#calloused
our clothes,
our tattered clothes
are torn up and frayed,
unsightly and stained
the bindings are strained,
they fit no longer
the hemming gave 'way,
they hold no longer
our feet,
our blistered feet
are cut up, in pain,
aching, inflamed
their will's been bent,
they heave no longer
their life's been spent,
they move no longer
our hearts,
our hollowed hearts
are battered and bruised,
worn out and used
all has been drained,
they bleed no longer
their thumping has waned,
they beat no longer
our hopes,
our shattered hopes
are blackened and greyed,
broken, dismayed
all has been lost,
we hope no longer
we're wont to last,
we yearn no longer
our souls,
our flustered souls
are darkened and swayed,
lost and derailed
their glow's been dulled,
they shine no longer
their flow's been culled,
they live no longer
our hands,
our calloused hands,
tho' wounded and gashed,
hardened and bashed
are all we have to show at the end of the day...
Jun 22, 2025
Jun 22, 2025 at 8:51 PM UTC
our clothes,
our tattered clothes
are torn up and frayed,
unsightly and stained
the bindings are strained,
they fit no longer
the hemming gave 'way,
they hold no longer
our feet,
our blistered feet
are cut up, in pain,
aching, inflamed
their will's been bent,
they heave no longer
their life's been spent,
they move no longer
our hearts,
our hollowed hearts
are battered and bruised,
worn out and used
all has been drained,
they bleed no longer
their thumping has waned,
they beat no longer
our hopes,
our shattered hopes
are blackened and greyed,
broken, dismayed
all has been lost,
we hope no longer
we're wont to last,
we yearn no longer
our souls,
our flustered souls
are darkened and swayed,
lost and derailed
their glow's been dulled,
they shine no longer
their flow's been culled,
they live no longer
our hands,
our calloused hands,
tho' wounded and gashed,
hardened and bashed
are all we have to show at the end of the day...
Jun 11, 2025
Jun 11, 2025 at 5:30 AM UTC
Will I ever reach you
when there are tides surging and sweeping anything in between?
Have you seen something on these stair steps winding within?
Wild-eyed hope scurry into the woods of the night to heed the call,
wasted so many years growing up to find nothing beyond these walls.
I falter hearing blood and friends are in their ways broken, but all I do is listen and pretend to understand,
decipher encrypted messages of fate engraved in their calloused hands.
We are spent being rogue satellites looking for a sign of life,
fledgling wanderers cut by thorns through age made contrite.
When time plucks us out of the tree I’m hoping to pop up somewhere where the sun is free,
unlike this place where the end is only thing guaranteed.
And you and I laugh about it, a reprieve from crying out of sight,
so we hide behind comforting lies,
for the hurt is in the try.
It’s hard to own a face
in a confined and crowded space,
quietly we must go
and in time, leave without a trace.
Yet, though there are waves between us, let me know when you find a beacon guiding you back to the shore,
that unseen in the great unknown, there is much left unexplored.
Sep 13, 2024
Sep 13, 2024 at 9:43 PM UTC
I am tired of writing so much about you
I am tired of seeing how excited your eyes were,
only to find out
that you're gaze wasn't fixed to mine.
Those pair of sad eyes were searching for someone else's face
in a room full of strangers
Today, I am not writing of how sad I was,
but, I am writing the things about you-
How deaf you were
that you cannot hear what my heart was telling you-
of how sad it was,
of how tired it was,
of how numbed and calloused it was.
But now, I am relearning how to wipe my own tears
Jan 15, 2020
Jan 15, 2020 at 3:03 AM UTC
Here’s for your calloused heart,
the one you endured to have,
Here’s for the stories
you can’t tell to anyone,
Here’s for the chances
you didn’t take,
Here’s for the story
that you can never
put to an end.
Woe
for that growing chaos
that chose to live
inside your own mind.
Jan 6, 2020
Jan 6, 2020 at 10:40 PM UTC
Feet on the ground
Head in the clouds
Eyes always glazed
Knuckles grazed
Back hunched
Head slumped
Rough and calloused
And full of malice
But really just a broken boy
Apr 22, 2019
Apr 22, 2019 at 1:23 PM UTC
It's hard living in a world where no one cares
While your smothered and shallowed by despair
Sitting here wondering why I was born into this place
Not wanting to be part of this sad human race
Where money is the great and powerful Oz
It doesn't matter what's the cause
I look and see their hearts have grown cold and calloused
Everything is so off balanced
There is no more unconditional love
No loving help from up above
We have been abandoned
The trumpets have sounded
Humanity has been stripped of it's compassion
Empathy is in short ration
Gone are the ways of old
To these values we no longer hold
Now it's I'll do for you, if you can do for me
That's not the way it's supposed to be
But everyone's eyes have been closed
Their souls have become thorny and cold
We are no longer judged on our thoughts and actions
But by how much money we have for the coming attractions
For if we don't have enough to pay
We become part of the play
We are condemned to be the *****
They feed to the machines of war
©Pauline Russell
Apr 23, 2018
Apr 23, 2018 at 11:48 AM UTC
your hands
calloused with the evidence of hard work and pain
your arms
strong and thick from carrying the burdens of life
your back
solid and sore from constant stress
your eyes
sunken and tired
but oh your hands
so soft when they trace my lips
your arms
so tender when you hold me
your back
supporting me through every affliction
your eyes
filled with nothing but love
Oct 17, 2017
Oct 17, 2017 at 2:04 PM UTC
You were supposed to be there for me
But you really didn't care
I needed you desperately
But you were unaware
I learned to live without you
Calloused to the pain
Now you want to be the hero
I'm sorry, it's far too late
Nov 18, 2016
Nov 18, 2016 at 7:51 PM UTC
staring out windows
her calloused hand in mine is
all i can think of
Apr 18, 2016
Apr 18, 2016 at 5:41 PM UTC
Calloused is defined as having a hardened area of skin.
But I would venture to guess
That if you looked at my heart
And compared it to
My feet and my hands
That my feet and my hands
Would be in better shape.
See manicures and pedicures exist
But regardless of all the wear on my heart.
There's no procedure that can soften it.
Life has taken sandpaper to me.
Marring me through
Missteps in love
And searing loss.
Leaving me hardened,
Which served its purpose,
At least I wouldn't be easily hurt anymore.
I avoided love.
Not out of fear, I'd tell myself,
But because I was done looking for it.
I'd tell people that I was waiting for love to find me.
And so I'm still waiting
Or hiding.
From the fear of opening up.
From the fear of softening.
It's hard to be yourself
When you know that
You're scarred
Or scared
Or both.
So the callouses come in handy.
Keeping me from pain and hurt.
Actually, I prefer the term hardened to calloused.
Simply for the sake of finding a better connotation.
I'd rather be hardened by my circumstances
Than calloused by them.
I'd rather be hardened by the hurt
Than calloused by it.
And if loss were to strike me in the face again,
I'd rather be hardened,
Instead of calloused.
But if you'd grab a dictionary
You wouldn't be fooled by my attempt,
At clever wordplay.
You'd realize that both are the same,
And that whatever I'd chosen to call myself
Didn't matter.
I was still as broken as ever.
Still scarred.
Still scared.
As hardened
As calloused
As ever.
Jun 5, 2015
Jun 5, 2015 at 1:36 AM UTC