#audio poems on Hello Poetry

Nicholas Mercier Coulombe Apr 2016

So you punched your mother in the face for Trans rights.

You punched your mother in the face for trans rights.
you're really moving up
found out you had ******,
want to switch majors
skip town
leave your girlfriend and move in
with the affair
Good job.
you thought it was all an uphill from the bottom
like a country song
lost your grandma
lost your daughter
lost your job.
the roller coaster isn't that simple.
you'll lose your whole life here, kid.
go get tested, you'll figure it out.

smoke cigarettes, get a psychiatrist.
have another panic attack, they're good for ya.
punch your mother in the face, don't even get locked up
count the cuts on your hands
watch the blood pool around your knuckles

you did it because she wouldn't let you call your partner "they".
"Call her an It if you have to, just not they."
well you should have taken that as signature.
left her there wrong.
been higher and mightier,
but you recorded her.
caught it all on tape.
and now she's blocking the door.

She's softer than you remember
weaker
it isn't hard to get her off you
to move her
she can't hold you back.
she can't even cry.
you scream and she won't listen
still you're wrong
millions of voices are wrong to her
"society doesn't think that way nick.
YOU think that way."
"they'll stop saying they, if
YOU stop saying they."

Maybe that's why you fought so **** hard that night.
protecting the audio recording.
of you leading an army
alone
at your own mother.

#sad #regret #family #trans #they #rights #rebellion #audio #pronouns #recording

Mike Rollain Apr 2016

Rinse and Repeat

It was Tuesday night, and that meant
Something different for each of them
Despite the scenic overlap he
Hoped she still desired

She did, and so off they went

And sat and drank, idle talk
She drank to feel nothing and
He drank to feel her and some nights
They both got what they wanted

He hoped this would be one of those nights

It was looking that way, and so
Despite his better, sober judgment
Yet another pitcher was ordered and
They continued their dance from
Topic to topic with an ease
Unobtainable only an hour before and
Things were really looking up
For the both of them

But she'd had more practice and
He saw black and she saw red
And just like that their illusion
Crumbled and there was
No longer any reason
To keep it going

So they left

And drove home in silence

The awkward kind where caustic
Thoughts battle in midair like the
Cloaked quadcopter drones of
Klingon children

And once again
Neither got what they wanted
But especially that night, and neither
Had the slightest clue why

But there was always next Tuesday night

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/mike-rollain/rinse-and-repeat

#poem #poetry #word #and #spoken #repeat #audio #rinse #soundcloud #rollainm

Mike Rollain Apr 2016

Into the Storm: A Series of Short Poems

"State Line"

Downpour

The torrential kind
In which
You forget
Through overexposure
What it feels like
To see color

Yet remember
Everything else

Clarity in flashes

The earth spills
Its daily struggles
And I bottle mine

---

"Welcome to Earth"

Condensed
Supersaturated

Breaching and scorching
This tortured sky

Will Smith is too expensive
To save us now

---

"A Thousand Words"

In the storm
Shadows and highlights
Are nonsensical terms

Indistinguishable

Black level, high
Contrast, immeasurable
Noise, present

---

"Peripheral"

Push it
Go as fast as you like
I'll take my time
And watch you spin
Out of control
Just outside
The point of
No return

---

"Patience"

Accuse me
Again and again
Convince me I'm wrong

I'll hurl my innocence
Into the storm

Wait for it
It's coming back

---

"Double Down"

That isn't light
At the end of the tunnel
It's just less dark

Double down
It's not over yet

---

"Joy"

Persistent color
Through the fog
Shrek on wheels
Snoopy on ice
They pass and
We follow

---

"Crossing Over"

There is a pain
That comes after

In the relief

In the recuperated vision
An aching remnant of
Stolen senses

You almost miss it

---

"Recovery"

Dreams resurface
Broken
Sparse
Waist-deep in white noise
A melody identifiable as my own

Crickets chirp
Incessant
Ironic
Soaked in stagnant thought
A denotation of the passing storm

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/mike-rollain/into-the-storm

#poem #poetry #the #storm #into #audio #soundcloud #rollainm

Mike Rollain Apr 2016

Locked Out

I can't remember the code
To get in

Normally it's not a problem

Numbers are like puzzle pieces
To me

Seven and three
Three and fourteen

Fives are blue and
Tens are black

They all just fit

Magnetically
Charged and begging
For togetherness

And understanding

Like the eagle understands gravity
And thrives on it

Despite resenting
Its usefulness

I stand
Outside

I push
Buttons

I hear
Sounds

I understand
So little

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/mike-rollain/locked-out

#poem #poetry #word #out #spoken #locked #mike #audio #soundcloud #rollainm

Mike Rollain Apr 2016

Signals

Intermittent noises

Binary static

Broken, attracting
Blinking, distracting
Atypical movements
Chasing, racing

Semi-orbital
Chaotic, pivotal

Design possible
Gravity probable

Signals detected
Theories given

Sorely mistaken
None taken

Contact inevitable
Threaded, tangled

Lily through licorice
Traveling, morphing
Aging, ever changing
Craving, deranging

Silence nagging
Never waning

Clock broken
Wall caving

Neurons impacting
Chemicals reacting
Patterns unlocked
Vision restored

Actions...
Never taken

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/mike-rollain/signals

#poem #poetry #word #spoken #mike #signals #audio #soundcloud #rollainm #rollain

Mike Rollain Apr 2016

References

Sick and secluded
I discover myself
Bouncing between
Feelings and hot water music

A poetry pong master in the making!

Or perhaps a mere loner
Lost in wild blue?
Criticizing deflections and
The distance of the moon

These tides are my own doing
They'll drag me back in
They always do

A drunken realization of
What matters most
Wanders in and out
Of consciousness
In and out
Of solipsistic getaways
In and out
Of this existential rain
Then miraculously sticks

Becomes static

Electricity
Crackles and lingers
In my ears like
Bubble wrap buttons
Snapping and
Slamming this
Contemporary chatter
Back into the reality
Of these off-white walls

A residual impact
I can feel in my bones

I wonder who knows

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/mike-rollain/references

#poem #poetry #word #spoken #mike #audio #soundcloud #references #rollainm #rollain

Mike Rollain Apr 2016

Sunshowers

Rejects flood the cabin and spaces between my lungs
These cotton candy cookouts have taken to the skies and
Tattered treads simmer in the summer streets ahead

Arbitrary animals fall in endless waves
One after another
Clouding distinctions between land and water

Rubber loses grip
Foundations slip

I hold on tight
And wait for change

Admittedly
I am a synesthete imposter
But tonight I can taste the city lights and
Their salty crunch is as real to me as the chlorine sting
Of the moment I first realized
I've always known how to swim

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/mike-rollain/sunshowers

#poem #poetry #word #spoken #mike #sunshowers #audio #soundcloud #rollainm #rollain

Mike Rollain Apr 2016

Ever Changing

He thought for a moment that he might be drowning
But he loved the feeling (I am ever changing)
And she knew he would live for the progression

A common series of notes dragged him under, his vision
Flooded by dark blue spirals, words
Like strands of dripping yarn (I am ever changing)
And he knew she could see them too

They built a home just inside and forged
A memory, a shared vision (I am ever changing)
That formed a tight-knit cloak of protection
From the world

Years passed and they each grew
Closer to the words (I am ever changing)
Yet further from the meaning, unraveling

He wanted to say (I am ever changing)
That he could relate and empathize
And that he knew what it meant to be ever changing
To feel within the oxygen flush of every pulse
That nothing in this world was immune to change
And that it didn't matter, the words--
They never mattered

And how could she not see (I am ever changing)
That the color of this clover was never
The dampened celadon hue of once new love
But rather the soft saffron whisper (I am ever changing)
Of the morning sun? But he knew
She wouldn't understand the question

It took some time to realize
That time has a tendency (I am ever changing)
To spread out like a mushroom cloud and fall
On a quiet Tuesday afternoon like any other
As he barely recalls which notes to play
And the forgotten words trail off
(I am...)

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/mike-rollain/ever-changing

#poem #poetry #word #changing #spoken #ever #mike #audio #soundcloud #rollain

Mike Rollain Apr 2016

Epigenetic

Perhaps I was too anxious
Or too overly ambitious
To become the amber bedrock
Of her vert ontogeny

And for that---
Well, I'm not sorry

But I do empathize

And I did reluctantly accept
This recurring role of
Achromatized apparition

A character deftly commingled
With the unfocused backdrop of
Her callow vista and your
Chimeric vision

Distanced
Marginalized

Even forgotten

And yet
Still present

A mutation in the code

A defiantly epigenetic zero
In each infinite strain
Of blinking ones

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/mike-rollain/epigenetic

#poem #poetry #word #spoken #mike #audio #soundcloud #rollainm #rollain #epigenetic

Mike Rollain Apr 2016

Monochromatic

He was
A fallen star
Ever spinning
A hidden halo of
Hawking radiation

He dragged her in
Kicking and screaming

Swallowed her fire and spat out
The ash, now stripped of all color

Into a world not unlike the one he'd stolen her from

Her particles
Now formless
Drifted without purpose

A monochromatic diffusion of her quondam existence

The sepia shade of her filter facade
Barely deflected the stupid questions
She'd never have the answers to

But she knew what to do

She knew how to drift and spread herself
Across this rock of coruscating life

With a thinness nothing short of impressive

Like a flattened chameleon
Hidden in the midst of
A bustling city sidewalk

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/mike-rollain/monochromatic

#poem #poetry #word #spoken #mike #audio #soundcloud #monochromatic #rollainm #rollain