Sarah Writes: Favorites

Mar 2014 Sarah Writes

mark john junor

just the outline remains
like a silhouette of happiness faded
like a footprint of a past joy
in the dusk cannot perceive where it has gone
only mark its point of passage
in the soft cold sand
where the brittle rough edge of concrete
juts out from the tangled undergrowth
now just a rain soaked ruin
now just discarded shell someone called home

the rotted planks and shattered glass
litter the ground a maze of pieces
like some lunatics puzzle box
spread for contemplation's amusement
there amongst the jewels of rot
a single small face etched in the grey weatherbeaten stone
the detailed portraiture done with
adorations care
a young woman with long hair flowing
a young woman with captivating smile
now fading slowly in tropical sun
etched on the worlds edge
here amongst the spoiled walls
and broken windows

moonlight now casts its otherworldly light
down through the torn roof
like it is fishing here for mens dreams
which it hungers for
to speed it on its journey
i cast it the morsels of my once loved
i cast it a trail of hearts crumbs
which the moonlight follows on down
the silent street
like a small boy returning home late in the day
with a pocket full of strange treasures

i lay here fitfully dreaming
as mornings heat intensifies to full blown day
jaundiced by the seabreeze i crawl forth
and sit once again
to stare at the etching of the girl
as it is slowly eaten by sea and sand
time may not heal all wounds
but it will consume all the wounded
as it consumed her

Mar 2014 Sarah Writes

you sometimes bite your lip during laughter

Mar 2014 Sarah Writes

Tom Leveille

you sometimes bite your lip during laughter

you are inches
measured by miles away
bulldozing oriental food
you don't intend on eating
around your plate
and i am imagining
the translation of asking
for a broom in a foreign language
for when you shatter over small talk
or the first sentence to start with "so"
breaks you into shaking
that i can feel from across the table
and i am thinking now
about tectonics and how you must be daydreaming of being submerged in a book
back home or gripping tightly
to bedsheets begging for familiar warmth
i can tell by the way you are looking at me
that you are feigning our salutation embrace
seconds drowned in ankle deep water and i wonder if you see my hands
as jackhammers and if the reason
why you hug so hard
but only for a moment
is to be as sharp as possible
so that i do not smell your perfume
or notice that you aren't wearing any and why
there are few suprises
in the safe you claim is a mouth
where shades of plush pink
hide a sickly pallor
and i continue to look over
brick & mortar borders
and think how maybe
she is thinking of kissing
but certainly not me
not these apologies nailed to my face
i give myself a moment
of benefitted doubt that you sometimes
picture your frame under mine
and if your clavicles would crack
if i were to touch them
i am sorry that i am a victim of imagination
but i swear i chalk it up
as the forgotten feeling
for when you look up
and the person you are looking
at is gazing directly at you
you have painted yourself
as a mosaic in my mind
as a mess of dust & incoherent words
that all sound like please in my ears
but that doesn't explain why
my hands are the ones that are shaking
when i imagine you
imagining me
in the spaces of yourself
where you've forgotten
you could put someone

Mar 2014 Sarah Writes

bread of the mind

Mar 2014 Sarah Writes

mark john junor

bread of the mind

she breaks the bread of her mind
and hand feeds it to her child
its young eyes look at her with
questions unanswerable

the bitter food of her deviant thought
helps sculpt its newborn mind
to the tattered doctrines of her own dark past
to the illness that her heart breeds
this should not be....should not be

years unfold like the passing clouds
silent spectators of the hidden things
that were behind that door
behind the closed shades of that home
the child did not grow
only festered like the weeping of an open wound
this should not be...what is to be done...who will stop this

the worlds days flutter past
the windows without pause
to their endless flight

as the child now sits alone with its tainted self
in the thick air of its room
listening to the sounds of angers in
another world across the hall
a world it cannot understand
a world that should be filled with loves but is only a battlefield

as we see this child now in our hearts eye
we too cry out with
what dark things our empathy beholds
feel helpless in the face of such

as we see this child in our hearts eye
it reaches down and breaks the bitter bread of its mind
and hand feeds it to the plastic doll that it calls
child

Mar 2014 Sarah Writes

Beads

Mar 2014 Sarah Writes

Cain Arkay Lazarus

Beads

There's paint under my nails
And no matter how hot the water is
I can't wash you off
I watch the raindrops slide down your leather jacket
And smear your make up
Because it's jealous
That you're still radiant
Even now I'm not sure why I want you
All I know is that it's raining
And you're soft
And my mask is slipping

#love #lust #rain #unrequited

Feb 2014 Sarah Writes

Things Change.

Feb 2014 Sarah Writes

brooke

Things Change.

I used to like when he hugged me outside my car for
four minutes, how he wouldn't let me leave even if it
was cold outside and i was only wearing flip-flips, always
after our lips were red and chafed and my hair was a god-awful
mess on my head,

I used to like it when he listened to odd future, when he complained
about how ugly he was when I knew he was beautiful, how he was
worried that I would care that his skin was rough, that his skin was rough
that his skin was rough, but I loved his textures, his angles, his curves, never
smooth, never flat skin.

I used to like his baby cheeks and defined jawlines, how nothing ever mixed
with him, but he was milk and paint and oil. Baked potatoes with broccoli and
thyme, rosemary cloves.

I can't point out where all these things ended.

When I started to complain when he held me for too long in front of the door because
I told him he couldn't hold me in front of the car anymore. It was too cold.
When did my lips starting staying pink instead of red, when did
my hair start staying perfect, when was the last time I had held his hand
without being afraid of some boring, ridiculous reason, when was the last
time I laid in bed with him when was the last time I thought that he was the
best thing to ever happen to me, where do these thoughts go?

Overthinked, thanked, thunked? Did I wear beyond use, does my love have
an expiration date?

(c) Brooke Otto 2014

This has been in my drafts for awhile, I like it more now. December 20th.

Jan 2014 Sarah Writes

poem for a boy that hates poetry

Jan 2014 Sarah Writes

robin

poem for a boy that hates poetry

once upon a time,
you asked me to tell you stories.
they never made sense but they made you laugh
but when it was your turn you'd shrug and look at the floor.
you can't weave fiction, you're too
cerebral,
ive always been the creative one.
now im stuffing your essays in the space between my ribs
and pretending thats enough.
youve always been more politics than poetry -
you hate poetry.
but you always came when i performed
(said my poems were the only ones you could stand.
said the others were static noise)
youre miles away, youre chasing cemeteries and im chasing you.
ive always been more
successful,
youve always been kinder.
when i cry you speak softly and i scream.
when you cry i laugh and you
go quiet
and i feel sick.
you still believe in duty and honor and
honest politicians
though i tried to convince you that everyone lies,
just like you.
i took you outside at night and taught you the only constellation i know,
told you about
desperate boys and girls like mountains,
and redwood forests at three a.m.
and blew smoke in your face.
now its your turn.
tell me a story.
tell me how they broke you to bits and built you up again.
tell me how youre afraid to die.
tell me how ive hurt you and youll never trust me quite the same again.
tell me about your favorite book
again,
describe the dragon so vivid my own monsters seem like broken dolls.
i'll offer you a drink and you'll refuse.
(i'm so sorry that you're gentle
and i'm cruel.
i'm sorry for treating you sweet then snapping your wrist.
come back.
this time i'll be kind.
this time i'll listen.)