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 Aug 2014 Vanessa Abplanalp
AR
and if you knew,
truly knew.

you'd know,
how much i miss you
how much i yearned to be with you, just for one more moment.
one.

but its impossible,

we're now parallel lines.
Hey,
I don't know your address.
I hope you never read this.
My therapist says that this is the way to get it all out of my head.
I was under the impression
that writing to someone
ended in burning the evidence.
That it was a kind of healing ritual.
Cleansed by the flames.
But no,
electronic almost-correspondence
appears to be the answer.
Here goes:


I got drunk today.
It seemed like the thing to do.

There was a couch,
it was grey.
Yeah, that one. The red wine stain
is still on the underside
of the cushion cover.

I prefer white.

I sat on the couch.
That's what they're for, couches,
so not much of a surprise, I guess.
But I don't know what to say,
I'm filling the void with
obvious facts.

I didn't even use a wine glass.
I filled a pink mug
full to the top.
Had to sip off the rim of it
so it didn't overflow as I carried it into the sitting room.
With the bottle of wine,
of course.

And I drank.

So I'm drunk now.
I keep laughing.
Of course, I'm not a happy drunk,
but everything is
wrong
anyway.
There's no one around to
tell me to shut up,
for one thing.

Not that I would mind
if there was.
It would fill the silence.

A silence punctuated with
pathetic little
giggles,
as I mentioned before.

I'm not sure what I'm laughing at.
Could be the man outside yelling at his car,
the alarm has been on for an hour now.
Maybe it's the fact
that you took the kettle with you,
and I haven't bought a new one.

I make tea in the microwave now.
Ridiculous.

I don't like you.
Not at all. I don't like the way
that you can't seem to
say anything of importance
and I don't like the way
that your absence
is like

it's like

being stabbed, but that's not enough I feel like I don't have the right to claim that kind of physical pain, I don't feel like I have the right to cry or even walk out my own front door for some reason, and for some reason I was not good enough for you even though neither of us tried our best because we thought we were enough but we weren't and I don't have the words to describe what you are to me, or what you were to me, only that grocery-store sushi used to be that pathetic thing you bought at past-eleven-pm-sometime and now I hate it so much that it's the only thing I can eat and I

I don't need you.

I don't. It's impossible for me to need you,
in the scientific, explainable
rational sense.

But explain it for me,
please.
I am different.  I always have been.

A little girl is crying in the corner.  Her tears are on the inside.
Long, tired streaks down the ***** windows of her soul.
Her soul is old.
Her soul is different.

Shame.  Her t-shirt is never quite enough.
  It stretches over her knees just short to cover her shame.
  Exposed.  Her shame; it burns.
Her shame is different.  

Her hair.  Long and twisted; a curtain to hide the pain behind.
  His scent lingers as it curls her hair into knots of hate.
  Her hair; it would be beautiful.
Instead her hair is different.

A little girl.  She is still to let the corner hug her.
  A plaster embrace will have to do.
  A wall that hugs; it's not so bad.
  This corner is safe.
Her hug is different.

A grown up girl stands in another corner.
Afraid to touch the pain across the room.
  The tears are gone.  Clothes are hers.
  Her hair is the same.
  That different corner still remains.

Go to her.

Clean her up.

Dress her shame.

Give her human comfort.

Any other girl.  But this one is different.  

She is me.  And I am different.

Undeserving.  And indifferent.
i made staircases out of these bones
too young and too fast, the same way
you came and the same way you left.
in those days these lungs were oceans;
this ribcage was sinking. i only wanted
to let the waves wash over, to forget you,
to dissolve me.

we made homes in stairwells when
the light still leaked through the leaves,
when it still spilt orange over faded green.
the times when i was your sky and you
electric blue, the times the strawberries
seeped into your skin; how the cuts
on your fingers made me want to heal
you when i could only
love you more.

but maybe even after all these years
your fingerprints are still etched into me;
i will always carry your hands
in my own.

(A.H.Z)
i thought it’d be poetic
to leave you the same way i found you,
with a contentless text—
a simple entered space
(i knew you wouldn’t catch it)
although you seem to be someone
who thinks very deeply about all someones,
your thoughts about me are puddles
disguised as over-complimenting oceans

and i really do not know
what i am or what i’ve been to you,
or if i’ll be able to keep myself away
from you, or why you’d drive hours
to see me in the middle of the night
when you “plan on kissing at least one
girl in the next three months,”
(could care less if it’s me)

"what would i be waiting for," you asked.

i’m barefoot, chasing a train i know
is on tracks that lead away from where
i want and need to be (but i liked the way
it felt when your hand touched mine)

glad i never gave you any piece of my heart,
because you’re the type of boy who’d
rip it to shreds, hide your claws
behind your back, and tell me that
i should’ve seen it coming
(though you would’ve been right)

maybe you’re just bored,
and that’s why you decorate
your skin with ink and don’t care
about whose lips you’ve touched,
and i wish i could figure you out,
wish i could draw a perfect portrait
with my words (or even just
my thoughts) of who you are,
but i won’t pretend i know you

i hate you and your ***** tattoo
(but i don’t really hate you,
i hate the way i let you make me feel.)
 Aug 2014 Vanessa Abplanalp
JD
Imagine what we could be

Living in nothing but our dreams
Occasionally giving in to the scenes
Valuing
Everything you are to me.

Young forever
Only in our hearts
Understand that we'll never be apart

Besides, tomorrow's here
And another dream has disappeared
But
Eventually nighttime shall come again.
I.   L.O.V.E.   Y.O.U.   B.A.B.E.
 Aug 2014 Vanessa Abplanalp
r
She sews..her needle hot
Stitching her words
Into my thoughts

Repairing a tear
Here and there

A knot drawn tight
Nimble and quick
Thimble silver
Her verse sharp

A rip in the heart
Stitched in time
To stop the flow

My lips sealed
with silken gold
Threading gently
Into the night.

r ~ 8/21/14
\¥/\
  |      
/ \
I caught myself
daydreaming
of you
again.
Your lips
burning holes
in my throat.
"Is this okay?"
Yes.
It is.
I shake my head
Once,
Twice,
to get you out.
math
focus on math
But ******,
you're better
than math.
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