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Riq Schwartz May 2014
I'll swath my cliches
in over verbose decadence
and ask forgiveness in the morning.

Edging
     toeing
the fine line in between
Fighting to *live

- or -
living to fight
in champagne surged soirees
of surreptitious allergens

Some ******* ballad
donning metalcore methods
aggressive to a fault
     that is to say, earth-shattering
unyielding, unwavering, unapproachable
un-*******-believable

You, me,
they, we,
truncated
but never forgotten
Had
but never spent
Forgotten
but never lost

Your name is in my autocorrect
with siren songs and call signs
from generational grievances,
Chivalrous misandry,
chorus discord
callous

Chandeliers swing
low like chariots.
Samson told us to keep dancing.
We were only listening,
abreast one another,
clad only in our genres.
We were so much more
until we were

lost,
but never mattered.
Riq Schwartz Aug 2013
She was 19, he was dead.
She took his heart and gave her bed.
No softer things were ever said.
They were together nightly.

He told her how her words could make
his voice to shudder, knees to shake.
She said it was a nice mistake.
She said so quite contritely.

She left him there to reminisce
of how they'd speak, of how she'd kiss,
then momentarily remiss,
his manners grew unsightly.

They say he took her by the hand
and brushed aside her hair of sand.
He spoke aloud the words he'd planned.
His eyes were shining brightly.

He told her she would never leave
his mind to wallow, heart to grieve,
that she would be the one bereaved,
his fingers gripping tightly.

Her bones were breaking, face was pale,
her eyes had formed a stormy gale
that sent her makeup setting sail.
She spoke to him forthrightly:

"You are the devil, you my doubts,
you are the hope I live without.
You'd have me cry and scream and shout,
but I'll say this politely.

I'll take my chances, starting now,
and set my heart to disavow
my head to take another bow."
Her words so sharp and sprightly,

she broke his heart, his hand, his hold,
and at his weakest, he was told,
"I'm not the type to be controlled.
Don't **** with me so lightly."
I once wrote a song about an abusive relationship, the whole thing being a metaphor for the struggle I was having with lust, and where I was the victim in the relationship. This is kind of along those lines, only with more abstract divisions between the literal and metaphorical elements. Take this however you see fit.
Riq Schwartz Apr 2012
We are lost in the tide
just a few feet from shore.
We are swamped by the size of the sky.
We are fickle and frail
and I've never felt more
like it won't matter how much we try.

I am lonely and loved
and exhaustedly glad
for a few simple minutes of rest,
so I looked to you with
what small fervor I had,
while I stood with my conscience undressed.

You were so full of hope
that we might get away,
but as time passes, so do our dreams.
There I saw in your eyes
all the fear and dismay,
with your heart torn apart at the seams.

It was so cold that day,
sitting still in our home.
It was early as midnight could be.
But the wanderlust shrieks
as the memories roam,
with the mind drifting out to the sea.

I was swept with the tide
washing out from the land,
and it carried me into the deep.
When I got there, I found
there was nowhere to stand,
so I laid down and drifted to sleep.

You were lost in the stars
looking down at the world
with the moon passing by overhead.
You were ground to a halt
as the whole planet twirled,
and you missed everything that I said.
Riq Schwartz Oct 2013
They tell me I know what I'm doing.

I'm a master stumbler.

I record the sounds of my steps
along the cobblestones of thoughts
tracing me through mere minutes of my day.

I'm no predator of words,
hungrily snatching them from their sound slumber.
I've never slain a thought for
the sake of hanging its trophy on my page.

I have no brush at the ready,
no photographic,
impressionistic mind
gathering the sights and sounds
like a gambler collecting her winnings.

I could not, at gunpoint,
fire off the words to save my life,
no eloquent please,
no well turned phrases,
no sycophantic soliloquy.

I am the shell of my experiences,
my hide made only
of the ones that have hardened me.
     This is no way to love.
And what is poetry if not love?
Riq Schwartz Feb 2012
every shot a sedative
every memory a ghost
every day a way to live
every one is one i lost

never drown my memory
never match me stride for stride
never see what i can see
never look for what i hide

feelings take a dusty shade
breathing gives me what i need
thinking of the way we're made
makes me out a mongrel breed

ever feel a twinge of doubt?
ever wonder if you wont?
ever feel your hearbeats clout?
ever sorry that i dont?

— The End —