“Ug, I hate the poetry unit.” (Girl in English class #1)
“Saaaaammmme.” (Girl in English class #2)
(Teacher) “Write a poem about...happiness!”
Happiness? All the poems I write are depressing…
What is happiness anyway?
A light?
A sound?
A song?
A feeling?
Or...something more?
Maybe...maybe happiness is like the peak of a mountain.
You must climb, higher and higher, to reach a smile or a laugh
Or, I suppose, happiness could be a lantern.
Glowing in the darkness, allowing people to see the world around them differently.
Giving people hope to wherever the bearer travels.
Or, I suppose, happiness could be a sound or thing.
Like a heartbeat.
Or a laugh.
Maybe even a dubbed anime episode that you’ve been waiting to watch for months.
So, what is happiness?
It doesn’t seem to really have a definition.
I guess it depends on who you are, and what makes you happy.
Ug.
Poems about happiness are so hard to write.

i never finish
i only begin
feelings turn to ink
i let it sink in

i hope the words
will find their way
and lead me to the end

but whether hand or heart
i tire out
and begin again

I'm trying not to think about him, but I know his eyes, his mouth, his energy is there in the back of my mind.
Like a finger scraping down my spine
Like ignoring the lyrics of a song when you can feel the bass reverberating in your stomach
It's that nervous tossing and turning exhaustion after a *** of black coffee has left you buzzing
I can pretend
But who's going to buy that when you can see the mosquitoes prickling and buzzing about my cerebellum?

Calliope
has spied in me
a hollow dark and cold.

She gives it free,
that panoply
of new ideas bold.

But as of late
that dinner plate
of musings has been bare.

Could it be
Calliope
Has little left to spare?

© Jason Comeaux 4/12/2019

My pen sputters and stalls -
Check engine light flashing
Behind my eyelids

pen,
paper,
late night,
crumpled.

coffee,
sip,
think,
draft.

writer's block
because of you.
overthinking
drown her.

unmotivated,
uninspired,

stressed,
scared,

dreading,
doubting,
­
wanting,
needing

to write.
to create.

but my mind's drier
than eyes after crying