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one two three
a loop in my head
i count my steps
to the grave

one two three
breaths in a row
faltering
atlas under a globe of grief

one two three
the mortician mutters
hitting the lever
a box in descent

one two three
relatives
trail off
weaving through the stones

one
matriarch in shambles
a perfect pietá
lingering by the hollow

two
a couple broken
separated
by the greatest door

three*
wails punctuate her sentence
goodbye bill
I’ll always love you
a play on a common abbreviation of 'i love you,' and my anxious tic of counting
a sixty year marriage ended by leukemia
and the strongest woman i've ever met in shambles
Ysa Pa Apr 2016
Those words which carelessly slips
As if natural, through those lips
How dare you so nonchalantly
Say the words 'I love you' to me
Your words have stricken me
Giving me delight and vulnerability
You're safe yet so dangerous
You make me eager and nervous
Every moment with you is an adventure
Bringing out my weakness yet making me secure
I love how you're confusing and exciting
Also how you're incomprehensibly enticing
But I fear my vulnerability
And your complete unpredictability
You're capable of leaving me broken and sore
I love risks but I've never been like this before
Entrusting myself is terrifying
Because of this present longing
For your reassurance that you'll stay
That you'll stand by, 'come what may'
I despise the idea of vulnerability
But the thought of losing you kills me
So permit me to get used to and be addicted
To the feeling of being vulnerable and protected
Be my strength and be a man of your word
Mean the 'I love you' that's unlike anything I've already heard
Baylee Mar 2016
When you hold a flame to an unlit wick
It takes an unbearably long time to catch.
The wick is pretty and new,
Covered from top to bottom
In a waxy coating of armour
That keeps it safe longer.

When you hold a flame to a previously lit wick
It catches fire within a few seconds of exposure.
The wick isn't so new anymore,
It's walls have been burned down
It's armour is gone and the
Beaten up wick is vulnerable.
Dani Mar 2016
I had to think about things that I didn't want to think about
I had to force the words out of my mouth
I had to think about what had happened
who I was
who I didn't want to be

That girl I buried within me
dug herself up and took her first breath of fresh air
her skin pale and rough
having not seen the sun's glow in a while
I scream at her to crawl back but its done
She is exposed to the world and I can't go back
Every time she breathed, I died a little inside
My forced words encouraged her
She's trying to stand now and I'm suffocating

This is what I was afraid of
I didn't want this part of me alive
I wanted that girl I was to be buried deep
so I wouldn't have to see her
But here I am
I can see her
and the pain of remembering begins
How I felt when trying to forget about the past and forget about a time of pain. But of course keeping in pain so big it will eventually burst out of you
Pixievic Mar 2016
I'm a master of disguises
Skilful at charades
So many different characters
Through my life I've had to play
But my true self is amazing
Though concealed in vulnerability  
So please go deeper than the mask
To unveil authentic beauty

(C) Pixievic
We all wear masks ..... sometimes we just need people to see through them
Bek Blanchard Mar 2016
Vulnerability finally found its voice
I’m feeling fear
Willing and hopeful
Healings’ less frightening
When free to be vocal

Mindfulness and meditation
Unexpected belonging after years of isolation
Looking up at the same dark sky
Trying to interpret fading constellations

Realizing there’s more to us than just a rainbow of medications
And no matter one’s diagnosis
We all long to stay present and focused
And crawl out of the darkness for good
Because vulnerability finally found a voice
Sophia Gaffney Mar 2016
Naked, wrapped in nothing but a ***** white towel we’d stolen from the pool,
She shook.
Pain that stabbed her insides as the initial shock was ripped off like a Band-Aid used to heal a wound but this…
this one was ripped off too soon because her heart has not yet begun to heal.
It was shattered in a pile of “I no longer love you’s” and
As tears shot like bullets down her face,
Piercing her chest, she said it, the question that holds no answer:
“How could God let me love someone so much,
who doesn’t love me back?”
Jeanette Feb 2016
-
You recount in detail the three old ladies
outside of the diner,
how you listened in as they  
described the sky to one another.
One traced the swirls of the clouds
with trembling hands;
you thought it so beautiful,
you could have cried.
-
The record player is spinning the blues
through a gravelly veil.
I anticipate the moment
you lift your hand to your heart,
and exclaim:
"I love this next line!"
-
Sadness creeps in late through
your living room window
like the moon diving
into the ocean;
a wave of grief consumes you,
violent and unforgiving,
as you pour us another glass of
cheap white wine.
-
I feel like a thief in the night
when I think about you
on the train ride home,
as city blocks turn to fields,
and back to blocks again.
There is something blasphemous
about seeing you so clear.
Malvika Feb 2016
I've been thinking about lips and mouths and how vulnerable they become once we fall in love.
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