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Jo Swan Nov 2018
This Picture Perfect Family
Is family of contradiction.
Hands hold the frame of the Portrait;
Bitterness seethes with friction.
Repulsive as summer cockroach,
Its artwork I wish to reproach.
Faces full of fake smiles-
Cloyingly sick, I want to puke!
The portrait presents many lies.

This Picture Perfect Family,
The truth is it has been defiled!
Father fights Mother; home havoc!
Harmony crushed by clamor.
Though I may be a naive child,
This family has a vicious void.
Resentment rattles with full force;
The essence of love long destroyed;
Hatred only settled with divorce!

This Picture Perfect Family
Can only appear in my dreams.
The tone of painting I abhor;
Behind our smiles, gloominess gleams,
It does not show there is a war.
My mind screams in frustration
Like the ******’s first castration.
I wish this wretched pain to bury-
Emotions blurred by apathy!

This Picture Perfect Family
Will not exist any longer!
I wonder now what is at stake-
Foundation of love macerates.
Hands tremor in anguish anger;
The Family Portrait drops and breaks.
Glass frame shatters; heart lacerates.

Oh, let this Portrait rot in hell…
Picture Perfect Family farewell!

(c) Jo Swan
Children suffer in silence in a domestic abusive household. I wanted to convey the thoughts of a Child as processing her parent's divorce and the frustration she feels about her predicament.
zb Oct 2018
i smear oil paint across your lips.

your face, outlined in pale brown and
robin's egg blue and
yellow-green,
rests gently in negative space.

part of me hurts
when i look at this part of you,
this part i am
so familiar with,
in an unfamiliar way.

the lines of your eyes
(eyes i've gazed into a thousand times)
betray my secrets and my soul;

the whisper of your hair
is the same as the quiet brush of mine
on the tops of my bare shoulders;

i reach out to touch you,
and my fingers touch dried oils
in shades of raw umber and cadmium lemon;
my paintbrush still dangles, wet,
from my other hand.

the creased wax paper on the table
carries swatches of color,
the potential energy of
my pigment-smudged hands;
you are still unfinished.

i am still unfinished.
s h Oct 2018
they paint a picture of me:
black and white and grey.
i pose for them,
so still I have forgotten how to breathe,
my lungs aching
and my head spinning.  
they paint only
the portrait they want to see
obscuring my flaws
and covering all the bits of me.
black and white and grey,
black and white and grey.
i drag my fingers
through a bright color
and smudge it across the canvas.
they want be to be
black and white and grey,
but maybe
pink was my color all along.
stop trying to be what they want you to be.
I have seen a man
watching me stare
at him
with a sense of loss
through a
shiny shiny
mirrored window.
Once I slept
besides a red telephone and
hung up on the
human race.
Again, I have seen that man
watch me stare
at him
with a sense of loss
but this time
through a
less shiny
mirrored window...


- Samar Charulingah Godfrey
Nat Lipstadt Sep 2018
“there are no lines or lies in my writings
there are no definitions and
perception is only your truth”

Jackson *******


my poems are splats and drips.
you make them into paintings that hang
in your own private museum,
signed by you, truthfully, forever,
as first viewer,
and thus as,
co-creator


Nat Lipstadt
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock
Ines Rose Sep 2018
I was scared
And
I was scared straight

I was torn
And
I was a tornado

I was the pain
And
I was the painter

I was ******
And
I was ****** right

I was just
And
I was just enough

I was dependent
And
I was dependent on nothing

I was true*
And
I was truly ashamed

I was used
And
I was used to it
Quite random tbh
I have just been reflecting and this is the product of

*True to myself
Gabriel Bonney Sep 2018
I see a canvas behind your eyes
I see the artist in disguise
I see the portrait made so no one else will see
I see dimly lit sands and beyond a vast sea
I see your palette--black and grey
I see, as we all do, the bright paints you display
I see in your eyes your dripping color
I see that you don't trust a single other
I see, because the eyes interpret the heart
I see, and realize you are just like me
I see, and I long to remedy
Not sure about the title...
I had seen a painting, entitled,
“The Portrait Of A Poet”, it was
perfect in its beauty, and yet
still, the viewer had not known
the secrets it held, the thorns
encasing the roses in the
garden surrounding her,
the book she held with
her heart’s song, the
symphony she veiled
In the sea of eyes
flowing from her
feet with faces
of a blank canvas,
seeking the color
of love, when they
gazed upon the
painting, they
did not see in
her eyes, the
one who saw
the beauty and
light in everything
within the greatest
suffering, they
looked past the
bird with the
shining wings
who lived in the
cage, she was
unaware of
her luminous
features as
her colors
were painted,
for the truth
of her lies
within the
flower of
purity,
touched
by the
moonlight,
she sits with her
demure hands
rested, gentle
and soft with
the gaze of
reverie, the
dreamer with
the heart
of the ocean,
opening her
embrace,
she seeks
nothing and
receives all,
the woman
with a soft
fringe
touching
her temple
once stroked
with her slender
fingers the
pages unseen
within the
books of
her enamor,
she was
enchanted
by fairytales,
and captivated
by the magic
unnoticed by
the ones who
possess them,
as they spoke
in cafes and
kissed within
the homes of
wondrous,
hidden places,
she saw the
rising stars
as he whispered,
“I love you”,
the man who
loved her
and longed
for her roses,
as he gazed
upon her
portrait,
as he
opened
as the
doors,
and they
sighed
in the union
of the swan
and the lover.
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