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In Đà Nẵng my friends cradled me like a child.
We screamed Taylor bridges,
tequila-toasted in bars until the lights blurred.
A single candle in the bathroom
danced warm sighs through open windows,
and all felt calm.

I grew new muscles balancing on a motorcycle,
sometimes gripping Harry’s jacket,
sometimes throwing my weight into the wind.
The city flared neon and gasoline in stuttered traffic,
but along the coast
he drove so fast the vibrations in my chest harmonized.
I pictured my bones becoming butterflies if I let go.

Last year I entered the year of the dragon on a futon,
swayed to sleep by a hundred chanting voices from the temple next door
while Bailey burned incense for her ancestors below.
I did not dream of dragons.
I only learned to breathe fire.

The year of the snake slid in with new bones and old habits.
It hissed that suffering could be scripture
until letters slithered free from the page
and coiled like cold jewelry around my wrist.

That was the shedding.
Salt water peeling old skin away,
songs shouted so loud they drowned the ache,
poems that did not start tragic,
nights when my body finally kept time with the moon.

Then at home the dog’s teeth found my hope.
A terrified mouth rerouted rivers
through my soft parts.
A jewel carved from my nose.
Six punctures blooming across my arms like altars.

In Vietnamese stories the snake waits beneath the water
to claim whoever dares the bank.
I wonder if I was chosen the moment
I opened my mouth in those bars,
when I leaned into the bike’s curve
as if danger could be a love song.

Now I lie awake at hours unnamed,
tracing scars that hiss answers back.
Vietnam hums inside me still,
the candle, the coast, the chorus of friends,
but I cannot tell if they are memories
or if the snake is still awake inside me.

They say snakes shed to grow,
but no one warns you how thin the new skin feels,
how everything burns against it,
how you mistake survival for prophecy.

I touch the scar and wonder
if I am still that girl clinging to the bike,
or if the snake has already swallowed me,
patient, sleepless,
feeding on my own venom.
Hey there Travis, you went and got you a Taylor.
Got Down on one knee, so, you are no longer a player?
Big rock on her finger, true spoken like a sailor

She goes from 1989 to a little different ERA.
Making millions of dollars,  singing songs about her break-ups.
Are you next Travis, will you be putting on the make-up?

Shake it off there, Taylor, it's looking like a rebound.
87s on the field, oh No, it might be a touchdown,
She's wearing red in the box,  we all know you have to look down

She is a pop star princess and you're a football star
Dancing on the field, looks like you made it this far
All of her fans are all crying with every single word,  dropping an another album that's pretty obscure

You go from T one, Travis, now can I call you T Squared
Now are you a Kelce or Swifty? heck I really don't care
Catch the ball on the field, even the refs dont play fair

I will say it like this,  hope its really not true
The life of a showgirl, just maybe undo.
Is Divorce is the next album? Cuz, you will be feeling it too
The Life of a Showgirl

Glitter is just dust
that learned to beg for attention.

The crowd loves the fire,
not the girl breathing the smoke.

I’ve bled in gowns worth more than rent.
Showgirls don’t sleep,
we just step out of view.

I bow so low the room flips upside down
and think about staying there.

The house always wins when the house is me.
Every encore’s just a prettier cage.

Applause is hunger wearing perfume.
I’ve been feeding it my spine for years.

Every standing ovation is an autopsy report—
cause of death: she was too good at her job.

I learned to stand still
so the aim would be easier.
The dress is breathtaking,
and I can’t breathe.

The pearls bruise softer in summer.
By fall, they know my throat’s shape.
By winter,
I forget I can take them off.

The life of a showgirl
is knowing the curtain call
and the execution order
sound exactly the same.

And I bow
until the curtain closes,
and I’m gone-
even I’m not sure
where I go.
ts12!
It's all the same
Every decade,
They change the name
They call it a first
Put her forth
Till she bursts
Like the ones before
It’s nothing new
Not a new blue
Trust me when I say
They just changed her hue.

Stack and piles of women put upon the stand
Trying to see where they’ll land
One upon another, I’ll tell you now
Others turn a blind eye, I wonder how?

How come daisies and roses flood her garden
But once we tire, the land’s burning?
Then blame it on her wants,
Her wealth, her guilt, her flaunts
“But what about her needs?”
No, focus on her greed

She’s one cut from a cloth of kindness
Driven by the stars, she dreamt of flying
She’s paved people’s paths,
Held then discarded their pasts

Why can’t we simply let her be?
She’s simply driven, chasing a dream
Show her those stars, show her those pearls
Don’t replace her, hide her from the world

She won’t read this.
Hell, she won’t read me
But I think she should know
I thank her daily
Inspired by "Clara Bow"
Verse 1
Took the wrong bus on a Wednesday
Wore the skirt I swore I hated
Had a blister and a sunburn
And the sky was drained and jaded

Sat by a woman with a bag of peaches
One rolled out and hit my shoe
She laughed like my aunt who died in April
And I almost said, “I miss you too”

Pre-Chorus 1
Joy didn’t knock, just drifted through—
Like a memory dressed in something new.

Chorus 1
I got sunburned in my silence
Skirt too short and pride too loud
Joy just slipped into the backseat
While I cursed at every cloud

I’m not healed, just unbothered
By the mess I’ve started to miss
I flinch at kindness lately
Like it’s something I can’t resist

Verse 2
The driver missed my stop completely
But I didn’t say a word
There’s a silence that feels sacred
When you’re scared of being heard

My phone lit up with nothing
And it still made me smile
I’m the patron saint of letdowns
But I stayed soft for a while

Pre-Chorus 2
Joy didn’t ask if I’d moved on
Just slipped back in like nothing was wrong

Chorus 2
I got sunburned in my silence
Skirt still short and ego bruised
Joy slid in like she owned the place
Like she knew I’d already lost the ruse

I’m not healed, just out of stories
So I smile and call it wise
Now I host my hauntings sweetly
Like the ghosts were always mine

Bridge
I practiced detachment like a prayer
Burned sage, lit candles, grew out my hair
But it still smelled like him in July—
Like sweat, and shame, and cherry pie

I told the moon, “I get it. You only show half,”
Then cried so hard I think I made God laugh

Mascara on my birth certificate
From rewriting who I was
Tried on forgiveness like a costume
But forgot what size I was

I kept rewriting the ending
’Til the story started biting back
Guess healing is just hiding
In a dress you thought you packed

Final Chorus
I got sunburned in my silence
Skirt still short, but now it fits
Joy returns like clockwork chaos
Pulls up laughing, never quits

I wasn’t healed, just hungry
For something I didn’t have to chase
And for once, I didn’t flinch
When the world looked me in the face

Outro
I told the moon, “I get it.”
But I was really talking to myself.
LYRICS I WROTE BUT DONT HAVE MUSIC, WANNA HELP?!?This one’s for the kind of hurt that tans your skin and warms your chest. Where grief feels like vacation and silence hums louder than screaming. A poem about not forgetting. About still glowing where it got tender.
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.
QueenOfTheAshes Sep 2024
An act of defiance
Is merely an act of compliance
To words you never told me
To worlds in which I couldn't be.

I dreamed mine in my mind
They were the Taylor Swift kind
With hidden key chains
In my deepest of pains

You could never reach
A contract we couldn't breach
I told God this couldn't be me
And then I watched myself, be.

What hurts the most
Is I always knew I should expect the worst
But I hoped for the best
I put my fears to rest.

Until you just pulled them out
When it all went south
I danced with my demons
I prayed for new seasons.
Hello Daisies Sep 2024
From untouchable
To wonderstruck
From Xena and Gabrielle
To Damon and Elena
To looking at the stars
And breathing in the moon
From that's the way I loved you
To a thousand years

With laughter
And heart
Running away
To a jump start
Faith and hope
Everyone telling us
You are
The poems I always
Wrote

You are the love
I sought for
The wonderstruck
And enchanted
Dancing in the snow
Or breathing in October
You and me
Once drunk
Now sober

We are everything
My heart dreamed
Lying in a cold car
Singing wonderstruck songs
Playing along in my dreams
Never to be
Never to be
Yet here we are
More than I dreamed

More then I could know
Unselfish love
Innocent like a dove
Laughing and hugs
Simplicity and the whole **** sky above
We had red
We had blue
I have you
You have me
To pink
And gold
To all I ever want to know
To your heart
And my soul

To my best friend
My lover
Heaven always knew
It was destiny
It was meant to be
To Cinderella
And holding you
I'll keep your hoodie
You'll keep my
Sparkling shoe👠
I've been thinking about love and my childhood ideas and hopes on it a lot
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