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115 · Jul 2016
Walking On Glass
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
“You can be a real ******* sometimes, you know that?”
Her voice rings in my ears
Like bells on Sunday mornings.
I just wish she would say something new.

But she won’t.

Because I don’t ever do anything new.

The door slams behind her.
The bottle goes up.
The alcohol goes down
And another bottle hits the wall.
I call out softly, to the ghost of her presence,

“I’m always a real *******.”
Another bottle goes up.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
And what am I supposed to do?
I know the world’s not been kind to you.
But that doesn’t change the fact
That ever since I saw you
I knew I wanted to know you.

I wanted to know everything about you
And I wanted you to know
That it was going to be okay.
113 · Jul 2016
Speak To Me Again
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Her words made flowers grow
From organs hard as stone.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I thought I saw your face in the water
So I jumped in to find you.
I cannot hold my breath any longer.
Please don’t make me try.

Just show yourself.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Have you forgotten
The touch of my beard?

Have you forgotten
How I held you near?

Do you think you could
Forgive me for staying gone?

Do you think you could
Stop your ghost from
Haunting on and on?

Please. Just let me sleep.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I’m sorry,
I know I’ve been neglecting
I’ve just been dissecting
and expecting far more of myself
Than I think it was fair of me to ask.

And so I apologize
I just got buried too deep.
It’s been months,
And here I am again.

6 a.m.

And I still can’t sleep
112 · Jul 2016
And I Do Not Leave Easily
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Call me by my many names:

              Anger
                    Rage
                         Fear
                                Fury
                                      

Just don’t forget,

I always come when you call.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
As the rain begins to fall,
And the waves begin to crash
Against the front of my ship.
I resign myself to my cabin
The small bed has but one sheet
And in the corner of the room, in the shelves
Sits a bottle full of ***.

Or at least it was full at some point.
I pour a glass

And then another.
And another.

The only way to fend off the cold
On this stormy night.
109 · Jul 2016
Fear Will Never Leave Me
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I wish I could tell you
That I’m no longer afraid of failure.
The truth is,

I’m more afraid of it now than I was.
Those years ago.
The only difference is,
I’ve got nothing left.
No one looking up to me,
Or counting on me.

Or loving me.
The future is empty
The past: A story
My future is bleak
While the past is a dream.
108 · Jul 2016
Let Me Dream Again
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
You stole my children
You stole my home
You stole my happiness

It’s all gone.
So please,
Just give me my dreams back.
I beg of you,
Remove your presence
From my mind.
108 · Jul 2016
And You Always Have Been
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
You are the phantom
Burned into the images in my mind.
You are the twisted, torn up pages
That I tear out of journals
When the words just aren’t quite right.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Your body was but thorns
That dug into my side
Every night we lay together
Every night you lied.
107 · Jul 2016
Storm Or Sea?
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
My soul is anything but beautiful, dear.
It is tattered and it is torn.
It is the crumpled up piece of paper that you toss in the fire
To keep yourself warm for another night.

You wish to be the sea?
Or do you wish to be the approaching storm?

But the real question is
Does it matter what you wish?

Our wishes are rarely our reality.
Our wishes are the roses
Of gardens full of weeds
Reality is the pesticide
So haphazardly sprayed.

Storm or Sea

Why me?

There are a million better people
And better writers
And better speakers
And better lovers
And better souls

Than I.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I taste the Bitter Root
And when I do
I’m reminded of you
The way you dug your way
Through the soil of my skin
Feeding off my naivete
Feeding off of me.

I see your Rotten Root
And I demand you tell the truth
Release me from your grasp
Your diseased hands of wrath
Tear the flesh that you ensnared
I know the pain, I do not care.
104 · Jul 2016
Kiss Me Again
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Kiss me, love
Like you once did.
Kiss me like the waves
Kiss the sand.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Since you do not know,
Let me teach you.
Take your hands
Wrap them around my throat
Now squeeze.
Do not look into my eyes.
Just keep at it.
Do not let go and start again later.
Finish the job.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
A letter, to you,
This would’ve been,
If I had a way to send it.
But, that’s okay, you’ll find out
All the same.

When you look to the west,
When you gaze out over the sea,

What is it you think of?

Do you ever think of me?

I would suggest you change your answer,
But that will not change your ending

This ship has but one destination:

Hell.
103 · Jul 2016
Did I Ever Love You?
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
My tastes have been shifting
Changing, ever growing.

Mostly away from you.
103 · Jul 2016
To See It One More Time
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Oh, what a smile she had,
Light up a room.
Illuminate my heart.
I wish I could see it that way again
I wish I could see it
Anywhere but my nightmares.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I knew, when I first saw you,
That you would be the storm
That would wreck me.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I just can’t spend my time
Writing the same thing
Over and over again
In a new way.

But, it’s all I’ve found
That I know how to do.

So since I can’t stop thinking of you
I will write about what I knew.
101 · Jul 2016
Those Are The Only Options
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
The priests were all liars
And the nuns were all fools

There is no salvation
Not for true sin.

Not for me.

God doesn’t answer me anymore.
I’m starting to think he never did.

I still cry out sometimes,
Into the dark of night.

Into the blackened deep.
Hoping something changes
But, it’s been ten years,
And he refuses to speak.

God is dead

Or he never was.
101 · Jul 2016
No, Not From You
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
The rain scars your stone face
Streaming down, like tears.
It looks so unnatural,
I’ve never seen so much emotion.

Not from you.
101 · Jul 2016
I Had No Other Choice
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Oh darling.
I am sorry for leaving.

But you need to understand
Where I am going
You can’t come along.

I can’t let you be consumed
By the flames at our feet
When I fall to hell.

I let go now
So you wouldn’t have
To fall to hell with me.
101 · Jul 2016
Or, Perhaps, A Wave
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I pretend that you’ll care
When I bleed out on the page
But the truth is you weren’t there.
I am but a cage.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Please guide me home,
Luna.
My old, pale friend.
The waters are getting colder
And I’m nearing the end.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I still hear your voice,
But it’s not the same as it once was.
No longer do you sing me to sleep.

Now it’s more of an echo,

Still lingering in my mind.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I saw that flash.
It lit up the whole sky.
And it looked like

God himself had stepped down
From his selfish throne.

But when I closed my eyes
My cabin was empty

All except for you and I.
The Devil in disguise.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Adventures don’t have to be dangerous.
Sometimes adventure
Is just doing something
You were too frightened to do.
100 · Jul 2016
I Don’t Want To Remember.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I remember the way that you laid.
On your side, smiling at me.
I remember the way that you laughed.
Suddenly, an uproar of joy, quickly ending.
I remember the way that you breathed.
Deeply. Fully. Taking in everything I had to offer.

I remember the way that you left.
On your side, smiling at him,
Suddenly, quickly ending,
Taking everything I had.
And giving it to him.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Did the flame give up?
I’ve been spending years trying to find it.
But I guess it’s my fault
For believing it would make it
Through the storm.

When I came back,
You were a flood
And I wasn’t sure what to say.

I thought I could open the floodgates
But I just ended up drowning in the pain.
99 · Jul 2016
Do You Stop To Notice?
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Violets paint
The sea of green
With bursts of purple
Attracting the eyes
Of those who
Would otherwise
Overlook
The land.
99 · Jul 2016
Lying to myself
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I swear I’ll forgive you
I’ll forget all the past.
Just tell me you need me
I swear we can last.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I was trying to be better.
A better man,
A better lover,
A better husband,
A better father.

All for you.

But it was much too late for that.

The only family I’ve got left
Are empty bottles and journals

Telling stories of what happens
When a man has nothing left to lose.
97 · Jul 2016
Misery Is Me
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I do not wish to master death.
That is not a game for me.
I’d much rather live for years,
And bask in misery.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I watched as you threw
Everything we built together
To the dogs like bones.
Well, love,
I feel your pain in my bones
Do you feel my pain in yours?
I feel you, my love, deep in my bones.

Do you feel anything
As you sit on your throne?
97 · Jul 2016
And How Sweet The Sound
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
And in the space between your lips
Silence escaped.
97 · Jul 2016
Is It All You Hoped For?
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Tell me what it’s like
Living with the stars above
While I drown
In the oceans below.
96 · Jul 2016
Like Everything Else
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I wish this ******* would go away.
But we all know that it comes in waves.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Oh, Love.
I don’t believe there’s a heart in my chest.
And you say you disagree.
But, have you noticed how I breathe in,
All the things that shouldn’t be.
I know where this leads,
I’m headed straight for a watery grave.

Eventually it’ll just be
The Devil,

And me.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
What do I expect to find?
When my ship cannot sail any longer.
When my bones turn to dust.
When I reach the end.

What do I expect to find?

I gave up on finding a way back to you
Many many moons ago.

Every time I visited
Nothing had changed
But the look on your face

No longer showed the pain.

The pain I had caused for years.

And our children smile just the same.

I gave up on the end.
I threw myself over and under
Every violent wave
And I tried to drown myself
In every brown bottle.
I gave up on god.

He never answered me anyways.
If He was ever there,
He must’ve taken the same route as me.
And drowned himself in a bottle too deep to survive.
What do I expect to find?

When I write to no one.

When I scream at the moon,
Even though it was I
Who caused the monsoon.

And I can’t stop.
You’re always there.
In every word I speak.
In every breath I breathe.

In every line
In every poem

In everything.
And I’ve tried to cleanse myself of you.

Maybe it’s not what I’ll find.

Maybe it’s what I’ve found.
94 · Jul 2016
I Think We All Knew.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I suppose I always knew
This is what I’d become.
The ******* with the bottle
Is running out of words.

Soon there’ll be no reason
For me at all
94 · Jul 2016
Every Sleepless Night
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
With a head full of memories
And a glass full of ***
I sit down alone
And visions of you start to run
Through my head.

“Death is not evil,” a voice echoes through my head,
“It is a promise that cannot be broken,” it continues.

“You cannot stop me.”

The voice carries on into the night.
94 · Jun 2020
making sorrow for myself
Speaking Sorrow Jun 2020
i still see her dead in the grave i dug
in a forest i wasn't allowed to find
made to kneel for men of strength
made to kneel for men like you

and i am told that when i smile
i give hope to other people
so why can't i find a way
to give it to myself
why is it,
when left here all alone
i do my best
to push the good out for the bad
to make room for all the pain
like i am back there all again
like i wasn't made for healing
but the truth is that i'm ripping sutures out
just to keep myself here, bleeding
making sorrow for myself

how selfish have i been
to say that this was more than i can take
when i have already moved away
when i am free from all the pain
that kept making me this way

how selfish i have been
to say that i would've rather traded places
like the creature in my brain
that he placed there for his reign
is somehow worse than the grave

i found comfort in my suffering
like it somehow defined me
or refined me
like there was happiness in death
or there were freedom in its grip
and not the endless night
94 · Jul 2016
We’re All Going To Fail
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Did you really expect to get to heaven?
You don’t even know what it’s like
To spend a little time in hell.
With the wind in my sails
I know,
It can’t be any other way.
I’m going to fail.
93 · Jul 2016
Ghosts I Made Myself
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I swore I saw you last night
Standing over my bed.

The ghost of your presence
Haunts my every move.

With the bottles of ***
Empty around my bed
I try to forget.
Every vision a nightmare.

And every nightmare closer to the truth.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
I know you’ve got secrets
You’ve been holding in your heart.
Leave them here in the dark
Let the Night take them away

The Night has come,
And you didn’t even notice.

You weren’t paying attention.
Were you?
90 · Jul 2016
The Last Day Is Here
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
Pray to whoever you think will save you.
In the end there is only the Night.  
Find the one you think can save you,
And I’ll show you that hope is for the weak.
Speaking Sorrow Jul 2016
You told me I made you the happiest
That you’ve ever been.
So tell me, Darling,
Why are you holding me under?
75 · Jun 2020
i do not miss you
Speaking Sorrow Jun 2020
i tell myself i do not miss you.
i have to tell myself something,
otherwise you're telling it to me from the corners of my mind.
and maybe its a lie
not maybe, i know it is

one day i'd like to know whose words are coming from my mouth
the endless question
are they my words
or yours
still haunts me every single night

and in a way
i'm afraid
that if your words don't come out
i'll have lost my last connection to you

and then who am i?

— The End —