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Ryan Bowdish Dec 2010
Begging you
My knees scarred and raw
Purple
Bleeding profusely

Skin falling off
Stare at these eyes
Can you see the gold?
A frequent memory of lawns
And sheets among dawn
Thankful to simply be a pawn
Apologies unneeded
Warnings unheeded
Don't you utter a careless word
Is this all we have with which to work?

You may carry the aroma of harmony,
But your twisted psychiatric cacophony
Is a melody to the sad symphony
That I wish I could sing you
I would put you to sleep
Every single dark evening
By feel, under star-shine

If my songs were moving enough to make you stop crying inside,
Would you finally carve our initials into trees
And spray-paint our faces into underpasses, please?
Ryan Bowdish Dec 2012
Fingers blowing wind on keys,
I'm outside letting snow fall on me
Watching her with leather eyes and knees.
She's studying her periphery
And I can see that she's been waiting
For me to finish smoking.

Tearing the universe open
Her black skin and nails shaking me.
The chord sits gaping like coffins
In open casket last time seeing your
Identity embodied in somebody else who never misses beats.

The pool was closing up
And you were a stranger.
I never listened to my instincts
And that made us perfect.

The steam rises from the water til
Vision escapes me and it
Closes around her soft body.
She dives down and lets the
Chlorine leave her hidden
And my legs were gone again.

She peaks the momentum
Her dark hair and eyes both agree:
I need someone else around me,
Some sound to come down and let out
The lesser parts of all the things I could have been.


The pool was closing up
And you were a stranger.
I never listened to my instincts
And that made us perfect.
Ryan Bowdish Jan 2011
Your hands are cold and soothing on my shoulder blades
My head leaking rain buried away from the air raids
I can't sleep anymore, I'm done with the sweating.
You crawl under covers and press your legs into my back
And I stand hunched over every time I get my heart on track
I can't relax anymore, I need a change of setting.

Well we lie among leaves and you rip up the grass
And we douse ourselves in kerosene and try to get there fast.
Everyone we love is putting themselves last,
They're taking off their faces and putting on masks
And if they ever decide that their lives are worth living
We'll be standing idly by just working on forgiving
Ourselves.

Your eyes so gold, they etch themselves into my soul
And here in my sick bed, you warm up my legs until they're full
I can't sleep anymore, I'd rather melt into the floor.
Your hair so smooth emphasizing the beauty of your youth
And here where I feel dead, you wrap me up in blinded truth.
I can't relax anymore, I'd rather pass through your front door.

Well we hug all the trees and kiss with our noses
With my face in your knees and our bodies full of roses.
You whisper in my throat that we're not coming round.
Everyone we love is getting stuck in this town
And if they ever decide that their lives are worth living
We'll be standing idly by just working on forgiving
Ourselves.
for Emma.
Ryan Bowdish Feb 2013
It was never enough
It was never enough
It was never enough
For them!
Crying into your couch
Laughing into your hands
Telling me all the time
You're sorry!
I don't care anymore
I don't want anymore
I don't need anymore
From them!
You're just looking at me
Always staring at me
I don't need to judge you
Anymore!

Let's talk for a second, well are you alright?
You've been trying to speak for a fortnight
You've been laughing yourself into a coma
You're dead on your feet, you can taste aroma

Quit lying to me
Stop screaming at me
Quit lying to me
You're gone!
I'm gonna go get my gun
I'm gonna go get my gun
I'm on my way to my gun
So get out!
There is no reason for this
There is no reason for me
All I came was to give you
A show!
I'm already out the door
I'm heading out the door
Don't bother crying anymore
Just go!

Let's talk for a second, well are you alright?
You've been screaming my name for half of tonight
I can't keep listening to you go on
Go make a new world for you to live on
This is about when I used to sell vacuums door to door. One man had a psychotic breakdown and began to cry and laugh intermittently into his couch and pleading me not to leave. Then he suddenly snapped and decided to go get his gun, so I had to leave immediately.
Ryan Bowdish Nov 2010
There's lead in my teeth.
When I smiled, the bounty on my head
It increased.
My twisted snarl is a symptom of disease
Soon I'll be
Deceased.

Leave me no option,
Save, to buckle
Under this leaf.

A man with antennae.
I can taste the tension
In the air. I love this part...
We release.
Ryan Bowdish Aug 2010
I left my mind on too long and now the image is burned onto my eyes
A bow driving by, pushing the universe out of its way, across the strings
The violin breathes and weeps in its sweet silent worship
It's all I see in my hands and my scars.

The beauty of the rain gently rides across the window, strutting smoothly
And everything blurs itself across a silver screen, speckled with red
And gold, etched with liquid-carved gray, as the lights hover and stare
The sun shows behind the fire, red like Japan.

Salt falls down my face, leaving a scar in itself down my bones
And the blood in my teeth just add to the chorus in the mirror
The splash on the floor below me, catastrophe, exploding in a cymbal crash
And the colors flood through my soul.

I have tried so hard not to think of the euphoria of being with you
Tried not to think of every drug we did to make things more beautiful
But I realize the delusion of smeared frost is the alcohol, and the tears...
They are the pills, they are the numb.

A silence in her voice, almost a whisper, echoing inside my spine
A bit of hair torn from my unresponsive scalp, reassuring the loss of my sanity
I've found true euphoria, true sanctuary from pain, and the coldness of life
It's all here in the fibers of this bow.
Ryan Bowdish Sep 2013
When the devil comes knocking, you better get the door
He'll give you something beautiful you've never had before
You could blindly obey your country and lay awake inside
But you'll be sorry you didn't take a chance when you're facing your demise.
Thanks to Doug Stanhope for that title.
Ryan Bowdish Jan 2011
Grinding teeth.
Wide eyes.
Quick speech.
The will to die.

Breathing walls
Diluted with luck.
I need sleep
Before I get stuck
This way.

Travel in circles all over squares
Bodies, water vapor
Some grind themselves
Some grind you.
***** looks?
Simply rolling?

Get in bed.
Close your eyes.
You need to lay down.
Just relax, now.
I can feel my heart
Breaking my ribs
Every beat.

Sleep!
Sleep!
Sleep!
Sleep!
Shower's buzzing!
Water drops are
Droid voice.

Sleep!
Sleep!
Sleep!
Sleep!
SLEEP!
Ryan Bowdish Dec 2010
Claustrophobia, bouts of depression
An extreme sensation of longing
A sudden realization to the loneliness
A harsh fervor for the idea of loneliness
Bitter repulsion at the self for the loneliness
But when you get over loneliness,

then it's just guilt. and then nothing.
It's worse when you forgot what you did
Or you choose to deny it.
Lying to the self.

That's when I drown.
I need you to be my gills, so I won't drown.
I need you to be the truth, so I can't deny it, so I can **** this guilt.
I need you to be loneliness, so I can crush you.
I need you to be longing, just for me, for a balance.
I need you to be depression, so I can be free
Of claustrophobia.

And then I will swim.
Ryan Bowdish Jan 2011
I'm floating through clouds of color
Skies of creamy tan skin.
I have...
A backbone to direct,
Gaps between ribs in which to lay my fingers,
A stomach to caress,
To lay on a chest,
A beautiful mind in which to rest.

Your eyes are so wide open, it's almost frightening.
The contorted, twisted confusion in your cheeks,
I want to wipe this all away.

Come here. Hold me.
I am your anchor. You don't need me
But I am here for you.

This is a very simple poem,
But the point is,
I love you.
copyright Ryan Bowdish 2011
Ryan Bowdish Aug 2010
Red, raw, raging regret
As far away as you can get
You make me want to hurt myself
To collapse into a shallow shelf
Shame is eating my head away
Pain is bleeding and here to stay
How can you say everything is okay?
That I am not killing you every day?

We need to talk. We need to walk.
We need to finalize what we feel.
We need to get all these feelings out
To remove our hands from our swollen mouths
This is all a nightmare.
My stomach churns and you don't care.
You said yourself you're numb to me.
Please, oh please, don't let that be.

I am so, so, so, so, so, so sorry
My aching eyes are closing hardly
There must be something left in you
For you keep writing about me.

Don't think I can't see it, it's so true.

Why won't you let me be in love with you?

Please, let's talk. Please.
See me soon.

— The End —