Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Kalliope May 26
I've watered this garden for ages
Yet nothing ever grows
I've consulted botanical mages
They haven't the time for my trivial woes

I've pruned with bloodied fingertips-
Soil so stubborn, refusing to shift
I've given every pamphlet a flip
Still no signs of a horticultural gift
At the very bottom seam
of my very favorite watering can
is a rusted hole
Kalliope May 25
If you're so selfless,
Why does it bother you no one notices?
2 am
Cadmus May 22
I am tired from tomorrow…
Its not even here yet.

Tired from yesterday…
Its not even here anymore.

I am tired.

🌂
This poem captures the weight of chronic emotional fatigue - the kind that doesn’t wait for events to unfold but clings to both memory and anticipation. It’s a quiet admission that sometimes, simply existing across time is exhausting.
Cadmus May 26
The worst isn’t death.
Death is honest.
It arrives, it ends.
Clean.

The worst is staying.
Breathing.
Functioning.
While everything that made you you
quietly rots beneath the skin.

When you watch your passions
starve to death
and can’t even bother
to grieve them.

When the people you loved
become background noise,
and you answer with nods
because words cost too much.

When nothing is worth arguing for,
and silence feels
like mercy.

This isn’t a fall.
It’s slow erasure
each day
another fingerprint gone
from the glass.

Until one morning,
you look in the mirror
and meet
a very polite stranger.
This poem explores emotional erosion - not dramatic collapse, but the quiet, daily loss of passion, purpose, and self. It reflects the darker side of psychological burnout, where apathy masquerades as peace, and survival becomes indistinguishable from surrender.
Joshua Phelps May 15
where is all
the compassion?

the empathy?

oh, humanity—

what a disaster.
left me
dumbstruck.

the world’s
spiraling faster
and faster

into a freefall
of selfishness
and carelessness.

we’re supposed
to move forward—
so why’s everyone
racing back
in time?

do you like
what you’ve become?

do you even
remember
what it’s like
to feel
something?

it’s dumb luck
expecting people
to wake up

when they’re
already dead
inside.

i can’t believe it—
they’re so
hollow.

but i won’t be
the one to follow,
won’t fall
in line.

all it takes
is a little compassion.

a little
understanding.

so next time
you open your mouth—

be kind.
inspired by neck deep’s “dumbstruck dumbf**k.”

a punk-poetic piece on how selfishness, emotional burnout, and apathy are rotting us from the inside out.

mental health awareness starts with compassion—not compliance.
Tired of poems, of stories told,
Of chasing dreams that never hold.
Of ends and starts that feel the same,
A hollow echo with no name.

I long to lose myself in crowds,
Where silence lives beneath the loud.
To find a place I’d call my own,
A hearth, a heart, a kind of home.

To play again with skies so wide,
No weight to bear, no need to hide.
To walk a beach with naked feet,
Or climb where sky and summit meet.

But if not joy, then let me weep,
And sob until the hurt runs deep.
For all the dark I cannot flee,
The storm that still resides in me.
Emery Feine Apr 30
I am throwing up straight gasoline.
Steam is dripping down my eyes.
I work twice as hard as that man.
I earn five times less awards.
My body is deteriorating.
I am tripping over the wires at my feet.
I am falling ill; I keep working.
That man will pay
But you know what they say
You can’t take it with you.
why do they get to determine his success, just because they said so?
lex Apr 21
Eyes blur over words,
tasks pile like silent judgments-
why can't I keep up?

Every day I try,
but the mountain has never moved.
why can't I be stronger?

Reports inked in red bleed,
proof of how I've let them down-
and myself again.

Tired to the bone,
even rest won't hold me now.
I'm just...drifting off.

Same roads, same old steps-
life loops in gray repetition.
I forget to breathe.

School, then noise, then more-
life stacks struggle like heavy books.
No one but me seems to bend.

I get home and sit,
just to feel the ache settle.
Crying is my break.

Behind my closed door,
the world finally lets go.
Here, I'm just...myself.

No masks in this space-
just the quiet hum of me,
and the weight I shed.

Everything seems to hurt at once-
to falter beneath my feet.
I want stable ground.

Not all pain is loud.
Not all struggle leaves a mark.
Some of us wander astray.
not broken beyond repair,
just worn down.

Some wounds wear no scars-
they bloom silently, deep inside.
where no eyes can reach.

Erosion taking time-
silent, steady, unnoticed,
gradually-things vanish.
And I often feel myself fading,
in the smallest, softest ways.

These words, these lines,
are not cries for rescue,
but quiet pleas to breathe.

I know i'm not broken,
simply a person-
someone who's learning
how to exist under the pressure,
even if I don't have the answers yet.

I am more than these battles,
more than the crimson ink scars on paper.
I am the silence between the words,
the moments when I let myself just be.

Maybe one day,
I'll find the strength,
to grow into myself,
to let the world see-

How much I've carried,
how far I've come,
even when it felt like I was barely moving.
finals and drivers test piling up on me, everything is so stressful as of late.
Milo Apr 21
I thought I told you I was a failure
So why do you still expect of me?
I'm worthless
Please don't give me false hope
A hollow dream can't carry my body
I'm already sinking
And I don't want to drown
Not again
Please
Not again
Asher Graves Apr 20
It all starts with a thought that follows a pop
So vivid and appealing like a curious onslaught
Then the person starts grooving out of the block
Views change, make shift, foundations are formed
Weak flame, pledged words, a moth to a bulb
Big talks, fake blogs, witfully involved

Visually lost, embraced the chaos, but that’s not enough
Growth-fully stunned, what’s wish to a cause, gracefully lost
Blinded by love, falling down a slump, to fulfill the duty to the loved ones
Amidst the carnage, the survivor can’t protest
Ravages of wars again and again, without a break
Leaves the person with nothing intact, no sense of sobriety
No realizations, No hope, just pitch black dent
And nothing’s new just plain ol’ Lament

While everything seems to make them upset
Moderating the pain to soothe the backlash
Fell in depravity, now can’t even sleep for a sec
No notion or moderation yet they try to fulfill their conquest
Their whole world is falling apart yet they can’t seem to stop themselves
For all they know is to work and work and work, so inhumane-like self
A glimpse of countless fallen souls, heroes bound for hell,
Enduring storms so cruel, even therapy lost its spell.
What you talk to isn’t even a human anymore but a charred combusted shell
Whose silence screamed for help
For years they endured so much, a salute to their resilient self

Wish someone would have noticed their stutter
Some kind words, a simple compliment, a flutter
Maybe a graceful guide, bucket-full of hopes and a house of surprise for shelter
Maybe a good friend, and a great teacher, for them to not pretend either
To mend the vice of the bitter, cries of the Aether, heart that is cluttered
Before it falls back to the nether

Their cries went in vain yet the voices still refrain
Afraid of losses and faces scorned with disdain
Forcefully smiling throughout the pain
Imminently violent and without restraint
Engulfed in the darkness for the darkness smothers their brain

Vengeful and perplexed without a rest
Their hatred is genuine, perfectly jest
For the cries that went unseen and the angst of mesh
A turmoiled life, A fractured mess

Hope is but a blundered sail
Plethora of monologues, a crumbling rail
Exhausted sighs, eerie gales
A Note Not Worth The Bother
A Ghastly tale
                                                                  -Asher Graves
I really like writing darker poems
Next page