Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
1.1k · May 2014
Blow
Tallulah May 2014
I thought,
“her nail polish is chipping”
that one I bought her
when we got lost in rite aid
and she stole a bottle of wine
and offered me my first line
in the back of Robby’s Volvo.
Her nail polish is chipping
and she’s digging the polish into my chest
I hear her breathing moisten
and I close my eyes to her light
as if it hurts to look at her straight.
No one has ever accused me
of being a man
so I sit back and let her lips
make me feel like one.
1.1k · Oct 2012
Pistol
Tallulah Oct 2012
Wetting your whistle
Tooting his horn
Using your body like a loaded pistol
Girl, aren’t you ashamed to be born?
Short & Not So Sweet
1.1k · Jan 2015
Redolent
Tallulah Jan 2015
She left traces of herself
in the air.
The oil she dabbed on her wrists
smelt of wind through trees.

And sometimes when I inhale,
I can breathe her back in
until I can’t hold it anymore
and let her go.
1.1k · Jun 2014
The Attic
Tallulah Jun 2014
Won’t you slip into
the drapes of my collarbone
and nestle kissing my throat.
I’ll breathe a quiet moan
you’ll unbutton my cotton coat.

Close me inside the walls
that are dusty from lack of use
locked from adolescent abuse,
and dimmed inside we’ll retreat
to kiss where our eyes don’t meet.
1.0k · Apr 2014
Mementos
Tallulah Apr 2014
Tomorrow, the phrase
“I love you”
will belong to yesterday’s lips
my feelings for you
will belong to yesterday’s words.
Soon I won’t remember the chords
of your madness
or the taste of your sadness
sitting on my tongue like chocolate mints.
So in these last few weeks
we pull at the strings to rip
at the seams of us with ****** fingertips
cause in a slice of time
your name won’t belong in my rhyme.
You’ll be another past lover
that lives at the bottom of a shoebox
shuffled together with the love letters
of other men who swore themselves to me.
When my daughter fingers through
the pages dedicated to your eyes
I’ll softly remember you
throwing rocks at crooked pottery
from ceramics class. I’ll remember
that dark December and
your flimsy reflection through tinted glass.
I’ll remember what it felt
to be young, naïve,
and madly in love.
1.0k · Sep 2014
Heat Wave
Tallulah Sep 2014
It was too hot the first day we fought
roasting in a cramped parking lot
“record heat since 1909” they said
those who were smart had already fled

Rain hit the windshield
as if God himself, asked you to appeal
We made love with the windows cracked
love is many things, but mostly abstract

So I held on for as long as I could
not caring if it was just or good
heat can drive a man to do much worse
and love is just a misunderstood curse
989 · Jan 2013
Southern California
Tallulah Jan 2013
On the coast
In a pickup truck
We made a toast
To unfortunate luck

You traced my hips
Whispering my name
With those chalked lips
A shiver ran up my frame

You held me there
Where land kisses sea
On a blue sphere
You fell for me
Tallulah Oct 2013
I lit a cigarette
& saw the end in the flame
I haven't told you yet
But it's probably all the same

So I smoked 'till dawn
& thought about pearly gates
Nothing left to dwell on
I need a touch of grace

I lit a cigarette
& I saw how I'd die
I haven't told you yet
But I'm no good with "goodbye"
981 · Apr 2013
Ribbons
Tallulah Apr 2013
My mother is a shell
Fragile- it's not hard to tell
That her voice trembles in fear
When he yells for her to grab a beer

My own daughter
Thinks I'm fragile- weak
I'm not brave enough to tell her
His hands are too heavy to speak
Tallulah Dec 2012
A father quaffs spiked egg nogg.
& Somewhere in Prague,
a homeless man glows with real cheer
that comes with a gift of Christmas beer.
Tallulah Jan 2014
The smell of forest lives in the tangles
of her hair. She smells of thrift store candles.
I can taste strawberry jam on her lips
her low rise jeans hang too loose on her hips

She wraps herself around my existence
and sways me back and forth in dance
Counting the freckles on each of her fingers
she leaves her lips on mine and lingers

She smells of a burnt sun
Her skin’s golden when her shirt’s undone
When she sleeps I listen to her heart
and silently remember, she’s just a piece of art
907 · Oct 2012
A haiku
Tallulah Oct 2012
How palatable
The bow of a collarbone
peeking from her dress
887 · Oct 2013
Démence
Tallulah Oct 2013
I feel your lips
Pressing against mine
You running fingertips
Along the contours of my spine

I see the shape
Of your calloused palm
Sprinkled freckles across your nape
The shiver behind your calm

Your scent lingers
In the tangles of my hair
You ensnaring your fingers
Robbing me of air

I hear the rumble
In your haunted chest
Of the nightmares in your slumber
That keep you from rest

But I can’t understand you
& the depth of your sadness
I wonder if I’ll ever know
The taste of your madness
883 · Oct 2014
Bloom
Tallulah Oct 2014
Rather than grow up
she grew into herself
finding more alleyways
of her imagination to follow
and more tangled thoughts
to comb through.
880 · Nov 2012
Artist
Tallulah Nov 2012
Paint me a picture with ink of gold
Sculpt me a statue of my e m p t y mold

Weave me a dress with your fingertips
Show me your world through sunken lips

Can’t you see? You’re an artist
Unable to clutch a brush with a fist

Release your rage on a white frame
& Tell me that I’m all to blame

Sip up my fragile strength- spit it like fire
Continue to be my hearts latest desire
848 · Oct 2013
Aches
Tallulah Oct 2013
Can I be close to you?
Hold you the whole night through?
When the day is engulfing night,
can we strangle a ray of light?

In the morning when I wake,
there will be nothing more of me to take.
Will you still want me then?
To rediscover where you have already been?

Can I still be close to you?
When you’ve had what you pursue?
Is there a piece of me, some fragmented part,
you can love with a sightless heart?
837 · Jan 2014
Love's Ugly
Tallulah Jan 2014
Like me in the morning
Holdin’ on to the phone
while the message’s recording  
Just so I don’t feel so alone

It’s you silent and fuming
about a fight I lost last week
Late night questioning, assuming
nothing I want to say I can speak

I want more of you
but I tell you I need to be apart.
I hold you to another view
but never let you see the art.

So I’m drunk on a Sunday night
in a shroud of darkness, color hidden
Trying not to start another fight
Sometimes I wish we didn’t

But I wake up in bed
to that freckle on your lip
and rise like a doughy bread
only to fall back into love’s trip
834 · Nov 2012
Don't Love Me
Tallulah Nov 2012
Don’t light that match
With intent to start a fire
Don’t open that latch
You’ll discover I’m a liar

Don’t fall in love like leaves in autumn
Or you’ll slam against cold, rock bottom
833 · Oct 2012
Politics (10w)
Tallulah Oct 2012
What kind of a man am I really voting for?
I just watched a debate where two men shouted over each other to get a point across. Snide remarks, smirking all the things that children were taught not to do. I would not be happy with either of these men representing me to the world.
827 · Dec 2012
I love...kind of
Tallulah Dec 2012
I care
It´s unfair
To miss
Every kiss
To cry       
About goodbye
                                Do you  r e m e m b e r?

That dark December
Cuddled together
In rainy weather
How it felt
Made me  m
                       e
                    l
                         t


                                                            ­           You said
                                                              “Come back to bed”


                     I ran away                                                             ­                     Into the gray

In the middle of winter
Plucked like a splinter

I fell    
         Into a spell
                                Scared
                    ­                          I cared
                                                              I love
                                                            ­               …Kind of
For J.P
823 · Jun 2013
Sea Sick
Tallulah Jun 2013
I was your chamomile tea
You were more an earl grey
I preferred a glassy sea
But you loved afternoon decay

I was your peppermint
You were my flickering glint
Of a late night summer glimmer
Before the sun began to simmer

I was your stirred Pacific
You were my churning Atlantic
& Although it seemed romantic
We were as sunk as the Titanic
819 · Oct 2012
Autumn love
Tallulah Oct 2012
Comfort
Of an afternoon nap
Sipping from a mocha frappe

Chaos*
Of a lover's trap
That colors the edges of a map
814 · Jan 2013
For Emily
Tallulah Jan 2013
Inch by inch, mile by mile
Won't you stay for awhile?
Moment by moment, kiss by kiss
I've fallen in love with this

With
Murmmers under flannel sheets
Dark coffee & chocolate treats
The non-space between skin and lips
The gentle curve of twirling hips

...but
Like the tide you pull away
Slowly sadly this cannot stay
Looking back you turn to leave
My heart still sewn to your sleeve
For Em & Otto
813 · Jan 2013
Not Today (prose)
Tallulah Jan 2013
You don’t think the day you are going to get diagnosed with cancer is going to be a beautiful one. One that makes you want to sprint across the sand and dive under crystal water. You think maybe, as the sun envelopes your room, that you don’t have to go to the hospital today, everything’s perfect. That is until you stand up and nausea forces you to the floor and soon you are folded up into a car and shipped off to a giant white building with white doctors and white walls and white floors and white instruments. You don’t think you can be diagnosed with cancer, not today.
807 · Feb 2013
The Box
Tallulah Feb 2013
Simple, right angles
Neat, no tangles
Safe, inside
Listen, law abide

Outside, undefined
Chaotic, unmined
Dangers, wide agape
Wild, the escape
805 · Feb 2013
S t a t i c
Tallulah Feb 2013
My mind was lost at sea
they told me sadly.
But, I don’t mind-
All I felt was free

My sanity misplaced in a drawer
behind some creaky locked door
But, It’s alright-
I’m not such a bore anymore

My head popped off one day
It off and rolled away
But, I’m doin’ just fine-
Becomin’ easier to color the gray

My chest opened wide
without a shred of pride
When you left me
my sanity died.
803 · Jun 2013
Two Dark Figures
Tallulah Jun 2013
They’re standing on the edge
Where sea gives way to land
They’re dancing, toeing the ledge
Of the dark and the white sand

They might be touching
No, no they are holding
Even more so  c l u t c h i n g
Two shady figures molding

An old man alone in his car
Stares out at an empty night
Imagines two shadows off not too far
Dancing in the fading moonlight
802 · Dec 2013
Elton John
Tallulah Dec 2013
I noticed the shadows
Your eyelashes display.
Your spine the string of a piano
Wound too tight to play

I noticed the words
You never let spill
I could hear the chords
Before you froze them still

I noticed when I yelled
You loved me less
In the distance bells knelled
You watched me undress
802 · Dec 2013
Road trip
Tallulah Dec 2013
I sing along to the radio
tapping at the gas pedal,
as you finger-paint murals
on the foggy windows.
794 · Oct 2012
Domestic
Tallulah Oct 2012
I don’t cry anymore
I listen to the rain instead
& Count the syllables of words unsaid
Listening to your carefree snore

I don’t feel anymore
I just stare at the ceiling
Your body in front of me kneeling
Falling into myself once more

I don’t care anymore
Since I looked into your eyes
& Listened to all of your crooked lies
I’m not me anymore


.
773 · Jul 2014
A little fool
Tallulah Jul 2014
She wore forget-me-nots
in her hair, but every morning
they only called her darling.
753 · Jan 2015
Like New
Tallulah Jan 2015
New Years fell
like an alarm clock on my head
Sparkling champagne clinked
I swallowed down the ennui

Some drunkard stumbles
on cobblestone preaching the
apocalypse I ask him for a light  
he scolds my disinterest

At midnight lovers kiss like
its some sort of last minute promise
I toast to what I know as fate
and dawn rises just the same
748 · Dec 2014
New York City
Tallulah Dec 2014
“There’s a museum of *** around the corner”
“A what?”
“A museum of ***.”

A lady hums a melody on the bus to Queens, I lean in and listen to her quietly, but don’t say a word.

Crowds choke avenues as protestors call out the police. The police surround them. The irony of being protected by the same force that destroys is not lost.

Rain puddles on the black cement, I notice how soft the yellow water is in contrast with the harsh taxis.

A stray glove sits lonely on the subway stairs, useless without its other half.

“This entire factory used to be covered in graffiti, the city keeps painting over the art”

A snotty waiter recommends watery wine that costs an arm and a leg, he snorts when I don’t tip.

At a flea market a lady assures me this moonstone will “cleanse me,” I lost it rushing off to midtown.

The lights twinkle like flecks of gold against black stone and I realize night is never night here.

My guy tells me he doesn’t like me in the city, I tell him I’ve never liked myself anyways.
745 · Dec 2012
Mary Elaine
Tallulah Dec 2012
Walking on egg shells
Quietly falling through
A woman who never tells
Of her melancholy blue
for my mother
745 · Oct 2012
Hello, I love you
Tallulah Oct 2012
H
   E
     L
        L
           O

I love you
Won’t you climb on down
From your niche in the sky
Wearing your golden crown

H
E
L
L
O

Is how I started
& you flew apart
A fleeting piece of art
You left with my heart


Goodbye,
                  I love you
736 · Jan 2013
Back to Black
Tallulah Jan 2013
Sparkles litter the floor
I make my way to the door
Cracked open like the sky
I reach to close my dress
Never been guilty of saying no
Crimson shame’s burning aglow
734 · Aug 2013
Silence & Bone
Tallulah Aug 2013
Am I here?
Because I can’t see a reflection
In those distant blue spheres
Only an empty projection

I feel the enormity of space
Between your skin and mine
Yet I can hear your heart race
As hands choking, entertwine

Am I here?
Because I don’t see my shadow
It began to disappear
Such a long time ago

In silence & bone
We both understood
To love was to be alone
& so we parted for good
721 · Oct 2012
Catch my eye
Tallulah Oct 2012
You shuttered
when you caught me.
& My heart fluttered
when you stared back,
& not a word was uttered.
But we simply couldn’t stop


.
Tallulah Apr 2013
"Lights will guide you home"
she smiled
& The world around us
spiraled

Stars tangled in her hair
As she danced across the sky
Motioning me forward- a dare
I never thought to ask why

Her moonlit skin pulled me
To follow in the wake of her sea
& as we drowned in the sky
I kissed a world without her goodbye
for Bella E.
711 · Dec 2012
Devil's Remedy
Tallulah Dec 2012
Grab my waist
Pop a pill
Morals misplaced
Another refill?
Yes, please
Sit on your lap?
You’re such a tease
Bridge the gap
Your words are sticky
But your tongue sweet
A quickie
In the back seat
Hot box
Exhale and repeat
If the devil knocks
Tell him I’m long gone
699 · Mar 2013
Spring, Where are you?
Tallulah Mar 2013
There’s frost
Still capped on your nose
Your heat is lost
A battleground froze

Unfreeze your hold
On corrupt conventions
Lined with gold
Misguided intentions

Open your eyes
To spring’s fresh sky
Melt  icy lies
& Give love a try
689 · Nov 2012
November's High
Tallulah Nov 2012
You said,
“Let’s get out of this joint”
I didn’t move
You took me by wobbly joints
Into the cold November air
& We lit a pregnant joint
685 · Aug 2013
For Beatrice
Tallulah Aug 2013
We met on bourbon street
In 1942
With the trumpets bleat
We danced the whole night through

You went back to war
The very next day
But not before you swore
You’d be back in May

But May came and went
Back in 1952
& with each letter sent
came not a peep from you

Now I’m haunted
By 1952
This isn’t what I wanted
But what else is there to do?

We met on bourbon street
In 1952
I was the last girl you kissed
Before you ceased to exist
For Beatrice Mitchell who lost her husband in WWII and never stopped loving  him.
685 · Oct 2012
Blazed.
Tallulah Oct 2012
My brain fogs up
An overflowing cup
At the bottom of the ocean
I’ve lost control of my motion

My eyes are glazed
I’m already completely blazed
What happened to my control?
I’m nothing but a lost soul
668 · Oct 2013
(101w)
Tallulah Oct 2013
She leaned in so close I could smell a trace of that fancy tea she sips every morning, and she whispered “What does falling in love feel like?”
I laughed,
“Have you ever spun around and around so fast you lose track of e v e r y t h i n g if only for a moment? Arms outstretched. Laughing. For those precious moments nothing else in the world matters; you take flight. You think, “maybe I don’t ever have to fall.” But of course you do fall, helplessly, to the ground and just lie there as the world spins around you. That’s what falling in love feels like.
656 · May 2013
Come As You Are
Tallulah May 2013
I’m the moon
Orbiting around your pull
I’m the humid june
Wrapped around you like wool

I’m the palm
Of God’s trembling hands
I’m a ticking bomb
The Saharan sands

I’m the forever
I said I never could be
I’m your latest endeavor
As alive as the Dead Sea
653 · Apr 2013
Promises after Midnight
Tallulah Apr 2013
On calle ocho
A cuban man with guitar
Saw us stumble out of a bar
& beckoned us to dance
...but we never stopped

Laughing, you were always laughing
We spun around and around
& I knew we were bound
to fall out of orbit
...but we spun on

Spanish sweet nothings
Murmured in my hair
A sweet lullaby- a prayer
I held on to each syllable
...but I never *understood
645 · Sep 2013
Papercut 10(w)
Tallulah Sep 2013
I laughed and thought, 'you should just kiss me already."
Tallulah Nov 2013
Coffee shop discussions
Your faith warms my heart
Theology of love and reprucussions
I’ve always felt spiritually apart

Yet you sew me back together
With the patterns of your theology
Smoothing flaws in my skin of leather
I drink up your faith in ideology

And even if I can’t believe in Him
I believe that love like that exists
The kind that bubbles over the brim
A constant stream that forever persists
640 · Sep 2013
Shenanigans
Tallulah Sep 2013
At night we slept
But not to dream
Holding on to what can’t be kept
We gave ourselves to the scheme
Next page