Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Woke up to the same different changed America
I spent the night before at "Post No Bills"
A local bar
Watching the election results like it was a football game

New casters pointing to red and blue states
Making news out of the obvious
Texas went red, theres a ******' surprise
The ******* the stool next to me says if Romney wins she's moving to another country
Sure you are..drunk girl at a bar..

Everyone from my building, the 286ians
Were in attendance for the gala
"And a round of shots for my good friends", I told Mustang Sally, our bartender
I continued, "Cause if Obama wins were getting ****** up tonight and if Romney wins were ******"

Boisterous laughter like osmosis
Fills the room from left to right
Another 286ian walks in
"Heyyyyy!!!!" said everyone in the bar

The election was a close one
With 11 more minutes until the polls close
I closed my tab
Put on my borrowed scarf was out the door like Flint on opposite day

Pockets were empty
But no complaint
I look at the bar as buying smiles
As I walked home, belly warm
I hear cheer
Obama must have won
Who wants a beer?
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
I'm glad to say true love never fades away
Immortal butterflies perpetually flap after you've gone away until I decay
Dormant I lay awaiting for your arrival each new day
Nothings gonna change my world,
The words hit
My vehement heart rest where you left it
The sun rises and the sun sets
Moons come and go but I'll never forfeit
For if our love is really true,
Then this same feeling is inside of you
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Feelin' like I don't belong in the tree
Even though I helped plant the seed

I don't want a million green leafs
Thats not what I need

Cross kingdom traffic has me secluded
I'd fly over the canopy just to be included,
Again

I've always nourished the growth of the tree
And I still do even though it no longer incorporates me
For oxygen is need in an environment thats choking,
Depleted

But trees don't live forever
And the birds that live in that tree don't always flock together
It's winter, time to follow the good weather,
Alone
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Letting go is like wine
It gets better over time
I'll be just fine
I shouldn't have trusted my own mind
This will be the third time
I need to learn how to control my wine
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
It all started with an urge to go to the movie theater
PTA's "The Master"
It was a 35 minute walk to the nearest cinema in Brooklyn
Nighthawks is what it was called

1:10pm, 4:10pm, 6:10pm, 10:10pm, the show times
Since I woke up at 12:45am, 1:10pm was out of the question
4:10pm seemed plausible but when the clock rolled around I was still puttering around the house
I could putter no more by 6:00pm and flew the cooped up den

The air, brisk and crisp
Time fell back
Women's heels clap the sidewalk in applause
All for the autumn on a Sunday frozen in time

I arrive, show sold out
I walk across the Williamsburg bridge, why not?
First theater in Manhattan I see turned out to be live art
So I turned out and left

Manhattans alive while Brooklyn slumbers
I dart down Clinton St toward the old Avenues
November, I could go without the cold weather, but I love the seasons
Pumpkin lattes **** my wallet dry like lesions

Soon I'm walking down 2nd Av, feeling familiar with my surroundings
Funny, feeling familiar, in a city I thought I'd never know, (you'll never know if you don't go)
Got some dollar pizza on St Marks
Followed by a dollar falafel, which tasted awful, (now I know why it was a dollar)

I walked in circles around Union Square, in union with everyone there
Happy that my feet were to the street, where they belong
Freezing, frozen, frigid, shakin' in my britches
Wrapped around my neck a borrowed scarf
Bumping into people, "I'd like to get by now", like Garth

(keep moving, you'll find what you want to find)
In big bright neon light at Village Cinema
"The Master"
(In 70mm)
Huh, 70mm, "Cool", I thought

The theater, empty as a loners funeral
I was the only one there, red velvet lined seats
I missed Halloween
Maybe this is my treat

The world is beautiful
This city is mine,
All I had to do
Was leave my old one behind
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
My fathers health will be the death of me
Because the day he goes I'll lose a part of me
No more valuable lessons to be taught
No more gritting my teeth and cursing his name for unmemorable reasons to why we fought
When he dies I will truly be alone but he will live on for I am his clone
Simple living is a ***** but we do it well
Father and son team
Bunk mates
Sharing the same cells
You lived fast and hard
If I live faster and harder than you
Maybe my time will run out the same as you
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
There is a door of reward
Into sin or a heart
He is the same man that neither see's
Hear him or is he too blurred?

She has never slept with happiness in life
Anything of physical love
Or what she's seen in pictures misted over
She never draws her mind for fear it could imagine

Very well, her land
Why should he fall in flame of rage
Because she was the bay that invited the sea
He came to this land, he was her servant

Power is a terrible pleasure at their side
This is his defense, excess sleep
Conceived the thought, jealous for her love
Accept the food of slaves

Let his name be never banished
He does not know whether weeping for her fate
Take her life and it not have anyone
But his eternal nature, the blood will guilt

With open arms why can't he tell her
We were all, in the prime of life, a kingdom
The same sad story, faster than you could tell it
How events have hugged her harvest of tears

At last, he calmed himself able to agree with the news
I must forget to long and be says he
And so they all hurried to have her
In their brains bitter blood flowed
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Woke up half past ten,
I wanted to stay in bed again

The coffee *** was too hot,
Didn't even get to drink a drop

Slavin' hard eight days a week,
Just to barely make ends meat

Then I get my check on Friday,
Taxes took half my pay away

Overslept,
I'm so tired
If I'm late,
I'll get fired
Why bother
Why the pain
Just to go home
And do it again

But what can you do,
That's life in the Brooklyn Zoo
Shelby Hemstock Aug 2013
I was walking down Graham Ave
(Or up, if your an optimist)
When I spotted a side walk sale
My eyes darted
Records
"I want to go to there"
Without thinking or blinking
Drawn in like a tractor beam
I sifted through the pile of wax
My nostrils flared
From the ****
Covered in dust
Embedded in age
Music at its greatest stage
The woman having the sale said,
"The records are $2, no holler"
"$2 is better than $3,
Especially for a broke
******* like me"
So I snagged some
Miles Davis &
Dinah Washington
Then I looked up,
Read the light of the Goodyear Blimp
And it read "Shelby Hemstock's a ****"
You know what kind of day it was
Guess I was going up Graham after all
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
She steps out,
Her pea coat peppered in cigarette ashes
Her eyes contain a mystery concealed by her dark revlon lashes
Her crimson heart shaped painted lips aren't enough to distract me from her blue sequin dress, Tightly draped to shape her perfect Pocahontas hips
God bless her sole,
It was too cold for peep toe pumps but venerating value was her goal
I felt foolish handing her flowers,
For when holding them next to her they lost all their vivid surrealism
"They're wild flowers",
I told her,
"California Bluebells"
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
The plantations have been privatized
The cotton fields paved with concrete
They still exist
Despite how much you resist
Needing working bee's
They persist
And insist you enlist
From the stone like mass
Sky scrappers are erected
At the tiptop, a ******* runs the show
He tells all the little white men
Who work beneath him
What to do and were to go
You're too tired to even think
But you have to work
If you want to eat
From cotton
To poppy
From slaves in shackles
To droids with imperceptible chains
Leading and whipping the pack,
NASDAQ reigns
Grinning like a fool
All complacently cozy cuddling your coins
In an ornamented box
Where your view of the stars is blocked
Politicking away with a bottle scars of yesterday
Telling yourself "Everything will be okay,
It has been this far."
All the while Uncle Sam blows freedom smoke
Up your *** with his federal cigar
Buy, consume, sell
Get drunk, stay distracted, inhale
Imbibe thoughts instead of ale
You could read a book for fun now,
Or to cure boredom in jail
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Comfortability as soothing as it sounds causes you to slip
The more relaxed you get you start to loosen your grip
Stay on the grind and ideas never stop flowing through your mind
But if you steadily dread the fast paced haste
Then your dreams,
Just like the others before you,
Will all go to waste
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
I'm a creature of habit

Each new day
I pull the same old food
Out of the cabinet
Like a hawk dives
Out of the sky
To snag a rabbit

We can base ourselves on the paths we lead
Or the foods on which we feed,
If your pockets are billowing with greed
Or if you strive to survive on humans basic need,
Love

Either, or
If you're the shimmering sun
Or a dying star
The hawk
Or the rabbit
You are who you are

A creature of habit
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
It took effervescent,
Everlasting,
Highway road sign passings
To get to Colorado
Now I walk
Brooding in the surreptitious snow,
Its gleaming,
Giving meaning,
Trying to reflect back the fact of why were here
The stars are screaming the purpose of life
But we can't hear what isn't near
Light years away is how I spend my day
Reminiscing over you
Under a sky of blue
Durango dreaming of brunette nights,
My final destination's with you in my sights
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
I feel so special I could cry
The luck I was handed brings torrents of tears to my eyes
Who dealt the hand I received and where can I thank them?
You catch a lucky break, you get what you can take
Your life is what you make
Float on gray cloud, no more hangin' over me
So long pecan tree now I am my own company
I swear on the ground I walk
The mouth I talk
The ears that hear
The eyes that cries
The hand that writes
That every little thing is gonna be alright
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Pinchin pennies together to live the life that I lead
With a choice like this how can I give you what you need
If a song would suffice I'd write you one tonight
If a movie would do, I'd make two for you
If a poem is what you'd like I'd write three before daylight
I come empty handed so I can use them to create
Shelby Hemstock Sep 2013
I lost my first love,
For the millionth time
Then I woke up
It still hurts, like the first time, even in dreams
Wiping the cold out my eyes
Or are they dried up tears
From emotional scar tissue
Built up year after year
As I rise from bed
So do the suppressed memories of her
Like the raising of a purposely sunken ship
Buried deep, deep in the Mariana Trench
Then she follows me until the afternoon
Like a ghost in mourning, with unfinished business of this earth
A plague on my mind, like rain on recess
I can still see the layout of her fathers apartment
Perfectly laid out in my mind
Her and I, laying in her adolescent, orange sheeted silk bed
Quietly spelunking each others bodies
As to not sound the protective alarm in her fathers head
I can still smell her
Hear her
Feel her touch, in bed, whilst I
When I sleep, I can't control her
Time isn't linear
After we close our eyes and turn in
In my dream state
We'll still date
Jumping around from July 2005 to May 2008
But never again with eyes open
For I see a different person
Then when my eyes are closed
Skin pressed, rubbing of the nose
Our naked bodies and clenched toes
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
When I was younger I asked my father who his best friend was. He replied without hesitation, your mother. I repeated the question because I didn't think he understood, he answered the same again. I explained to him that I meant out of his friends Phil, Brian, Mark, and Todd which of them did he consider his best friend? He interrupted before I could finish,

"Son, she is my best friend, I do everything with her and don't want to do anything with anyone else." I understand what he means now.
Shelby Hemstock Aug 2013
"Dude, we're going to a burn this weekend and none of us have a car, will you take us?

"Sure, if you pay for my expenses."

And thats how I went to my first burn,
Freezer Burn, in the dead of winter, outside of Austin, Texas
So icy polar bears wear parkas and penguins wear pea coats
In the same essence of Burning Man
Just on a much much smaller scale
Located down a gravel road
Tucked away deep in the woods, miles away from civilization
Where primeval screams go unnoticed and the people go unkempt
No one to impress, everything is everything
The effigy made of wood, a colossal abominable snow man
Which would later be burned in a blaze of glory
Accompanied by fireworks, fire spitters and fire spinners galore
There were drum jams, free spirited belly dancers, and herds of hula hoops
The name of our camp site was "Goonsville"
I kept mistakingly referring to it as "Ghoul Town"
There were a lot of other camp sites,
We bordered "Camp Glue **** Together"
And "Tribe Named Search"
The first night was bone chilling
I had no gloves and all I had to soften my brain was cold cold beer
Sitting next to the fire was all we had to stay warm,
But we didn't have a fire
So we walked fire to fire, auditing camp sites
Greeting strangers with hugs and beers offered
A stranger with a beard walked up to us
Holding a bottle of whiskey
He extended it my way, no words, just whiskey
He wore soft toes boots, worn out bell bottom jeans
Yellow sunglasses and a red beanie, it was night
We were friends immediately
Being in a place like this makes you free
If you had the curiosity to come to a burn
Then you were automatically excepted as a friend, all equal
My friend Sam even called him cutie to which he responded,
"I'll be by your tent later tonight"
If gay jokes are in the air,
You're in the company of friends

My notes tend to trail off there,
I kept getting fed psychedelics
Teddy Grahams dosed with sunshine acid
The fungus was among us
I snorted a grain of something off a tooth pick and
The stars came together like a connect the dots worksheet
After that everything became a memory within a kaleidoscope
All I have written are quotes from passing strangers

"It's essencial to bring a beach ball if you want to have fun"

"When I let go its like Cleopatra letting her snakes loose"

"I woke up at 8am and had my first psychedelic sandwich of the day"

"**** buying ****, you don't have to do that, it's just an illusion"

"It's best to be sleep deprived when you take LSD, it enhances the trip"

"You can't occupy that space because it's occupied by my spirit"

"Whats the purpose of number 42?"

"You'll have to excuse me I just got this guitar from a pawn shop the other day, mind if I bust a tune on ya real quick?"

"******* beatin' on drums and drinkin' beer! Hell yes!"

"This is a good first burn man, not too many people, just real chill"

Andrew, Ben, Chris, Collin, Frank, Greg, Justin, Olive, Sam, Travis
Freaks, Friends
Freezer Burn January 14th, 2012
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
I need a woman, not a girl
Someone to make plans, not break plans
If time is of the essence,
Then I'm just giving my two cents
And putting a period at the end of this lament.
I need a lady who does what she wants when she pleases,
Someone who comes and never goes without reason
Someone enamored with me as much as I'm swooned by them
I need a woman to stick around until the end
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
The first birds sang,
Welcoming the morning light
While simultaneously singing
Goodnight to the moonlight
Salutations from the crashing of tides,
Waves lugubriously swaying
Goodbye to the stars that died
The moon has went away
And now is the suns turn to play
Clouds proficient and prompt
Part ways for rays to shine through
Grass meets the morning new
With a sprinkled shower,
Fresh droplets of dew
An hour of rush,
The breeze blows into town
Shakes with the brush,
The leaves tremble by the touch of the gust
The shiny yellow toy in the sky
Reveals itself and brings joy to the land
Its common fellow
Replenishing regards to the ground
Once charred by lightning at large
Flowers bustle to bloom,
The scent of pollen
Fills the wilderness room
Rivers race frantically down stream,
Until rindling off and becoming
Unwildly mild
Glistening glaciers gracefully
Fall into the frigid frozen sea,
Escalating to a depth where
Only darkness can strive to be
All that it can't see
This is where quakes occur
In the trenches of the mariana deep,
And this happens
All while I'm asleep
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Fingers are brittle
Body is aching
It's rainin' but I'm not complainin'

My mind is tired
My skin is *****
My poor eyes won't shut on me

There's no reason
There's no reason
There's no reason to cry

The sun is rising
The sky is blooming
A nights sleep I am losing
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
The island of you is where I stay
You're the tune that stays ringing in my ear
I'm a vacant body without you by my side
When you come near the island becomes my world,
The song comes to life and I am alive
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
He didn't move
Not because he couldn't
But because he could
He lied
About lying
Horizontaly
He stayed
All day
Where he laid
For his home
His building
Is where he gets paid
This is real reality
Apart from dreams
I'm an apartment realtor
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
It's funny how people act when their clothes are on the floor
As if they've know each other forever
But still yearning to know more
The purpose of winter,
For me to keep you warm
The chances of sleep,
Slight in this storm
Bundle up for the below freezing weather
This is Texas in December
We'll shine all night until the morning
When we'll flicker like an ember
Fingers locked, bodies tight, we can't be torn
Lips met, skin pressed and we are warm
Sleep is nowhere in this storm
Shelby Hemstock Aug 2013
I didn't do much today
I just laid around
I thought about cooking breakfast
But didn't
Even though the kitchen is ten feet away
I can't seem to start a fire
Internally or externally
Story of my life
Just laying around
Can't be found
Phone on vibrate
Mouth on mute
Can't function
Brain wont compute
I could be making easy money
Leasing out apartments
But I don't care about the loot
I just hold onto dollars until the eagle grins anyways
Comfort
I prefer sleep over money any day
Its free
And if you get lucky you'll get a movie in your head
So I lay
I lay all day
I lay to the point of decay
Burnt out
Edges frayed
Bed hasn't been made
In weeks
Dismayed, prefaced with failure
Examples set from forefathers
"Drinking away the part of the day I cannot sleep away"
Plays on repeat in my head
Followed by,
"I woke up this morning and I grabbed myself a beer"
I should really fire the DJ in my head
Next up on Shelby FM,
"I'm only sleeping"
In my bed
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Mama's in jail
Can't post bail
I wonder how she looks
'Cause I can't tell through the mail

Lennon said,
"Mother, you had me, but I never had you"
No one to lean on
So I stand on my own, my how I've grown

That's not all true
There are others that care
But when I'm in trouble
I can't call the woman to whom I was bared

It's been years since I've seen ya Ma'
Sydney's getting older

I still don't think it's right that she has to pay the fair of you not being there
McCartey said "Don't carry the world upon your shoulders"

So when I feel the pain I'll refrain
Grown on Beatles
Raised right
Polite
Made in New Orleans
Born and raised in Texas
Seen most the states before my years of latter
Consuming landscapes platter after platter
Mama wasnt there, no matter
I'm still climbin' the ladder, no mother, no matter
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Lying on my back and looking up at the stars reminds me of you
And the night we made our own sky
By jumping up to the ceiling and sticking glow in the darks with glue
I knew you had a man,
That's why making you forget him was part of my plan
To get you comfortable I crack a few jokes
Lay you out over and easy like an egg and its yoke
My brain is scrambled,
We talk all through the night,
I digress,
I ramble,
Situation managed,
handled
I thought I had you like silly putty in my hands,
But you turned out to be more like sand and slipped right through
We kissed for the first time that fateful night,
Summer,
I was hooked,
I read you like a book,
A page turner
After a few days we shared the same bed
After a few weeks we were always in the same bed
I went about it uninsistent,
Just adamantly persistent
You went against your natural ambition
Threw caution into the wind and used your bodies intuition
Honestly, I was smitten about your other yellow fellow,
The second man in the act,
Blocking my chance at love like tic tac
XOXOX in the game no one won
Now we just have the memory of hugs and kisses,
Dreams and wishes
It was a big ocean,
But I didn't want any of the other fishes
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Waiting
Waiting is what I do
I bide my time patiently all for you
My pockets are low on this three hour drive,
Hands at ten and two,
As I head north on interstate 35 to you
Hello goodbye Denton, not my stop
I reach Ardmore, plot and tie my tie in a knot to the top
Flustered's how I feel,
Hands perspire as I grip the wheel
The closer I get to you the faster the blood pumps through
Davis came quicker than I thought it would
Not much longer til' I'm in your 405 neck of the woods
Knots in my stomach as Norman gets near
I see you, I'm here,
I smile ear to ear
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Twenty-one and now
I'm starting to realize
Comedy does't pay the bills
But music does
I'd rather be a jester than a troubadour
So comedy I must put my heart into more
Because after all that guitar playing,
Boy are my hands sore
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
If you're reading this I'm either dead or in Dallas
I have to catch a train and a plane all at the same time
L to the A to the JFK
My getaway

Like a cemetery I'm dying to get into that lone star state
I've missed the wide open spaces
My family and friends smiling faces
A bathroom to call my own and a home with multiple rooms to roam

From Dallas I extend my gratitude to the families I wasn't born to but made
My boys in Austin from 3306 who took me in when a woman sent me packin'
Dr Mills from New Orleans handin' out red beans, rice, and thrills
If it wasn't for the Rich I'd never have seen Florida or Vegas
The wild spirit, she who must not be tamed from Colorado
My California kin that took me in and fed me from your tables, so kind (of you) to let me drink your wine
All of you,
Thank you,
I am truly blessed,
For my families across the U.S.

Even though I'm here for just a week
I already miss my Brooklyn family deep in the Mes
They're making Thanksgiving happen without a kitchen
Cooking away their stress, making more out of less

Back to Dallas I came
I'm jovial to be home
But it's not the same
For I have grown
Because of the support
My new families have shown
I love you all
Wherever you are
Across the country
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
The clock has rolled again,
Time for a new year to begin
Time for change to rearrange
Set a path a new filled with plans to do
The year is finally here, the year I can legally buy beer
Kiss my fake I.D goodbye,
No more will I lie to buy
I'm growing, I'm aging, my future I'm wagering, on myself
I can write, I can sing, play guitar and I can tell you of the stars
I can film, I can draw, I can tell jokes to y'all
When it rains I'm out, when you're in, I'm writing with the howling of the wind
When my pack of buffalos decides to roam
Then I'll leave this home
For when they ride I'll be by their side,
As we journey north we cried,
"If we would have stayed in that town we would have aged our hide and died!"
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
I see you, yes I do
Gargling your coffee beans in your local coffee shop
That arrive on boats, imported non stop
The weathered hands that snatched those beans off that vine
All for you to enjoy your relaxing java time
Don't act like you didn't know, you did know
You knew it before you brewed it
I hope your comfortable in your chair
Made in China
Made in China
I hope your enjoying your computer built with uranium from over there
Imported from Africa
Imported from Africa
America, the strong
The proud
The independent, dependent on foreign imports
Now is your time to retort
But you're too busy ******* down iced coffee in mall food courts
You're drinking all that caffine but you need to
WAKE UP
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Nobody likes being reminded their race by another
Thats how the world got turned upside down
Transmogrified around
And shaped our current existence

So when you speak of race,
Use resistance
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
The death of us all, prime time television
It's got us locked down each day of the week like were in prison
But I keep watchin' just to know
How Ted meets his wife on that show..
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
I am an only child but I have multiple brothers
Cut from the same cloth made with the greatest qualities of others
Bristles from Basquiat's brushes
Film of Fleming's favorite features
Keys from Kerouac's keyboard
Lyrics of luster penned by Lennon
Strings from the most southern side of Hendrix's soul
All rewoven and tightly knit
Our purpose to keep you warm at night
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
I was raised on Pixar,

Toy Story, I saw that in theaters
Toy Story 2, I saw that during Thanksgiving break.. In theaters
Toy Story 3, guess where I saw that, the theater, and I cried
If you were born in the early 90's and didn't cry at the end of Toy Story 3, you are a robot

If you didn't tear up when Sulley had to say goodbye to Boo, then you are a droid clown

If thou defy's to muscle a drop of moister when Nemo reunites with his father, art thou really human?

If a tidal wave of sympathetic sorrow doesn't crash into your heart during the first ten minutes of Up, then you're going down, in history as one sorry sad sack

And as for Cars.. well I didn't really like Cars that much..

Pixar gave me a Woody
A monster that scares
A fish that talks
And an old grumpy man with gray hairs
Oh and the cars..

But it also gave me, us,
The gift of compassion
Which I ardently appreciate
Thanks for all the wicked good times Pixar
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Manual labor isn't for me
So I freed myself from the farms drudgery
I'm a classical scholar and a fine linguist
Emancipate yourself from being the definition of living breathing machinist
You can get free if you want to
All you have to do is use your mind,
Pay your dues,
Expand your intellect,
Earn respect
I wasn't born to assemble on a factory line,
Lotta yellow boys never put that to mind
Never will
Never dared to dream
So they perspire as another part of the machine
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Oh Apparel American,
I walk with chaste in your isles
Since when did being plain become so expensive?

What went out the window
And came in through the back door?
Since when has less became more?

Where did your cotton come from to price so high?
Was it picked by the hands of celebrities and anorexia nervosa models exemplified to be our "perfect woman"?
Spare me your inordinate calico fabrics, I don't want them

I regret walking into your store
I refuse to be associated with your name anymore
I put my hands in my pocket, shake my head and start for the door, hung in shame, eyes on the floor
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
I dote on you because I love you
I adulate you because of what you do, to me
I'll canonize you all the day through
No, I deify you, because of what you do, to me
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
New York City,
Said the same by masses
Yet reflected upon
Uniquely by individuals
To some it's just a place to visit
And they would never live there
To others,
New York is a haven
A shoppers delight
An amusement park
The city so nice they named it twice
Those who are lucky enough
To have been to New York
You always have at least
One crazy story
The definition of crazy being,
"Possessed by enthusiasm of excitement"
Meaning,
"This one time I was in Bushwick
And I gave a guy directions,
Then he invited me to a cannabis cup.
It was crazy."
Or there's this other definition
Of crazy meaning,
"Fooling or impractical. Senseless"
Crazy New York stories often
Associated with the second definition
Usually involve a homeless person
And urination
Whose ***** it is,
Well that's another story
I can sum up my New York
Story in a minute
If you live here
That's all strangers ask you anyways,
"Where you from friend?"
So I've rehearsed my story a bit
I've gotten pretty good
At expeditiously answering
The questions that follow,
"So what made you
Move to New York?"
"So do you go
To school for it?"
"Where do you work?"
And,
"Do you have
A cigarette?"
My answers,
"I followed a group of friends
To document their experience
As rising musicians
Eventually “Train Robbers”
Was formed and I
Shot an abundance of videos of those
Said musicians busking.
They would preform inside of
60 miles per hour subway cars,
Finish a song or two
Collect the loot
Then bail
Hence, “Train Robbers”.”
I’m mostly self-taught
In the fields of film making
Writing,
Photography,
As well as guitar,
The guitar you can tell
After months of watching
Then later re-watching
In the editing room
These musicians,
Counting up all that easy money
Stacking all the ones
Then forcefully folding
The *** of bills
Into their pockets,
I too then started to play guitar
On the subway.
And no, I don’t have
A cigarette.”
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Mercy mercy mercy me
How unmerry loneliness can be
Tisk tisk tisk a tad
No one to accompany me
So here here I sit,
Fragile underneath the pecan tree
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Remember when you threw me out and said sink or swim?
Well I'm swimmin' now alright
And it looks like you can't even float
I'm not sorry your crew abandoned your boat

Carry your weight you say
Well call me mule
Now your hand is extended towards me
Asking for jewels

Theres a leo on the prowl
Walk on egg shells to avoid an instant collision
Temper tantrums will keep you divided like division
You should look at yourself in the mirror and make a revision

I hope you're warm
Standing next to all the bridges you've burned
Grow up if you want to be successful
But you're too stubborn to have learned

You're a friend of mine but not for long
You abandoned me first sight of wrong
That's just too bad, I don't blame you, I blame your dad
You were the most selfish friend I've ever had
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Feels like my heart is just a toy packaged,
Sold,
Returned,
And repeated
I'm an action figure begging to be played with but lately I haven't seen any action
I yearn to be in the hands of someone who loves me,
Reflecting in the eyes of captivated satisfaction
Play dates are my fate but as of late they haven't been so great
They pick me up toss me round
Then leave me on the ground for my body to be found
I lay shroud, wet, cold, and alone,
Chewed up and spit out like a dogs bone
This boy is a toy but has brought no hearts joy
So I'm repackaged,
Returned,
And receipted
Hanging in the isle again,
I've never felt so defeated
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Underneath the pecan tree is where I'll be,
Waiting for you to come back to me
Until then the roots will cradle me tenderly
And I will bide my time patiently
The branches will envelope me as I dream of you pensively
The leaves will talk to me as I think of you ardently
The tree engulfs me the more you're not a part of me,
And I allow it
If you don't come the tree and I will become one
Shelby Hemstock Jul 2013
Words to make you laugh
Words to make you cry
Words to console you
Words to control you
So the bible says...

— The End —