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Tiger Striped Sep 2022
drooping
over the balcony,
just me and a snide breeze
mocking any pretense I
once held that
life was anything
but a self-checkout line.
So get on with it,
keep stealing
from the big men and
higher ups
now that I know
I'll always only end up
on top
like a wet towel over the railing
stiffening slowly,
indifferently,
uncontrollably.
Here on the thirteenth floor
my fate is
an ironic harbinger
of an ending we'll all share -
of an eternal love -
or an infinite numbness -
or ubiquitous unimportance
whatever it is we share
that they tried to leave
up here with me.
No,
the irony is -
they left me,
but they carry my fate.
It doesn't matter where they are
or I -
we are all the same.
Tiger Striped Sep 2022
butterflies in a net
wings beating for resolution
but good art would never be so kind.
And that is
the great secret of it all -
we thread our magnificent tapestry using
strung-out pain
woven between our veins.
That is
why the artist's story is
a tragedy
why the crowds swarm the
gladiator stadium
and the boxing ring.
Tiger Striped Sep 2022
hold me again.
Your skin is humming
I’m sick in
cold sweats
ethereal healer,
I love you.
Say it again
you miss me
you could lie
but you won’t.
Let me trust you
not again,
it’s my first time:
pull pain from my
lungs until
I’m spluttering,
my faith splayed across your
perfect chest
my own
deflated like
old promises
forgotten by their giver,
remembered by me.
But you
exhale into my mouth,
carbon dioxide like
effortless anesthetic
I dissolve until all of
my atoms hit your floor
splattering ***** and crude
and somehow
you see each one,
you know them
and name them
and love them
and hold them
together
again.
Tiger Striped Sep 2022
useless.
My hair still covers my ears
though I begged my hairdresser
for shorter.
It would make me look old
she said.
Maybe that's what I want
           something new
maybe anything.
           I've got to see someone else
in the mirror this time
           someone who doesn't leave
the door unlocked
           who doesn't get left
           in the rain
no umbrella.
Not the long blonde girl.
She was a liar, too -
           I think -
(is it still a lie if you believe it's true?)
but she found the solution
           reinvention
right?
She was...
dissatisfied, we'll say
she grasped in the dark
           to recreate herself.
And she fit right in
with all the people trying to stand out.
New is better:
modern is the definition of progress
           isn't it?
And now
I see myself
standing just where she stood
and wonder
if you met her,
would you know me?
           Beyond the mirror
a generation of people
uniformly unique
           like me
I close my eyes
I am only individual in isolation.
Tiger Striped Aug 2022
look at me.
I’m wretchedly uninspired
mouth dry
tongue drab
you: droll
as ever, pelting
me with erasers
while I impatiently
demand paper,
peppering me
again
confetti sprinkles
this time.
They stick to me
sugary and sweet
just like you -
I fluster and flush
red. Colors
run down my skin
in a melty, childlike mess
you laugh
and I want to scream
for everything unclean.
Sprinkle sludge
inches closer
to the words I
haven’t yet written
I press my lips tighter
together until
I can’t hold it in
and I’m laughing too
surprising you
surprising me
infuriating me
distracting me
what was I doing again?
Tiger Striped Aug 2022
I glimpsed you
for a moment
miles away,
across a tangled knot of time.
In front of you,
shadows melted into obsoletion
obscured by sweet rays
radiating from every surface
of your skin.
I didn't realize
I was grinding my teeth
until I felt you
in the enamel, at my gums
so I dropped my jaw
to let you in.
And you entered,
stage left,
the impassioned playwright
determined to turn my past
from a ledger of mistakes
into the prologue
of a beautiful, convoluted fairy tale.
Tiger Striped Aug 2022
Heartbreak:
seeping in between
moldy ceiling tiles and their
blissful indifference,
reaches me with rueful claws
and ***** my unsuspecting eyes
dry.
I don't have room for thirst
anymore,
I'm tired of water:
my feet are shriveled past prunes
from standing salty puddles
in which I'd hoped
I might drown.
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