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J Nov 2016
Cold tap water, colder shoulders
are you mad or still waking up?
When is the last time you slept through the night?
or better yet, spent the whole night inside?
What are you looking for out in the street anyway?
This road's been a dead end since the first time
you let the liquid sugar hit your veins harder than your lips,
and instead of sips now you indulge every day just to get by,
but I still don't get why you let yourself get that bad.
You forgot about the daughter, mother, friends you had,
didn't you?

We didn't forget about you,
the sugar still turns you white,
even in your casket I can smell the apologies as I bend over for
one last goodbye,
I refuse to watch a family breakfast crumble
at the hands of ****** again,
I refuse to let a substance win,
like it did with you.
J Nov 2016
9 months have passed and I still feel small
I threw away everything, photos and all
I felt empty for months, angry this fall,
but now I'd give anything to be your next call.

Your tactics were perfect, like beautiful seas
I was so eager to let you control me
Because surrendering felt like ectasy
And your grip around my neck had warming properties
J Nov 2016
They're called our golden years
because they're shiny, energy
pitter patters inside dollar store batteries
didn't quite fit the mold the remote control
gave them but they still managed to get by
They're called our golden years
because 1920s America were golden too,
corruption blanketed poverty,
depression plagued the youth
while beautiful violin numbers drowned out the screams
I always pictured the song that I **** myself to,
one from the jazz age,
so no one knows I was so rotten underneath
the gold I worked hard to shine
each and every day
I'm 20 now
I'm golden, now
Composing my piece to debut
before I turn 22
J Nov 2016
I have bad habits,
and a good heart
the two never balance out beautifully
they don't fall in love like the first time,
when you're awkward and naive and sixteen,
on front porches and wired from caffeine,
they don't hold hands in July when it's too hot to think,
like lovers do at that age, eager to experience that innocent feeling
in color, over and over.
I have bad habits,
and a good heart; the former always wins,
they don't dance under autumn trees like lovers at 16,
they sting like the first heartbreak.
The kind of repurcussions that tip boats made to withstand
storms that even solid land could not endure,
I have bad habits and they make sure to show.
I have a good heart
but it barely matters
because what's a good cup
when the rest of your china is shattered
and even worse,
by your own actions.
I have a good heart, and bad habits,
the two don't balance or dance,
they bicker and bend.
I have a good heart,
but that's merely defense.
J Nov 2016
Is the best piece you ever wrote your suicide note?You were a writer and you knew how to turn your words into weapons. You weren't supposed to use them on your own skin. What made you wage a war you know you couldn't win?
Why Did you hurt the ones you love and call it art? Did the act of waking up every day burn your insides so much that
You couldn’t bear to stay on Earth for another sunset without collapsing yourself? Is that why you went away? Is it sunny there? Or warm, at least I know you didn’t like the heat but you needed a promising heartbeat and New England winters stole the color from your smile, I saw it with my own eyes. I saw you glow too and that makes me wonder why you left. The leaves fell off trees and you danced underneath, something about that felt like magic. What made you feel so free and where'd it go? You loved October air growing up, and how it filled your lungs,apple pie that just cooled off, but warm enough to heat you up. You used to eat the whole thing,
and now you can't. Did you stop hurting the way you used to here? How can we be sure? You never asked anyone for help, and now you can’t.
J Oct 2016
I wonder if there is an afterlife for words
Ones we never brought to life,
or ones that tried and tried,
but lost their fight.
I wonder what it looks like.
Maybe there, the walls are white,
and invite every sound that was silenced
and attracted every one never found when
hidden behind fearful human mouths
I wonder what it feels like
if the words have a place to rest
and not have the burden of holding themselves in
when their creator wants to let them go,
I wonder if they know that they are strong,
or if they die before they understand.
I wonder where words go to die,
or if the ones that never come out,
were ever even alive.
J Oct 2016
Why is giving up so sweet to taste
like cold cream in strong brewed coffee,
I wish that same strength for me,
but instead the way the milk,
though bad for me I know,
mixes in like December's first snow,
leaves me in a trance,
I am frozen in the road,
the way ahead I will not go,
because I have never tasted happiness
and giving up is just too sweet
J Oct 2016
It is hard to imagine
Seeing a whole person
When the mirror shattered
And left shards in the same shape
As the scars on my arms
That divide me into two people.
one I wish I could escape
one who refuses to give way
To anything other than
Depreciation
Unwelcomed recollection
On times of skin fairer, clearer, kinder
J Oct 2016
Let the leaves steep before you pluck them out
of the mug I never fixed from the first time we fought, about
I don't remember what, but I remember the way the warmth left my body
like I should have fled the house that night,
I remember it but those are different times.
Now, I fail at reiterating on emotions diffused into summer flights
anywhere but where I was staying, anywhere safe,
I landed not far away,
but hard enough to stay and that settlement will haunt my memories
until I can no longer,
still,
trace the patterns you made on my back,
with my own hands now.
Now, I cannot reiterate.
It might be worse than digging up a grave,
that closure that might have buried you under rubble,
and might have eliminated any chance at air,
so you sit on the floor and ask yourself how you let it happen,
again and again,
I cannot reiterate.
For it brings too much pain,
to remember how lightly you said my name,
and how heavy the blows were when you could not bear to say
anything,
anything is all I want to hear from you now,
but you're gone and I am still drinking tea,
gone bitter from the time gone by,
wondering how I let this happen, again.
I cannot reiterate the way that my soul fought for a shape,
after months of convincing myself I was useless,
like you swore.
I cannot reiterate the pain I felt when I loved you,
but I can promise.


I don't anymore.
J Oct 2016
Filling a void
I cannot identify
Trying to make meaning
of days wasted, afraid.
I waste away, waiting
I pray I am not as dreadful
as you used to make me feel.
Part of me used to laugh,
the thought of someone else
dictating how I felt sat lightly on
my lips and made them curl,
like pastel rose hips, I smiled,
no one would make me feel
anything,
but now I barely feel at all.
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