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  Nov 2017 JMB
Chloe
IV
Every day I wake up feeling like a different person.
I have different thoughts.
Different feelings.
Different goals.
Some days I am unsure of who I am.
Some days I feel like I am exactly where I need to be.
Some days my body aches and a simple task like brushing my teeth exhausts me.
Some days I feel like I can do a million things at once and I can't sit still.
My mind is always moving.
I constantly need a change.
Being capable of doing the same thing for a long period of time has never been normal for me.
Always changing.
Always moving.
I've tried so hard to settle down.
To stay in one place.
To be normal.
What is normal, anyway?
Maybe I'm not meant to stay in one place.
Isn't that what life is supposed to be about?
Seeing new things.
Meeting new people.
Making memories.
So maybe I don't always know who I am.
But if I did know, I don't think life would be as fun.
  Nov 2017 JMB
Chamilla Colton
There’s a sign posted outside of the classroom door,
Printed in big, bolded, letters
Forming the words:
“No Phones.”

What?
No phones?
A student, a girl, to be more specific,
Has her phone out in class.
“No phones.”
“But I need to text my mom!”
Excuses, excuses.

What?
No phones?
A student, a boy, to be more specific,
Has his phone out in class.
“No phones.”
“But I need to text my dad!”
Excuses, excuses.

“No phones.”
“I need to text the girl who never replies.
I need to call the girl who never answers.”
The room falls silent.
A heavy, chest crushing,
Silence.

A few days before,
A girl was found hanging by a thread.
She was the girl who needed to text her mom in class.

“No phones.”
“I need to talk to the boy who never speaks,
I need to contact the boy who never goes out.”
Again,
The room falls silent.
A bone crunching, skull splitting,
Silence.

A few days after the girl,
A boy was found with a bullet in his head.
He was the boy who needed to text his dad in class.

Wait.
What was that?
No phones?
  Nov 2017 JMB
Lyn-Purcell
How can I become a star if
I don't attempt to reach for them?

How can I be a champion if
I don't overcome the roars of battle?

How can I claim to be one of the light if
I don't raise from myself from shadow and blood?

How can I love purely if
I still have venom in my heart and eyes and voice?

How can I face death with a smile if
I deny myself the chance to truly live?



My body is marred by the scars of justice.

The air of the Earth has choked me with its
treachery from the minute I was born.

My eyes blinded by the desert dust of life;
lies and trails and heartache.

My blood will water my passion, my legacy,
which I have fought to create...tooth and nail.

I need to make it so.
I always wonder how I can do certain things in my life...the most important thing is to find a way to make it so.
  Nov 2017 JMB
Infinity
This espresso tastes like poison,
In spite of all I've added to cover the sweet bitterness

I want to release rather than increase
Release rather than increase

My mind is full, from my ears to my neck to my head,

A consistent pressure throbs
It robs me of peace
Of Mind

We all go through it
We are slaves
We are victims
Of long forgotten systems

We live to work, and work to live
Work to eat, and eat to work
An endless cycle of compromise

Open your eyes
Your senses
Smell the prosperity, the disparity
The paradox
Watch the rise of Pandora's Box

Feed, greed, need
I've planted the seeds of doubt
And watched them grow
Into luminous, prosperous trees

They are silhouettes against the sun
And against the backdrop of the moon

You live in a cocoon
Awaiting a metamorphosis that may or may never be
I live in a cocoon
Awaiting a metamorphosis that may
Or may never
Come
JMB Oct 2017
I think I saw my
Soulmate on the street
The other night.

I was walking along the sidewalk
That was dripping with rainwater.
The night was humming with
Its dark secrets.

And then suddenly I saw him.
I felt all the heavy
Decay and dead matter
Fall off my shoulders
And when I looked down,
I saw that it all had
Turned into feathers.

Millions of pictures flooded
My mind of what we could be
If only we knew each other's names.

I felt a joy deep inside places
I'm usually too afraid to even acknowledge.
Like my heart.
And my soul.

My stomach was full of butterflies.
My heart was full of sparks that
I need you to make into a
Passionate fire.

You passed with a warm smile
And suddenly I melted.
I should've melted into your arms, but
They weren't open, waiting to
Catch me.

But it's okay.
I don't blame you.
I know it's my fault.
I know I should open up more.
But I'm afraid.

When I saw you,
I wasn't afraid, not even for
One second.

I smiled back.
And said one word that made
Your smile open wider than
I ever thought possible.
"Hi."

I'd like to thank you, Soulmate.
I don't know your name,
Your age,
Your favorite song.
But you still somehow made me feel a way
I've never felt before.
I've never felt such joy.
I've never felt so brave.
I've never felt like
I could touch the stars
Before I saw you on that
Rainy street.

---
JMB
  Oct 2017 JMB
Emily Dickinson
640

I cannot live with You—
It would be Life—
And Life is over there—
Behind the Shelf

The Sexton keeps the Key to—
Putting up
Our Life—His Porcelain—
Like a Cup—

Discarded of the Housewife—
Quaint—or Broke—
A newer Sevres pleases—
Old Ones crack—

I could not die—with You—
For One must wait
To shut the Other’s Gaze down—
You—could not—

And I—Could I stand by
And see You—freeze—
Without my Right of Frost—
Death’s privilege?

Nor could I rise—with You—
Because Your Face
Would put out Jesus’—
That New Grace

Glow plain—and foreign
On my homesick Eye—
Except that You than He
Shone closer by—

They’d judge Us—How—
For You—served Heaven—You know,
Or sought to—
I could not—

Because You saturated Sight—
And I had no more Eyes
For sordid excellence
As Paradise

And were You lost, I would be—
Though My Name
Rang loudest
On the Heavenly fame—

And were You—saved—
And I—condemned to be
Where You were not—
That self—were Hell to Me—

So We must meet apart—
You there—I—here—
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are—and Prayer—
And that White Sustenance—
Despair—
  Oct 2017 JMB
CAM
Some days you feel like you need to write something.
I know I'm not relatable, don't be too worried.
But today is one of those days where writing nothing,
Feels like betrayal hurried.

Some days you wish you could disappear.
I can't decide whether today is one of those days or not.
My crush disappears at 1:55 I fear,
But it's not like I ever enter his thoughts.

But some days aren't like that.
Some days you think there's nothing at all.
When in reality your mind is filled with chitchat.
You feel ready to fall
Right out of your seat
But that's alright.

Lunch sounds kind of boring,
But I suppose it's the people there who count.
My friends are always kind of alluring
They're some of the best people I've found.

You think someday someone will sit next to you
And you'll know it's them,
But you realize few
People find it's them.

I'm one of those people who finds the empty parts of the hallway to walk in.
Luckily, my friends are too, so I'll see them there, in the empty parts of the hallway.
Sorry I just kind of wrote on the page today so it's there and unorganized and beautiful in its own way.
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