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wren cole Jan 2021
I grew up so much on your bedroom floor
With our backs to the carpet, we’d lay there and listen to Muse and talk about *******.
Nothing matters when you’re 11 years old, it’s just cartoons and sugar and whatever darkness grows behind closed doors, but those doors are closed
And I thought I kept my shadows out in the hallway where they couldn’t catch us playing make believe in your pool.
I thought it’s too bright outside for dark things
And we were far too fast on our bikes,
And it was far too high when we’d hike
And the Arizona summers would protect us.
I guess the dark things got in when we’d sleep,
Maybe you could smell the cold on me,
Something slipped in through the cracks and ****** things over.
I miss sleeping in your basement, I miss living in your back pocket, and I miss thinking of your name without trying not to cry.
You are so ingrained in me, but you want nothing to do with me, and that place can never exist for us again.
It’s a terrible thing to wrap my head around.
We could be laughing in your kitchen with some horrible concoction that’ll keep us up to watch the sunrise again,
But I’m just left to wonder where you’ve been.
I know you’re smart, I hope you’re happy, I hope you have a new best friend,
I hope they grow with you and learn from you, and I hope you do with them.
I hope you think of me, but not too much, I think dwelling would be sad.
I hope you forgive whatever I did wrong and look back fondly on what we had.
Oops I’m thinking about old friends again!
wren cole Jun 2016
I sit here in my room with 4 hours to my appointment, having not slept but stewed in my mind.


I wrote several stanzas following this but I can't. I can't. I cannot turn this feeling into poetry.

I am haunted by the knowledge: I was never meant to amount to anything. Child of a paralegal and a burnout. I will never amount to anything.
I can pretend I'm an artist all I want but I have never been anything but unextraordinary.
wren cole Feb 2017
I am the wrong kind of "sad"
Or, rather, I am NOT sad
I don't think I've ever BEEN sad, the word "SAD" is hardly in my vocabulary at all
It's not loud enough
My words are made up of screams, but my voice is not commanding
I have far too much to say but I can't phrase it in a way that makes you want to listen
I can talk all I want about car crashes and crescendos but it will go in one ear like a tantrum and go out the other like a suicide note I've rewritten twenty times to not sound like too much of a burden
I have the kind of voice that makes everyone else in the room stop talking
Not because they are interested in what I have to say but because "*******, does this kid ever shut up?"
I have the kind of voice that confuses you
Telling you how venom burns in my veins and I can't stop looking over my shoulder like I'm telling you about my favorite movie
No matter how hard I try I've never gotten the hang of expression
I'm the wrong kind of "sad"
I have to get the words out of me, bleed myself dry before I can sleep and all you will receive are stains that I will cry when you can't read
Creating more stains
I don't know how to organize my thoughts
It's so loud in here I can't think, except for when it's silent
And then I can't think anyway

All I want is to be able to tell a story
But every time I try I cry at the happy parts and grin through the tragedies and the meaning gets lost
I constantly try to tell you what I am and how this feels but the English language is so full of ******* words like SAD
I am not SAD
Some days the weight in my chest develops its own force of gravity and everything around me is ****** in and my chest feels like it's about to burst
Sometimes you say the wrong thing or nothing and I have to hold my breath and think about anything other than the sickness that settles into my stomach
My sadness doesn't translate well for an audience
I don't have any good stories
I've never been arrested or gone streaking or done much of anything that involves leaving my bedroom
I tell myself that I am a creative but I'm just making this up as I go along hoping to stumble across a point because I feel worthless again
I must be alive, I guess
Pain does not make someone an artist
Pain makes you crumble and sometimes some people are just really good sculptors but I have a tremor and I think I'd probably just cut myself open on the tools
Again I tell myself I'll write something worth reading
Again I lose the point and get dizzy from bleeding
i have no outlet im so desperate to say something that makes sense to someone but it alwyas turns into some rambling mess that doesnt make sense i came into this with a POINT and its GONE
wren cole May 2016
My home is made up of
Old basement couches and
Memories of book store dates,
Big blue eyes
And late night escapades
And it
Certainly
Isn't
Here.
wren cole Jan 2020
men in my family age into monsters
with calloused hands, callous words, and cold shoulders
sometimes i can feel my lungs cloud with the smoke i've been fed from birth
and i just want to let it fill me
i've been keeping carefully in a cage for so long
but sometimes i wish the scream would tear me up
roughen up my polished parts and spit my senses
let me be angry without tears, without guilt
my teeth are too sharp in my mouth, my head is too heavy
let me tear it all to pieces and ruin me
i have tried so hard not to be another monster but god sometimes i want to be
stupid, sick, and angry
if i am made of thorns and silver then let me be sharp and deadly
i am a fire by nature and warm by choice
but hell, do i want to devour
and hell do i want to become
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA anyways
wren cole Oct 2016
Danny
I love you
In a friend way
And so much more
You're my moon and stars
I choke on nostalgia
And remind myself of timelines
And the meaning of the word PAST.

Merit
It's okay
You can forget me
I guess you must have already
We never talk anymore and it hurts
Because you're a part of me
Just like my hands and feet
But you can forget me
I moved away
You grew up without me
And things changed
And we don't live in each other's pockets anymore
You are smart and incredible
You can do anything


Why am I writing this?
I know I won't do anything
Too scared and guilty and weak
Too afraid of death to do anything
I'll just keep surviving
Barely
I'll just keep hurting
I guess for always
And I'll probably never work in cartoons
And I'll probably fail like I'm so afraid to do
Pointless progression
I wish I could just do it
I wish I could just do it
Ghjhghhfjjj
tic
wren cole Jul 2016
tic
My body is quaking
I cannot calm the heart palpitations and I cannot stop MOVING MOVING MOVING MOVING
Repetition repetition repetition
They call it call it a TIC tic tic tic tic
I call it call it release
Call it impulse, call it screaming without screaming
Call it MY THROAT IS GOING TO TEAR OPEN IF I DON'T GET GET GET GET GET GET THESE WORDS OUT
I cannot cannot cannot cannot cannot cannot cannot stop stop moving
I will burst I know I will burst it will be messy
I'll keep keep keep rolling all over and kicking and fidgeting and repeating repeating repeating repeating repeating repeating myself
Call me a broken record call me anything you like
My thoughts are too loud to hear your voice anyway
wren cole Jul 2016
I get stuck on one word and cannot finish my sentence until I have said CANNOT enough times that it feels like the word has settled on my tongue
The sound chases itself out over and over and over and  over and over and over and insert 'over and over' again
I rapidly flap my bare foot and thank the universe that I am breaking down down down down down down down down down down down down in my room room room not not outside
wren cole May 2016
Here, I lay down everything,
Everything you took from me,
Every missing piece I need that I will never have.
Here's every time you made us move so you could keep your habits.
Here's every time I had to leave a "home" when I thought I finally had it.
Here's every breath of cigarette smoke that you pumped into my lungs.
Here's every time you drank yourself stupid and every drug you've ever done.
Here's all of the family vacations we never took.
Here's all of the birthdays and milestones you missed because you just didn't bother to look.
You can have back every stupid meaningless thing you've tried to buy my love with.
You can have back the anxiety you gave me from all of the times you drank yourself shitless.
You took the childhood I was supposed to have and then you asked if you were still my dad.
You didn't pay child support, let alone raise me,
So no, I don't forgive you for the hell that you gave me.
My childhood was thoroughly ****** by my drunk druggie smoker can't-stay-in-one-place father. Also my ****** brother but that's a story for another time
wren cole Jul 2016
Distance is physical,
Time is mearly a concept,
And our hearts are so much stronger
Than these silly things.
I can feel the powerlines
That connect us across the miles,
Energy surging through them
Just like you and me.
We are the brilliance of the stars concentrated.
We are stronger.
Power doesn't look like a real word what the ****
wren cole Jul 2017
One day I hope to feel
Not so lost without you, not so
Broken into pieces, scattered too thin across creation
My heart weeps to read your silk but it has been so long since you have written
I will stop checking, I will stop refreshing your page like something will materialize, some confession about that wild boy you decided to start missing
Like you'd suddenly grow new sentiment, years later
I swear I will pick myself off the floor
I won't see you in everything that smells like summer
One day I will move on
I will be okay without you
wren cole May 2016
your words
are written like ribbons,
tied in a bow
laced with scarlet and garnered in stone
you place your gold-plated locket on the table
to leave your writing for another day
now you go outside to outshine the sun
despite your scars and tears and all the things that you've done
you make the moon jealous, and every star too
god, i wish i was beautiful like you
it feels unfair when I see people who have gone through the same things as me and deal with the same disorders.. but they're fairies, they have wings and magic and bright colors that people are drawn to. They create beautiful things. They ARE beautiful things. And I'm made of hurricane-speed winds and shattered glass and I am so very alone.
wren cole Jul 2016
I do not want this play to be a tragedy
But I'm afraid that may be all that's left for you and me
I wish we could put this puzzle back together
Like we're not missing any pieces
But there's a hole, so much space between us
I wish I wasn't miles away, maybe it would be easier
Because I want to run my hands through your hair and press our foreheads together
But I'll cover my mouth, now I've said too much
Shown too much of my heart
And I think that's dangerous
This play, afterall, is a tragedy.
wren cole Feb 2018
It's always so good until it isn't
And you make me so warm til you freeze over
I am left to traverse this paper sheet of ice to the other side of this lake
I remind myself that even if the ice breaks I can swim
But the cold makes my body heavy and unstable
I am uneasy on my feet trying to navigate you
To get to the spring of tomorrow
When the nightmares are less frequent and the silence less deafening
I am calling out to you but afraid to cause an avalanche
We said we'd do better this time
So why am I left barefoot on thin ice?
wren cole Aug 2016
Salty water burns my eyes
The seagulls caw their greetings
I will lay down on this soft sand
And sleep to the sound of the waves
As the sea crashes against the shore
The sweet breeze caressing my sun-kissed skin
wren cole Apr 2017
I don't want to be the way I am
And that's saying something
Given that I'm many different ways
Sometimes my throat closes up and I can't speak and I want to hide deep deep under ground
Disappear with every embarrassing tic
Shaking in place
And sometimes I don't ever shut up
And sometimes I'm joking
And sometimes I'm screaming
Bruising my own skin and pulling out eyelashes
Body made of lightning
Shaking in place
I hate the way I am
When my thoughts are going a million miles an hour and I get overwhelmed with the sound
I hate the way I am
When my processing is low and I can't understand and everything slows down
I jump emotional extremes and identities
Putting on masks and playing games
Like it's Build A Boy Workshop
Tell me who you want me to be
Because this isn't who I want to be
wren cole Jun 2016
I need sleep, but I just want an ending
And I haven't taken my pills in a month because I don't trust myself not to swallow the whole bottle once it's in my hand
On my medical file they call that "uncooperative"
Instead of "survival"
The doctors don't understand what it's like to be a quickly unraveling thread
I'm pulling on it,
Pulling myself apart
Habitual self-destruction is more familiar than healing
And I feel more comfortable knowing the end game
Recovery is a shot in the dark
Unraveling is much easier
wren cole Jul 2016
Press against your stomach until you feel nauseous
As if you could cave in
You want to cave in
Crash down around yourself
Melt away
Leave only the frame
So you barely cast a shadow
wren cole Oct 2020
Garden gate yawning open, you step out into a world that hasn't quite awoken
The sleepy light of dawn to warm you, the morning dew cool on bare feet
I dream of walking in the Earth's gentle arms
Before she stretches off her sleep
In this quiet sort of patience, the world seems so at peace
i miss when i was younger and i would just stay up all night and go for a walk at dawn and everything seemed so silent
wren cole Sep 2017
I wish I could build myself perfect for you
I'd have the prettiest eyes you could get lost in
I'd make myself strong enough to protect you
I'd make myself everything you need
But here I am
Underwhelming
And my eyes are black
And I am soft to touch
I am upset about a stupid thing and no one is surprised
wren cole Feb 2017
give me your hand
let me run my fingertips along the lines
let me run my fingertips over your fingertips
let me trace along your palms

my vision is going fast
like my hearing
and my strength

but if you just let me
im sure
i can memorize your fingerprint

so when my vision goes
give me your hand
let me run my fingertips over your fingertips

i could never forget
any piece
of you
wren cole Jul 2017
I experience the world in neon
I stare at the bright, bold colors, mouth open in awe every time I see them as if it's the first
I will fall in love with something new shamelessly every day until the day I die
Play a sweet song and I am ecstatic, I am dancing, I am emanating light and life and joy from my fingertips
Tell me a story with heart and I will hang onto every intricacy, hold close every character
Tomorrow I will be chasing a different star in a different direction
So I may not ever get anywhere, but that's not really the point
I will never run out of things to chase
You may tell me this wonder is immaturity
But one day you will have the light clasped between your palms, escaping through your fingers and you will not feel the warmth and you will not know the beauty
and what then?
not sure if i got across what i wanted here but i sure as hell tried
wren cole Oct 2017
I am trying not to be but I am so afraid I am so afraid I am so afraid
I am so much I am too much I am too loud I am ten thousand miles an hour I never want to lose you but I know I am a thunderstorm I am the loud sudden noise we are both afraid of I am the inevitable heaviness and I am so afraid
wren cole Jan 2017
i swore to myself
id never be like my father
wouldnt follow my brother
grow into soiled shoes
but promises aside, i still find myself
laying in bed on a friday night
wishing i had fewer emotions
less expected of me
and more
***
wren cole Apr 2017
lie to me
make my soul glow
i am freezing cold with nowhere to go but into your arms
so if you would
just
hold me
vague wheeeeeeeee
wren cole Dec 2016
Tell me I've gotta learn to take care of myself somehow and I'll tell you I don't care
I fully intend to run away to college and maybe starve or maybe never take my pills or take all my pills at once
Let my life build up around me and drown in it drown in it drown in it
That's all I know how to do
Play in oil and light close fires
Burn up, burn up, burn up
wren cole Jan 2017
I'll cradle the nights
you'd think they'd be less long and lonely with all the stars by my side
but the stars are friends and I'm afraid to reach to the sky again
reach up, let the moon brush my fingertips
I'll care for the nights
nurture them with dreams and sighs
let them drink up the wist
I'll handle the moon
take care of the sun for me
wren cole Jul 2021
I am 22 years old with 23 snatching at my ankles
And I have fought for every scrap of independence I can get my hands on
I retire to my bed at night, in a new home but still not my own
Sweating out the heat and trying to be grateful for where I am
But the screaming piece of starlight that still lives in my chest always weeps
Where is my kingdom?
Where is my castle?
Yeah I grew up but at what cost
wren cole Jul 2021
I am heavy with the sopping weight of dead dreams
I am wet with the blood of my childhood
I am on a warpath through this emptiness
I swear to god I’ll feel alive again
wren cole Feb 2018
how do i cool a burning love
not to say, fall out, but temper,
step back
you know i throw myself in every time
and i'm always so surprised when i hit the bottom
what goes up must come down and i'm higher than hell on you right now
and i've been here before, and it came down crashing
and the ceiling fell on my already broken body
but here we are and i've jumped once more into you
free falling, hoping you'll catch me
wren cole Mar 2017
oh god let this fix us
i can already feel the adrenaline racing
getting close to you is a near-death experience and i'm living for the rush
like this will be the shock that sends us back to life
it's been years since i've heard your voice in person
and i think i might overdose on 4 days after 4 years
i think i might be a little too high
i think this will probably go wrong and tear me down
prove me wrong prove me wrong prove me wrong
oh god please let this fix us
1 2 clear and we have a pulse again
you can do anything anything anything just don't hurt me
don't hurt me
wren cole Sep 2017
The weights have made their home in my bones again but I feel like I don't have the right to drag my heavy feet
The sun is bright, right outside my window which I crack slightly to let in the breeze
And I breathe the fresh air but it won't reach my lungs
I double-knot my shoes so I won't trip over myself but they still keep coming undone
I try to ignore the thickness of the ink in my veins
The slow drone of my own heartbeat
The thoughts that invade once again
wren cole Apr 2016
Rage surges through my body like electric currents
And I am flesh and bone not meant to control it
Forgive me, I'm about to break
I might shock you with my uncontrollable sparking
I do not want this electricity
It makes my dearest, my golden afraid of me
wren cole Oct 2017
Something's gone
Ripped out of me sleeping
Someone put me out
And the smoke is filling my lungs
wren cole Oct 2017
today is one of those days where my heart beats too harsh, too heavy in my chest
where my skin is a cold and barren wasteland and my chest a cavity
earthquake fingernails, itching to scratch, pick, pull skin and hair
i can hear the gunshot ring in my ears
i can feel the world cave beneath my feet
the walls close in and i wonder how i can be so
nothing and everything all at once
the silence, the scream, and the whispers between
wren cole May 2016
You take your perfect aim and you shoot at my brain,
Your poison bullet quickly clouding my already chaotic thoughts.
I stand in front of this mirror and fear my makeup may be running,
Uncovering the parts of me I so desperately try to conceal.
I close my eyes tight and hope to God that none of this is real.
There's no way I'm the monster that you make me out to be.
When I lash out, I promise it's because you've broken me.
God
I
Hope
I'm
Right.
.
.
.
(what if i am truly like the monster inside?)
i'm not sure if i'm a very good person.
wren cole Jan 2018
I can't help it sometimes
I just want to love you
Slip right back into it like it's easy
Like we're still perfect together

Forgive me if I miss you
I just wanna go home
wren cole Oct 2017
with my head in my hands i count my breaths
name 5 things you can touch, 5 things you can hear, 5 things you can see
can i see that? is it there? is it really? is it really?
the way i ebb and flow
the sights behind closed eyes
whispers of foggy memories
in 2 3 4, out 2 3 4
try to catch my body where it slips outside the lines
wren cole Oct 2017
I am wasting
You can finish the phrase any way you like, it will be true
I am wasting my
Time, potential, life
I am wasting your time, your concern
I am wasting resources, waste of oxygen
I am laying here in bed wasting time on fussing over wasted time
A cycle that only ever endlessly repeats itself
I cannot get back the time I spend thinking about time and how I spend it
My life is drip drip dripping away, spilling from a paper cup with only so much still inside and I am tipping it, drip dripping away
wren cole Aug 2017
Keep busy, keep busy
If you don't run fast enough your thoughts will catch up
So you can never, ever stop moving or you'll drown
Like a shark
wren cole Jun 2017
it's the first time you've washed your hair in a week and it comes out in clumps
you stare at the water and try not to think about who you've become
scrubbing away the sweat and dead skin
moving lightly over the bruises where you've struck yourself
watch it all go down the drain
wren cole Jul 2018
the course of my river runs your direction
i am always changing state with your temperature
i freeze when your go cold, and i am ice, and i am heavy
and when we heat up, i feel like floating
we are always fighting floods and heavy downpours
when i can't do it, when you can't stop it
when we run circles around each other's feelings,
my exhaustion, your ever-changing
our little personal storm
sometimes you stay cold for so long and i am so tired of being frozen
waiting for your spring, waiting for your summer
god, right now, i am frigid
and i know i can't speed this up, i can't thaw this out,
some things must die to make room for more life,
but i am so tired
of being so cold
wren cole Jan 2018
i'm like a dog running in circles round your feet
like you've come home again every time we speak
and i've been tailed tucked, waiting at the window
didn't even realize i was waiting til you came
and i'm running round in circles, jumping up again
making myself dizzy, giddy

a part of me will always be attached to you
and coming back to you will always be like coming home
i think these are facts
and i'm not sure how to feel about that
@ me: ya ever gonna get over people or?
wren cole Apr 2018
i am frustrated out of my skin
there's an itch in my arms, near the joint of my elbows, an energy says to tear, to break, to destroy anything solid and present, burn anything in this moment because where i am in space and time is stagnant, unending with no beginning, a constant state of stillness that has existed as long as i
my hands and thoughts are at riot, i am screaming and clutching to keep occupied, i am living in this nowhere, where i have always been
so unstable yet so still at the same time
the ground has been shaking under my feet for so long that i no longer feel it, there is no thrill and no danger, only the thought of jumping off the edge of this land to feel the fall, the fall, something, to feel anything, the wind in my hair, the pit in my stomach, the ringing in my feet at the fear of heights
all i feel
the tension in my neck, the emptiness in my chest, the static that floods my body in moments like these, like this one right now, unremarkable as every other, as everything in my life has always been
not to say it has been normal, rather a constant chaos,
if you spend your whole life with screaming in your ears you, too, will eventually go deaf
staring wide-eyed into the sun to blind yourself
nothing ever matters and nothing ever works
i will continue to tear at my skin every spring, every time that static fizzles back up, every time my feet itch to run somewhere
the whole way is uphill and the only thing chasing me is time,
which i always turn and stare in the face,
say i dare you, i dare you
catch right up to me and swallow me whole, end it, i dare you
wren cole Nov 2018
i know that i am enough but
enough just isn't enough
in a world full of wonderful people
i want to be extraordinary
i want to live up to the way you love me
because most days, i just don't understand
wren cole May 2022
Cry baby bleeding heart
Ruin everything you touch
Wet with tears, wet with blood
Hold too tight, **** it up
Deep red handprints on white sheets
Killing what you try to keep
wren cole Jun 2018
i fold my troubles into little envelopes
like fifth grade notes, like childhood secrets
i slip them safe into my back pocket
wren cole Mar 2017
it's always too much
and it always overflows
I am so afraid
wren cole May 2017
I'm so tired
I don't have pretty words for this
No poetic way to say
I wish you'd tell me to *******
If that's what you're feeling
Tell me if you don't care
If I am a pest to you
Because I can't stand not understanding
But I will continue to give my whole heart to you
Until you refuse it
I don't know how to love you any other way
please
wren cole Aug 2018
forget fairytales, magic and love are real life
i don't need a story
you're my happily ever after
every little moment is a song
and i find, somehow, i know the words
i know just how to harmonize with your voice
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