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531 · Mar 2017
insecurity.
AJ Mar 2017
i'm not perfect but i hope i'm still perfect for you, am i still perfect for you?
insefuckingcurity
524 · Aug 2015
Lonely, But Not Alone
AJ Aug 2015
another explicit photo to boost your self confidence,
another cigarette to fuel the craving of another person's lips on yours,
another breathy ****** to pretend that you matter.
502 · Jul 2016
old habits don't die
AJ Jul 2016
it's not the self harmer tucked safely away in the back of my mind that wants to crawl back into the familiarity of old habits.
it's the blade stolen from my father's tools, traces of dried blood still gleaming.
it's the bandaids kept in my desk drawer, there if needed.
it's the marks on my neck from rough ***, a pain that sparked the craving for a different distraction back into my body.
it's the fact that i'm never told the truth, my life fueled by lies for years on end that just need to be forgotten about.
it's the racing thoughts,
"he'll leave you"
"he'll find someone better"
"he doesn't even love you, it's a lie"
"you're nothing to him, to the friends you think you have"
"everything she says isn't a joke, it's all the truth but you're just too ******* dumb to realize it"

running on repeat in my mind each and every night like a broken record.
it's the lack of sleep where the loss of blood could take the place of the pills that stopped working months ago.
it's not the self harmer that craves the blade again,
she just brings it out to the open.
I won't fall back on it
497 · Aug 2015
smoke
AJ Aug 2015
maybe burning away your name on paper will burn away the memory of you in my head.
my hair will swallow the smell of smoke as if the thought of you burned away in my brain.
you don't get to break my heart and say that you miss me. that's not how it works.
491 · Jan 2015
Liar (6w)
AJ Jan 2015
Why did you forget about me?
you said I'd interested you then you stopped talking
#6w
486 · Apr 2019
a text you had sent me once
AJ Apr 2019
what did i get myself into
to fall for someone like you
you can’t do that to a person
454 · Dec 2014
Have You Ever Noticed
AJ Dec 2014
Have you ever noticed
that the only place
something white
isn't useful
is in a crayon box?

Where black
is our most
favorite color
to touch?
Always adding
something,
somewhere?
overheard political conversations on christmas
448 · Jun 2015
Maps
AJ Jun 2015
my favorite sound is the sound of the sharp intake of breath you take,
as my lips move from yours to the outline of your collarbone and lower,
tracing every inch of you as if you're a map and my mouth is the pen,
just finding another route to travel on.
oops
440 · Jan 2016
2013-2015
AJ Jan 2016
I was fighting a war with my mind, I made a blade my weapon & my skin became the battlefield.
2013-2015. 8th grade to a few months of junior year, depression had pulled me underground. it filled the hole with just enough water to keep me under, but with just enough air so I could pull myself up when I needed to breathe. I was under water for almost 3 years. I had my days, weeks, months where I got to breathe, but the almost drowning feeling became my home. I was nothing. I was nothing fighting a ******* war in my head, and the only thing I could think to do was dig a blade into my skin. it was my weapon. it calmed the war, even just for a little bit. but a war always leaves memories. memories that are a bruise- if you put too much pressure on it, it will hurt.
I can classify myself as okay now. I know how to manage. I know how to deal. I don't need the blade to breathe anymore. happiness is foreign to me, so yes, I miss the sadness. sadness was the only thing I knew. it's 2016. this isn't a new year, new me thing. I'm not going to write a list of new year's resolutions, because let's be real..I'll forget about it as soon as February hits. it's a new year & with my past, I've learned ways to deal that I can take with me in 2016. I turn 18 this year. I need to grow up a little. I need to keep myself from going under, fill that hole with dirt, and plant a few flowers in it. I'm okay. I'm happy. I'm falling in love. not only with someone, but with myself.
I'm okay.
AJ Feb 2016
February  12 2016
loving someone can fill your stomach with killer bees,
have your fragile little heart be held by someone else ,
and tear the walls down you thought would never fall.

but loving someone can also replace those bees with gentle butterflies;
the slight flutter it does when he smiles at you.
it can make you trust enough to have him hold your heart in his calloused hands;
trust him enough to not crush it into a million little pieces.
it can make you take the hammer that you usually took to your skin, and knock down the walls you surrounded yourself with;
tear them down enough to let him look at even the darkest parts of your soul.

love can teach you that even if you hate every inch of yourself,
he will find beauty in every flaw.
he will kiss the self hate away,
squeeze you hard enough that every broken piece of you will slowly come back together.

love teaches you that it doesn't even matter what you look like naked,
the only thing that matters is tearing each other's clothes off and losing yourselves in each touch,
each scratch,
each kiss.

it will teach you to be okay with crying in front of another person;
your pillow doesn't have to be the only thing that listens to you when your demons come out to play at 3am.

*love can teach you that everything you hated about yourself,
could somehow be loved by another.
I thought I had to love myself before I loved another.
but I was wrong.
I was so ******* wrong.
(cheesy Valentine's Day weekend poem?)
((also my titles are the most random things))
438 · Jul 2015
Please Catch Me
AJ Jul 2015
I want to write you terrible poetry about the way you look at me,
and paint you pictures of your favorite things that leave a sparkle in your eye.
I want you to hold my hand with the thought of never letting go because you're scared of what could happen if you did.
I want you to read me your favorite passage from your favorite book,
and let me just listen to your voice as the words fall from your lips.
I want you to touch me in the places where I fell for someone else but they didn't catch me, and kiss me, whispering on my lips that you'll never drop me.
I want you to want me as much as I want you.
426 · Jun 2015
Forget Me, Forget You (Not)
AJ Jun 2015
No swallow of a prescribed pill,
no inhale of sickly sweet nicotine,
no drowned shot glass,
will make me forget the pain that latched its way onto my skin
when you left without a warning.
418 · Sep 2015
A Letter-Midnight Thoughts
AJ Sep 2015
I'm so not okay.
stop forgetting all the nasty things you tell me,
like "*******" or "selfish *****".
I'm so not okay.  
my throat is dry because I can't cry and my stomach is sore because I can't eat.
I'm so not okay.
I want someone to love me, but the only thing I am to another is a *** toy.
I'm so not okay.
I'm an entire year behind in school and I have to fake being all right to make sure I finish all my classes before next year.
I'm so not okay.
maybe another bruise or another cut would make me okay.
403 · Jan 2017
I Never Told Anyone
AJ Jan 2017
they ask you what your greatest fear is,
expecting you to say
the dark
death
falling in love
but no one ever expects the word "myself" to escape from your lips.
they ask you what your greatest fear is,
but no one ever expects you to touch the white lines trailing up your arms,
to touch the scar on your collarbone,
the result of the blade slipping when your hands were too shaky to take it across your neck.
they ask you what your greatest fear is,
but no one ever expects you to say that you're terrified of what your own mind could trick you into doing.
383 · Feb 2017
Untitled
AJ Feb 2017
I will chain smoke cigarettes until I can't breathe, cry until I pass out, or **** until I'm bruised, but I will never again take a blade to my skin.
it's been 4 years since i first cut, and maybe only a few months since i bled, but my body does not deserve another mark unless it's a hickey.
381 · Mar 2015
2:31am (10w)
AJ Mar 2015
I just really want to kiss you, not miss you
***** sleep if you don't need to go school for a week cause you're switching
375 · Oct 2015
Quarter to Four
AJ Oct 2015
I gave you my heart but instead of taking care of it as you would yours,
you smashed it to pieces so all I was left with was a broken heart and an empty chest.
3:43am
367 · Apr 2017
irony
AJ Apr 2017
you throw up just to rinse your mouth out with another beer.
354 · Dec 2016
Broken Promises
AJ Dec 2016
sometimes i miss you,
but then i realize that i was just an awful person to be friends with,
as were you.
i never kept stories straight,
afraid to tell the truth about my family after i opened up to you and you judged me,
so then i tried to keep quiet.
but it just resulted in things i could never explain well enough for you to understand.
i don't miss the person you are.
you are damaged,
and toxic,
and lost,
but i am too,
and maybe two toxics cant be mixed.
i don't miss the person you are,
i miss the memories,
and being able to call you a best friend,
but i don't miss you.
the more days past,
the more i wish it wasn't you who i shared all the memories with.
i pushed away people cause i thought you were a best friend i needed. but you weren't. you're ****** up, and you ****** me over.
349 · Jan 2018
Hunger
AJ Jan 2018
hungry and wanting,
our bodies move in the rhythm that we have learned to master in the short years of loving one another.
skin on skin,
uneven and shaky breathing,
fingernails clawing into your back,
your hand around my throat.
our bodies collide in an all too familiar fashion,
but the feeling is still so new and so fresh,
every moan that escapes our lips feels like the experience of watching the sun dip into the horizon,
beautiful and colorful and wild.
i don’t think any poem will remaster what we do behind closed doors,
but every word escaping my pen will try to tell the story of loving you touch by touch.
this is raw and terrible and i am sorry
343 · May 2018
love is/love isn’t
AJ May 2018
love is holding hands in the grocery store,
love is good morning/good night kisses,
love is looking for them in a crowd because they’re the only face you need to see.

love is walking closer to the street because growing up she was taught to be scared of the road.
love is him putting up with chewed straws on large Cokes,
love is hands in hair or heads on chests while tucked in bed on a chilly night.

love is a mind full of them, them, them, an unstoppable thought.

love is all of these things but love also isn’t.
love isn’t always perfect and gentle.

love is questioning your future together when a slip up happens,
love is being there for her when the demons in her mind start to rile up again,
and love is holding her as she recovers for the last time.

love is wondering if it will even be the last time.

love is fighting for a future together that has faded.
but love is being so madly in love that fighting for it is barely a war.

love is the up,
love is the downs.

love is going to sleep at night with a smile on your face because their desire for each other knocks out all the downs.
AJ May 2015
I remember when you stripped me of my shirt that one Friday evening,

the words "you're so ****" escaped your lips,

but as soon as I refused to do what you wanted me to do as the night dragged on,

you drove me home and nasty words came in texts the days that followed,

and maybe this is why I'm scared to fall for someone again.
328 · May 2015
It's Just One Step
AJ May 2015
the only reason you're alone is because you're too stuck on the idea that no one listens, but you never give them the chance.

the only reason you're alone is because you don't allow yourself to not be.  

the only reason you're alone is because you refuse to get help, you're too used to your depression that it's become your only friend.

the only reason you're alone is because you want to be.
so stop complaining.
AJ Feb 2016
January 31-February 10 2016
*because they're all the same ******* thing in the end.
I have writers block
321 · Sep 2015
5:07am
AJ Sep 2015
I want it to hurt,
and maybe if I wish hard enough,
it will.
319 · Nov 2015
New Feelings
AJ Nov 2015
I tried to tell myself I can't love another before I can find love in my own body,
but your smile was too bright,
and I knew the butterflies in my stomach weren't towards my chipped black nail polish and sad brown eyes.
this was in my bio for a good amount of time but I changed it so
317 · Feb 2016
I was scared of love
AJ Feb 2016
January 21 2016
there's never a day where I don't think about you.
because it's you, you, you.
I can't go a day without thinking about your lips on mine.
it'll always be you.
*and I'm so ******* sorry I can't show you how much I'm in love with you.
"why do I want to ******* one day and the next I want to **** you?"
309 · Jan 2015
Come Back
AJ Jan 2015
I watched my mind float up into the clouds one day, just as I was chewing on my pen during class.
1:06pm, one hour and thirty four minutes until I was out,
but my head had other ideas instead of working out the problems on my math assignment.
My mind bounced and swam and floated through the clouds, looking for whatever memory it could find of you before you were completely gone.
It got glimpses of your dark eyes in the sky,
glimpses of your lips leaning in closer to meet mine and
I swear the pain of the memory made me cry out "come back, come back!"
But it kept digging deeper, looking closer, until I could smell the husky scent of you, a mix of pine, and old car.
I dug my fingernails into my palm, but the pain was replaced by the feel of your arms wrapped around me.
Come back.
The next thing I know it was still 1:06pm, there were dents in my palm, and you were gone.
"in some way, everyone relives a memory of someone when they're gone." something I heard once.
AJ Jun 2016
I can scream from the top of my lungs at the highest point in our city,
where my voice will echo throughout the buildings,
"I love you" bouncing from east to west,
and right back to us,
wrapping themselves around the teenage bodies that hold angst, and lust, and love,
but most importantly hope,
the hope that taught me life was worth the late night fights from parents who need a long overdue divorce,
it's worth the headaches masking the buried worry that sits deep in my chest,
it's worth the tears that shed late at night when the demons come out to play only be wiped away from you.
it's worth it all,
because I know you'll be there to make me smile when there's nothing to smile about.
I'm making a mix cd for my boyfriends grad gift (along with a warped tour ticket) / 7 months & I learned that no song in that playlist could even come close to how I feel about him. & I just hope he keeps feeling the same
AJ Jan 2017
you don't even bother trying anymore.
what the **** is a friend if they don't even put in an effort to talk to you?
277 · Jan 2018
unoriginal
AJ Jan 2018
i took pictures of everything i found pretty and maybe that’s why i had a million photos of you but there was never one of me
273 · Jul 2016
I Wrote This 7 Days After
AJ Jul 2016
I don't want to tell you that I love you.
The word "love" terrifies me.
The concept of it tears me apart from inside out, piece by piece.
How could such a small word mean so much?
I don't want to tell you that I love you because I see so much heart break,
but when I take your hand in mine,
as it envelopes the hand that once held a blade to skin,
the feeling that surges through every part of me must mean something.
I've felt the sparks of lust before,
but when your lips press onto mine,
the first thought in my mind that invades my mind isn't to tear your clothes off.
My mouth spreads into a smile across yours,
and the next thing I know I'm pulling you closer to me with the fear of losing you.
when you love someone, you know. I knew 7 days after he asked me to be his. almost 8 months later, it hasn't changed. (written 11-28-15)
269 · Mar 2017
lifted me up
AJ Mar 2017
you told me i needed fixing but you didn't tell me how so you grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up but when you realized that I was too hard to carry you dropped me and shattered me even more
but you dragged me down
AJ Sep 2015
maybe if you love me hard enough we could be as beautiful as the sky
*** is art and we're a landscape painting
252 · Jan 2019
2019’s Secrets
AJ Jan 2019
maybe i’m so scared of being cheated on because she kept it a secret for years and we believed it
(please don’t keep secrets from me, i know when you do)
maybe i’m so scared of being lied to because i believed every lie that came out of her mouth and when the truth came out i broke
(please don’t lie to me, i know when you do)
maybe i flinch at raised voices because yelling meant a fight and a fight meant running away (please don’t scream at me unless you’re screaming honesty, i need you to)
it’s eating me up inside and i’m becoming nothing while knowing nothing
maybe you don’t need me
(i don’t need me, too)
252 · May 2016
Six Months & Counting
AJ May 2016
there are no words, no combination of letters to explain the feeling that sparks through my body when you touch me.

there isn't a way to explain my love for you, to explain the sense of calm that washes over me just when a smile dances onto your lips.

a thousand different novels can be written about your kiss but not one will fully explain how much you mean to me.
is this what love feels like? or am I just pretending?
247 · Dec 2019
beautiful
AJ Dec 2019
you made me think not being called beautiful by someone who’s supposed to think i am was normal it wasn’t normal
245 · May 2017
Untitled
AJ May 2017
i smoked a cigarette in my car today,
and every inhale reminded me of how much it hurts to stop kissing you,
like the crave of nicotine when it reaches the end.
245 · May 2018
loving you
AJ May 2018
because of you, i think about the future as happening in my lifetime. because of you, i’m okay with tomorrow coming.
kissing you is the same feeling as the adrenaline that runs through your body while you’re in  a concert crowd.
when you touch me, my life flashes before my eyes but it’s not my funeral anymore.
i think loving you turned me into someone i never thought i’d be but i want her to stay.
anxiety attacks used to be my most toxic friend, but you scare them off when they try to invade me now.
i used to be scared of butterflies, but swarms of them lift me off my feet when you take my hand and i’ve never felt less afraid.
a jumble of one liners about what it feels like to be in love
245 · Feb 2018
ten years
AJ Feb 2018
i’m sorry you put ten years into something you’re incredibly good at only to be bullied and discriminated and thrown away for something you couldn’t control.
this is less of a poem and more of a rant. someone i love lost their job because they got incredibly sick and had to use up all of their sick time, and apparently they didn’t like that at work. it was right after they hit the 10 year mark of working there, too. this person is too old to continue looking for another job to keep their family supported and healthy and happy. but they have an interview on thursday (when they JUST put the application in on the 31st. it was such a quick reply, we were so happy!!!) they’re gonna get this job & we’ll be okay. everything always ends up being okay.
242 · Jun 2019
best friends know best
AJ Jun 2019
it hurts me to know that you can see my heart being shattered and how little i do not care.
it hurts me to know that you’re picking up the pieces and storing them away when i could fix it myself but refuse to.
it hurts me to know that i’m pretending to be blind in fear of losing someone i’ve already lost.
240 · Sep 2019
months
AJ Sep 2019
you’re still looking for me in the faces of all the new girls you kiss
234 · Oct 2016
Untitled
AJ Oct 2016
you know that feeling when you find new music & you absolutely fall in love with it?
or maybe that excited feeling while waiting in line before a concert?
how every part of your body just fills up with this adrenaline,
sparks that make you not be able to stand still,
a feeling that you never want to stop feeling.
that's exactly what it feels like to love you, to be in love with you.
that feeling, all the time. & I don't want it to go away.
i'm complete **** at writing now, but that's okay.
233 · Jul 2017
June 27
AJ Jul 2017
the scars on my skin will linger on my body like the stars in the clear night sky,
lighting up a blank canvas until the sun finds its way back to hide it.
but the like the stars,
my scars will always be there,
masked only by a light that will eventually die out.
scars don't tan and the summertime makes me so self conscious about them
224 · Aug 2015
Another Drag
AJ Aug 2015
I smoke cigarette after cigarette in a desperate attempt to get the smell of you off my clothes and the taste of you off my tongue
I can't keep missing you
222 · Apr 2015
Good/Hell
AJ Apr 2015
You used to always tell me goodnight,
now you won't even tell me hello.
funny how things work now
I just wish I knew how your mind worked
207 · Dec 2019
safety
AJ Dec 2019
can it be night again,
where your hand is stumbling through the dark trying to take a grasp of mine,
and even though the dark blinds you,
your fingers lace through mine,
and i feel safe.
find someone that makes you feel safe and keep them
205 · Sep 2021
older
AJ Sep 2021
i don’t think i could ever process the fact of losing you.
abandonment issues are one thing,
but you’re getting older,
and i’m getting sadder.
i can’t stand the thought of waking up one day without being able to tell you a joke,
or get told to “be safe.”
i can’t stand the thought of not being able to say back “promise.”
we’ve seen each other at our worst,
and maybe that’s because you raised me,
but i feel like it’s more.
i know how you tick,
i know how you work,
i know how you love me.
i could never process the fact of losing you.
not because death scares me,
but because you are everything to me,
and i can never lose that.
growing up isn’t what i anticipated
205 · Jun 2015
Untitled
AJ Jun 2015
your body is my coffin
and I wouldn't mind being buried six feet under
193 · Dec 2016
Untitled
AJ Dec 2016
i'll love you until the universe decides i shouldn't
do you believe in forever?
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