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Kiernan Norman Dec 2024
I renamed him "Were You Sent by Someone Who Wanted Me Dead?"
because the damage didn’t feel accidental.
Now his name sits like a warning—
a lighthouse in reverse,
pulling me toward the rocks instead of away.

The boy who made me feel alive but ruined me
is "Can’t Go Back, I’m Haunted,"
because that’s what he was—
a shadow teaching me how to crave the dark.
Even now, I catch myself looking for him
in rooms I swear I’ve locked.

The one who left quietly got
"Stood on the Cliffside Screaming ‘Give Me a Reason,’"
because that’s what I told myself:
he wasn’t cruel, just lost,
just a plane circling the runway,
never meant to land.
I scroll past his name
and wonder if he’s still searching.

The fling that burned too fast
became "She’s Gone Too Far This Time,"
because I warned him—
I’m no one’s redemption arc.
He wanted fire to keep him warm,
but I only know how to burn.

The boy who was almost enough is
"I’ll Tell You the Truth but Never Goodbye."
His kindness felt like sunlight on bare skin,
but I couldn’t stop chasing shadows.
His name glows softly—
a reminder of the light I couldn’t hold.

Another became "Back When We Were Still Changing for the Better,"
because that’s all we were—potential,
the kind of almost that stays caught in your throat,
a song you never finish writing.
I left him there in my phone,
a name too soft for the edges we’ve grown into,
but sharp enough to remind me
how hope always dies in the details.

There’s comfort in cataloging heartbreaks this way—
turning them into lyrics instead of people,
letting songs hold what I can’t.
I swipe past "Forever is the Sweetest Con,"
"If a Man Talks ****, Then I Owe Him Nothing,"
and "Old Habits Die Screaming."
I laugh at my own theatrics
and wonder if they deserve immortality.

If one of them calls,
I’ll watch the name flicker on the screen,
smile at the poetry of it all,
and let it go unanswered.

Because some names
only deserve to live
in someone else’s song.
Arobeum Nov 2024
Eyes never lie
Then was it hallucination, or just my delusional mind?
That I thought he was in love with me!

Was it just a matter of pretend?
Pretend to love me so as to get me,
I might say my body..

What was it that I saw his eyes full of love for me?
His actions that I mistook for,
To bring the world for me.

If only I knew that eyes sometimes lies,
Sometimes betray.
Arobeum Nov 2024
Eyes can talk,
But we never met each other so,
He could never read my eyes speak.
Could never see my eyes speaking
the words of love to him;

He could never see my eyes sparkling whenever I viewed, read his messages.

All for once, i wished he could see,
The foreshaking love I HAD for him.
Zywa Oct 2024
I want to see you,

that's it, you really don't have --


to be sociable.
Diary novel " Ik kus uw handen duizendmaal - Faxen aan Ger #6" ("I kiss your hands a thousand times - Faxing to Ger #6", 2024, Nicolien Mizee), November 6th, 2000

Collection "Out of place"
Jia En Oct 2024
Some of you
Don’t know how much you mean to
Me–
I just can’t see
A way
To say
“Just standing next to you makes my day”
Or perhaps “That made me feel so
Much better” because I know
It would just feel weird.
For how long has our society feared
Expressions
Of affection?
Too much obviously feels wrong
But when you’ve been here for so long,
I don’t know how to not overdo
My gratitude towards you.
contrary to the poem i just posted
Steve Page Oct 2024
a hug is a huge thing
a something that can envelop
can cause me to well up
can burst through my well built up defences
and knock down fences
that have stood the test
of time-honoured conventions
that respected my distance
and even admired my stiff upper prevention
of anything like a display of affection

a hug is a long held committing
a massive undertaking
that leaves a long-lasting indentation of serious loving.

A hug is a huge thing.
We need a hug.
Revisiting a 2020 poem.  Still true.
With thanks to patty m and Boris Cho for the prompt.
Zywa Aug 2024
Awkwardly he holds

my hand, just like in photos --


from the olden times.
Novel "The Sandcastle" (1957, Iris Murdoch), chapter Twelve

Collection "Unspoken"
Zywa Mar 2024
I never dare to

speak to them, not one of them --


does even see me.
Novel "Two Years Eight Months & Twenty-Eight Nights" (which is 1001 nights, 2015, Salman Rushdie), chapter 2 "Mr Geronimo"

Collection "Low gear"
Zywa Feb 2024
I count all my friends

and am left with five fingers --


to shake hands with you!
Poem "Een hand" ("A hand", 2003, Bart Moeyaert)

Collection "Skin-contact"
Zywa Jan 2024
We don't talk about

anything, we only smell --


of the same bath soap.
Novel "jl." ("recently" - the title also refers to Juno Linnaarts, 2016, Anjet Daanje), chapter June 4th, 1984

Collection "Skin-contact"
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