous.
She lives thirty lives in 7 short years
Combs her hair with a shaky hand
That turns still and calloused as time goes by.
Every year colored with
Black tears from too much mascara
And lipstick on teeth from untamed laughter
And dark circles under eyes from too many late nights
And scars from everything beautiful and ugly that ever touched her.

Her hands are so full
From every boy who ever intertwined his fingers with hers
And left behind whatever he did when he was finally gone.

And the ventricles of her heart; so swollen
She feels as though she may collapse under the weight of her heart.

And written in every vein,
Every capillary,
Every lobe,
Every nerve,
Are all the consuming ways in which she loves all that she loves.

And her stomach is scarred from that churning feeling;
That nauseating, stinging, consuming feeling.
That speeds in and out when she's enveloped by fear,
Or love,
Or hatred,
Or heartache.

And on her skin,
The scent of her family;
The ones bound by blood, and the ones bound by destiny.
The ones who made her strong and taught her to love.

So here's to family:
That chaotic wake up call
That didn't show its light until she realized just how bright it truly shines.
I'm a lost beat in a generation that I don't belong in
This accent isn't my own, and nothing is really just nothing
On drunken nights I feel you, your words stumble upon my sight
And I feel, I feel... static, ecstasy, loneliness

This beauty which you claim of blossom fields and grey empyreal
It mimics my inner-manic. Estranged voice that dauntingly whispers:
don't claim to the beauty you see

Satellite heart, you're losing your signal, again
I'd build a ladder to the sky and climb every star,
past the moon and beyond, if I could.

I've tried, you know I've tried.
Although I refuse to recline,
denial itself fixates truth:
I'll never be able to fix you.

To quench your thirst, to ease your pain, keep you awake
I'd make you stay, forevermore upon your desire, you know I would.

In my mind, I'll hold your hand without interference
And if tears do in fact dry on their own,
I'll cry yours along with mine until they do.

Feverish trembling of reminisce will not exist, not here
Outside these city walls,
To a place afar from calendar days and neon glistening hours
We will dance atop telephone wires

The soles of our feet tracing back to the sound of that very first call
gliding, floating, drifting
recklessly, carelessly, quixotically - - -

And if we fall, love, imagine that imaginations fly.

It's been said, as they say, that everything, everything ends
We are not everything, however. We are merely ourselves alone
You and I, it is just you and I, dispersed, coffee of the sea
For no reason other than our own, we rage in reprise as
Metaphors among caffeinated tides.

We are not infinite, immeasurable, imperishable
Our ancient bodies have long been buried in one-an-others heart
We are our own. Constant as the silence of sound.
Ceaselessly, immersed in the slumber of our dream
*We are, we are,   w e   a r e
can everyone just stop
asking me if im okay  
im not okay  
okay?
and im not going to tell you
because you didnt help                
when i needed it
you told me to grow up
"get over it"
well no
you* stop asking me      
you lost my                    
trust a while ago okay
 Oct 2013 raðljóst
a m a n d a
we should build
a house in the trees
deep in the forest
with metal
and glass
and wood

our home
could spiral around
a strong trunk
with deep roots
sunlight filtering
through glass
and the night sky
alive above us

there would be rooms
full of spices
plants
and light
a room of instruments
a room of art
and a room with books
stacked to the sky

we would each
have our own rooms
in a twisted corner
of our tree
color and light our own

we would
have a room just for us
to look into each other's eyes
hands in hair
and hearts beating
too fast

quiet words
could be whispered in our tree
music could boom
from our tree
and
our tree
would be strong
able to hold us high
above the ground
our tree
would be beautiful
and unique

we should build
a house in the trees

we should bend
the world
to our will

we should
create something new
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