Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
 Oct 2013 Shanon Lee
Shang
"listen to me!" his mother said
"If I see one more tear, you'll never see her again!"

the five year old boy's cheeks
still flushed
his eyes swelling like
a pop-knot
they are ****** red
his chest will surely
explode from the tension
any moment now

he clenches the tube of
ointment in his front pocket
of the new pair of jeans
his grandma bought him
on the way back from
North Carolina

the young boy wipes his eyes,
rubs the bald spots on his head,
noticing his last eyelash has fallen on
the last tear running down his
face

his grandma holds him tight, she says:
"I love you. I'll be back soon."

he can feel his mother's
needle-worn arms pulling him away.
he can smell her morphine sweat.
he can taste her oxycontin breath.

despite watching his grandmother
close the door of her 1990
green Beretta and drive
off Walnut Street and
down Oakford Ave--
the little boy
never cried
again.
(C) Shang
Ted packed his trunk with all the junk
he said he didn't need
cars with three wheels and orange peels
and books he didn't read

He threw away his moulding clay
his bucket and his *****
some holey socks and building blocks
and games he never played

One spider fake a rubber snake
A plane with just one wing
Two wind up frogs with broken cogs
A yo-yo with no string

An old remote a bath time boat
a bat without a ball
four marbles chipped three comics ripped
he threw away them all

A piece of chalk a bottle cork
some old unwanted cans
a dinosaur without its roar
and paint stained plastic pans

Some old cds and dvds
too scratched to ever play
a submarine some jumping beans
he threw them all away

Without a sound the lid closed down
and locked the ******* in
then daddy said I'll take that Ted
and put it in the bin

Spring cleaning ends as two good friends
sit down to toasted bread
More room to play I heard him say
as we climbed into bed

The clever bear without a care
closed his one eye and snored
I did the same and dreamed of games
that we had yet in-store
 Oct 2013 Shanon Lee
Megan Grace
I am
infatuated
with how
you are so
unapologetically
you.
 Oct 2013 Shanon Lee
Megan Grace
I don't know how to tell you
in normal conversation
that my heart only
speaks your
name.
 Oct 2013 Shanon Lee
Megan Grace
Lately I've been trying
to tell you in long
words what you do
to my insides but none
of it makes any sense,
so maybe it's just that
my pen isn't quite working.
There's no poetic way
to tell you I run your
name on the record player
in my head over and over
until I'm dizzy with the
sound of it. There used
to be more to your song
but we hit a bump and
something got scratched,
so now it just sings
"Ryan Ryan Ryan Ryan"
without me knowing
how to stop it. In stereo
my heart beats
thumps
says
"I love you, I love you,
I love you"
in your roughest voice-
the one you have at 3 am,
that you have in all my
best memories of you.
 Oct 2013 Shanon Lee
Megan Grace
I am heavy
         heavy
         heavy
         with fear that you'll find someone
         who can love you better than I can
 Oct 2013 Shanon Lee
Megan Grace
I went
into the
darkness
and shined
my flashlight
through my
worries,
hoping to
spot even
a glimmer
of yours in
the distance.
I could have
sworn I saw
you out
there
once.
 Oct 2013 Shanon Lee
Sarina
there is a small thing, a paper cut
in my window screen
and for days now I have used it to ask every bird
every bumblebee every animal with wings
if they have met
my dead best friend in the sky
because I see her hopping from cloud to cloud
on my way
home from school all the time
and want to know when she's learned how to fly.
 Oct 2013 Shanon Lee
Sarina
heavy
 Oct 2013 Shanon Lee
Sarina
The shadows make swans
out of our necks when you sleep in my bed, the
only hour I do not feel so heavy
as after reciting poetry to a fallen star
or finishing a conversation without some goodbye word

leaving spider webs
in my mouth while my lips wait
for the cue to close, a signal to move on from whatever
happened and left without departing.

Saliva strings out from your cheek like spider legs
and I like this so much more.

We condemn bugs,
those icky things, for daring to sleep where no one else
does – but does that not mean that bugs
never want anyone to be lonely?

when morning no longer opens our eye sockets
snails will use their glue

when the sun stops loving the moon
I want to take your hand, and be light, and fly from the
bottom of earth’s oceans
all the way to the astronomies, we can
be the insects keeping the moon and stars not lonely.
Do not want to assume
       But it consumes our daily lives.
How can we act or
                       Not act
Without some assumptions?
                Maybe we call them something else
To put our ill seeking minds at ease.
              Want to just do it
                                     Go for it.
                                          Conquer it
But paralyzingly fear the consequences
            Ultimately we are all just individuals
                                    Sorting
Through this Chaos we have created
                 How are we supposed to know what is Best?
Let yourself be you,
                            be in the situation,
                                                               do not analyze.
Because the thing is,
                       When are we not learning
                                     Who we are?
Simply just choose.
                                 Make an action.
   Just.  
             Decide.

**Oct 5, 2013
Next page