Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Elise Brown Mar 2016
Drowning?
Not a chance
Swimming?*
Not even close

I’m trying, can’t you see
Barely above the surface
Minimal effort
Maximum exertion
Holding on,
Letting go,

I’m just... *floating
Simon Leake Feb 2016
1.

The light that agitates the equator
bounds across your southern frontier,

and being higher in the wage scale
enables trips there to be easier

than the odysseys of those passing
away in the opposite direction.

Where once bandaged soles went
now many machines tie the stitches

between the divides where once again
bandaged souls will traverse.


2.

Our footprint will be larger than life
and beat the earth to an abstract plain.

Where once many names were needed,
our editorial, read as obituary, will need few.

It’s a recursive gesture to prune in order to grow
but who’s hand truly closes the symphony?

Here I find legumes, tubers, a display of sage
and a cold comfort in my palm.

The perfect chicane of the fern’s stem,
tributaries unfurled, reflects in the plastic bucket.
Published in Angry Manifesto 3/4: https://www.facebook.com/angrymanifesto
Example Alone Feb 2016
The off white walls as the paint is beginning to peal, the foundation has shifted, Washed faded teal tiles cold and sticky chipping away, The  microwave place on top of the 3 legged fridge slides every time it's ajar, old wooden dresser missing the bottom draw as the other two grow mold inside from the dampness of the floor, An old Orange curtain  hanging to the left of the window,  barely hanging on the broken rod, as the TV sits in the corner faces the wall, single sink with the medicine cabinet with the cloudy mirror, This is my room for the night, me and my "pup" will get to sleep tonight,  So sitting here with him, we listen to all the sounds and noises, smelling the stench of a burning cigarette, look out the window to only see trash over flowing, people talking in the room beside me,  I try to hold it inside me, but then I let it loose and tears start to fall, then I stop knowing I need to be strong, at least from my "pup",  I tried to show no weakness, these emotions of mine get the best out of us sometimes, dragging him along he always feels when I feel wrong, and when I'm down he's down, I always see it when were out as he walks along, side by side I look down and see my little shadow prancing along, Together we are a whole, hard falls and slippery roads. No matter what always there to pick each other up. I know I made it this far because my little shining star, I owe it to him for keeping me up this far.
Declan Quinn Feb 2016
Light head carrying me forward on leaden feet.
Someone else’s body under my clothes today.
This lethargy and this ethereal pain, drags.
Drags me sweating out of sleep,
Drags my brain behind my body.
That smile that looks real on my face,
Still doesn’t touch my eyes.
I’m wearing it so long, who’d know?
Same thoughts turn over and over,
One more day becomes one more hour,
Celebrating pointless little victories.
Torturing me, wearing on me.
Killing me the hard way.
;
Yeah, so this happened :)
Graff1980 Feb 2016
How do you go on
When grief compounds grief
When foundations turn to sand
Turn to glass
Then shatter again and again
How do you persist
Against this sick cycle
Of losing then gaining
And losing again
How do you
Please tell me
Pauline Morris Feb 2016
Did you know
That in the snow
Despite the glow

Our fears
Are still there
Still holding us near

Did you know
In the snow
The fear still grows

Even when it's covered
Under beautiful snow smothered
Just beneath the surface can be discovered

Did you know
In the snow
The winds of change still blow

You can try to foget
It will still make you sweat
It will still make you pay that debt

Did you know
In the snow
The fear will still make your blood run cold
Destiny Fleming Jan 2016
.surviving is being
.destroyed and finding
.a way to rebuild yourself
.with your own two hands
.while others watch
-DDF
Anjana Rao Jan 2016
in awe of the marginalized
in awe of the QTPOC
in awe of the survivors
in awe of the femmes
in awe of the fat
in awe of the trans/gender non conforming
in awe of the creators
in awe of the disabled
in awe of the ones who don’t/won’t/can’t recover
in awe of the ones the world is trying to shut up, lock down
in awe of the ones who didn’t make it
in awe of the ones who did
in awe of all of us

I
love
us
thanks to Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarsinha for the title and last lines of this short little survivor piece
Pastell dichter Jan 2016
If you feel like you can't survive
Simply ask yourself if you can survive the month
And if you can't do that ask yourself if you can survive the week
If you can't do that, the day
Or simply the second
And live in that second in tell the next one starts
Next page