Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
 Sep 2017 v V v
Jonathan Witte
Mothers crawl home on all fours
and fathers crack their hammers
into the temples of the moon.

The dogs are long gone.

The children of catastrophe
flick their knives at the sun,

shuffling from ruin to ruin
in their parents’ heavy boots,

stepping over the skeletons
of buildings and hummingbirds.

The children of catastrophe whet
their blades on the skulls of childhood.

They shave their heads
and argue about the history
of chandeliers and ballrooms.

The frogs at the water’s edge
expand into dumb balloons.

Hunted by an army of hollow men,
we race toward the sound of a dog
barking at the edge of the world.

We sleep in shifts,
cursing moonlight.

In our dreams,
the horizon binds us
with a blinding flash—

your hand in mine,
our cells married
and incandescent:

each to each,
ash to ash.
 Sep 2017 v V v
JR Weiss
C.B.V
 Sep 2017 v V v
JR Weiss
its four a.m. and the old man's ghost is with me as i pour through his work and he paws at my hem.

his phlegmy gravel whispers at me and i hear,  "cool down baby, the ink on the page is dead as a squirrel on the highway."

i read on and i feel his hand on my thigh and his warm beer dribbling on my dress as he promises verse that's all kinds of alive, if i want it.

he is old and slouched, used to younger women dazzled by words or of age ****** who will pay him mind in exchange for his last wrinkled ones,
but i am neither.

i leave his ghost where it lays
and i don't bother asking him to read my work.
it will live with or without him
even if it never sees the sun,
because sooner or later one of them will rise,
and i will have no time for the ghosts of old men.
 Sep 2017 v V v
Nat Lipstadt
for Jul
<•>
your style, it is who you are

some can dance only to the music of haiku,
some, in anger birthed, can only call out, cursing the world,
with poems beginning and ending with a rousing fk you

your style, it is who you are

most guilty of only perspective inward,
micro-scoping to the cellar cellular level
where in glass stained slides everything revealed, criticized,
the tissues of selfish, the cancerous fears, the shocking
discovery that we are mostly mineral water of kindness galore glory

your style, it is who you are

a few see a solitary leaf,
gravity kissed, flutter to mother earth,
and write of a voyage re-versed,
life in ascendancy,
upward bound, and cyclically, seasonally hopeful,
a reminder that the straightest lives are but a composition,
a series of rainbow colored curved lines,
connected dots on an arc of two by two,
say it's so, Noah!

your style, it is who you are

a handful see the morning daily in their first cuppa,
thinking
"when I look up it is quite possible,
will see the moon and the sun simultaneous occupying
a sunrise and surely more miracles
are possible, unseen, unnoticed, god bless"

your style, it is who you are

some will have their inscribed words endure as long
as the Georgia granite, their retainer, resists the elements,
overlooking the marks left on the human brain that
are a poetic monument invisible but far more
everlasting

your style, it is who you are

one or three, will write daily, chasing music, trying to forget
what just cannot be, and the abased case, there is no
The End
when offered a choice
to chase reborn every time, or not, always choose,
just another photo or poem continuum
for memories are multi-generational in both

your style, it is who you are

are you the one who loves to write, but more so,
writes of love over over repeatedly, for the words
exotic, ******, poetic and ultimately infinitely~intimately,
one and the same?

are you the young one who needs to expiate the sin
of a broken heart, a broken home, a brokenness so
persuasive there will be no relief until someone
person n e w will be a stumbled-on, and the earth will be
torridly recreated and the prior ache just a discarded bandaid,
come the go-morrow

your style, it is who you are

some write to heal, just to feel, to be sure,
they are who they claim to be, wise old young men who've seen too many big rivers that cannot be man-made dammed,
and even the tiny eddy flows of their skin will generate electricity
in praise of nature, never realizing that the human kind is
always the ever greater

your style, it is who you are,

those who are confined by the ropes of rhyme,
or to a script pentameter beaten and measured,
to you, gift the freedom to scream any way, any time,
that pleasures us all with words jointly treasured

your style, it is who you are

some in their garden write in both wistful
contentment and dissatisfaction of things
never to be crossed off, sallied forth, on the list,
but no mind, no matter, the generational ladder climbed,
looking ahead is a looking back of a life richly deployed,
and even the many...in between the poetic words,
and the poetic days, when one day, will be filled in,
these...
will be will be the pits, the seeds bearing still
more of the ripened fruit of that tree

your style, it is who you are

me?
as if me mattered, the littlest bit,
surely the o'clock nearest,
a boundary that cuckoo states
like a good ole friend,
dummy, as usual, you've gone on too long,
but that's your style, it is who you are, so leave some choice,
Grade A, poetic cavalcade of noises for the better poets,
who come everyday, new babies for a better day,
leaving me behind, so happily contented, to be just another scribbler

in my style, it is who I am
  
<•>

September 3rd, 2017
2:01am ~ 3:01am
the message I guess is best
to stick to who you are,
especially in our writings


"keep me where the light is"
John Mayer
 Sep 2017 v V v
eunsung aka Silas
there are sometimes a vast silence between us,
it started as a small divide.
there seems to be a vast ocean separating me from you,
and yet love remains.

no matter how small or how big the space between us,
remember I love you, I am grateful for you, and I forgive you.
Words need not be spoken, but just know that I am always here
ready to embrace you in love to welcome you home.
I was thinking of God's love for a wayward child.
 Aug 2017 v V v
Q
First let me say I cannot be fully sorry
I cannot give you the life I wanted
I don't have the money or the stability
To love you the way I've promised I would
Should I let you exist and be everything to me
I would not treat you the way I wished I was
When I was just a child looking for love.

You won't exist because I refuse to let you
Because I looked at my own mother and asked
"Why did you have me?"
I can't be a parent that would never put that question in your head.
You won't exist because I am not strong enough to let you.
I am sorry for that.

I will mourn you. I have mourned you.
You are two inches long and know nothing
Have done nothing and deserve none of this
Yet and still, you won't exist because you will be something
You will be someone.
You will be someone I will fight to love and provide for
And I will fail.

You won't exist because I look in the mirror
And I see someone who I would ****.
And I cannot provide from the grave.
Nor will I leave you to fight for a life I couldn't give.
Yet and still, I will imagine I could.
And I will hate myself in the way you have no capacity to do
I will hate me for you.

You will never know what it is to smile or frown
You will never laugh or cry
I will never see you roll or walk or speak
And I will never shower you in love
Because I will never allow you to exist in who I am now
And so you won't exist.

But I will think of you when I next slit my wrists.
I will think of two inches of perfection that I couldn't ensure safety.
I will think of two inches and what could have been
I will think of the first time you would curl a hand around my finger
And I will cry for you and tell you that I'll join you
Despite you never existing to care to begin with.

You will not exist anywhere aside from a single picture in a scan
And within my memories.
You will not exist to anyone but me if I let you.
But in the absence of your life, I will immortalize and remember you.
You have no name. You have a name.
I will never know which name fits you better.

I will get on a flight taking me away from where
You ceased and never began to be.
I will bury the memory of you deep in my mind
On the surface of my thoughts where you will thrive.
I will imagine chubby fingers grasping at earth in wonder
And whispering all the dreams you could and would reach into your ear
I will imagine what could be if I wasn't what I am today.

I will go home. I will put my life together and heal.
I will create a space for myself so that I can properly allow you to be.
And it will not be you who exists then.
And I will lament your loss when I am finally able to take care of you
Far, far too late.

I suppose I just need to say goodbye to you.
I have whispered it into myself several times
And been both grateful and remorseful that you cannot understand
And hope you will exist in the after that I've never believed in
That you will grow and know that your lack of existence
Was not a decision lightly made.

I will comfort myself in thinking you will never know
What it is to have a father who neither loves you nor your family
I will comfort myself thinking you will never worry over the money we don't have
I will comfort myself thinking you will never see the state of the world I chose not to bring you into.
You will not exist and these comforts will be empty.

Because I imagine you as a little girl with curly hair
And a smile so bright it would rival the sun and change the world
I imagine you as a little boy with a heart so big seven billion people would instantly feel loved
I imagine you as an avid reader, the way I was, forever shoving books into your desk
I imagine you as a graduate with endless potential at your fingertips
But you will not be. You will not exist.

I think on what made you. And I wonder if I could look past it.
If I could find it in me to love you the way you would deserve.
I love you now. I hate you now. I want to cradle you in my arms.
I will not. You do not exist.
You will not exist for me to know.

I will see you when I sleep, I believe
I will see you as you were and as you may be
And I will wrap my arms around you as I push you away
And I will whisper the names you never had
And give you the gifts you'll never see.
I will blow a raspberry into the stomach you never developed
I will listen to giggles from the vocal chords you never contained.
You will not exist then.
But who you may have been will.

I will carry you on my shoulders in a dream
I will promise to keep your teeny lips in a smile
And you tiny head in the clouds.
I will dream your dreams for you and hope to know you
I will not dream your dreams. I do not know you.
You have no dreams.
And you will not exist.

You would be a number of pounds of beauty, had I let you.
You would be, if I only let you, a perfect number of inches, perfect down to the smallest decibel.
You would be quiet. You would be loud. I would complain of your colic.
You will be none of those things. I will not complain.
You will not exist.

I will breathe in the air you never did.
I will marvel the sky you never saw.
I will mourn the life you never lived.
I will love the you who never thought.
And yet and still, you will not exist.
 Aug 2017 v V v
Cypher
I remember laying in the grass
Adolescents way to drunk and high
We were out with friends
They were sitting under a bridge nearby
Looking up into the night sky
I turned around and kissed her
She kissed me back and turned around
3 minutes of silence passed and
She said "ive never wanted to kiss someone so much but without wanting ***, ive never wanted to talk to someone but without the words, ive never wanted to be around somebody just to be around him, do you think that's love?"
I looked at her and said if it is love i love you more than anything
My heart was beating so fast
She said "i love you too more than anything"
Ive never felt better
So much brighter on the inside than with any drug ive felt before
And i knew from the moment she kissed me my depression was gone
This was the most beautiful moment of my life
Sitting there with my first real love
With the people i love
In the darkness i love
Under the bridge i learned to love
Smoking the **** i love
Drinking the alcohol i love to hate
But eventually friends turned on me
The bridge got demolished
And she left
All that was left was the darkness of that night, the **** and, the alcohol
I wrote over 300 poems that year
Writing stuff of my young sorry soul
The poems helped me mentally
And the drugs helped me write them
Thats how i became an addict
Now people look at me and tell me im an addict
But im only addicted to her love, these friends, this place, this night
And that's what people dont understand
Im addicted to leaving this world
Leaving this pain behind just a few hours
There's a story behind every addiction
If you speak to an addict in your life
Speak honestly and dont judge them
You'll learn something
You'll learn that this world is a sad little place
And every sad little addict has a sad little heart
Dont judge people you dont feel what they feel
Addiction.Depression.Heightened.Deception
Time can heal
But time can ****
Don't know how I feel
About it still
It's taken burdens
Off my shoulders
Then added burdens
As I get older
In time it will **** me too
Time, there's just no getting around you
 Aug 2017 v V v
Cné
Heaven
 Aug 2017 v V v
Cné
There is a place that I go
that exists within my mind.
And when I'm feeling troubled,
I can leave this world behind.

On wings of gossamer
I'll sail in airships made of mist
to sparkling shores of diamond dust
the golden sun has kissed.

There are unicorns with silver horns
and friendly dragons too.
There's griffins, fauns and centaurs
why, it's heaven's petting zoo.

The rain falls gently on my face
from tears the angels shed.
And blessings from The Father fall
like leaves on every head.

I'll swim in lakes of lavender
and also float upon my back.
to see a glittering rainbow there
with no colors does it lack.

There is no evil in this place
no envy, pride or hate.
For if I wish admission there,
I check them at the gate.

I'm kin to every heartbeat
and a soul mate to each star.
And I'm never lost or scared
for He's never very far.

And everyone is family there
the humans and the beasts.
There is no *******.
There's no "greatest" and no "least".

Someday, I'll find thy solitude
and there I shall abide.
And I'll join the souls
that I have missed
upon thy mystic tide.
 Aug 2017 v V v
Cné
Summer Nights
 Aug 2017 v V v
Cné
And lo, with evening shadows comes the twinkle of the stars.
Yonder is the rising moon and further west is Mars.

How wondrous is The Milky Way, away from city lights.
The silence seems to deafen me on sultry rural nights.

Oh, I could sit upon the porch and listen here for hours.
Indeed, the night reflects the subtle magic of nature's powers.

Play on, oh evening symphony and with this starry scene,
Delight my senses off to slumber with a summer dream.
I so enjoyed the beautiful glow of the moon tonight.
Sweet sultry dreams tonight!
Its been weeks and still there isn't a moment i escape your memory.

I tried the bottle and it only made me find the depths of emptiness that dwell within my soul.

I know my life has come  to its closing moments I watch it fade a sunsets reprise sitting upon the sandy shore .

I no longer give a **** to fight I wish only to allow the tide to consume what is left and nothing more .

We are all bunt out buildings from the wars waged upon ourselves .

Now let the dark waters give rest where torment once stood on full display.

I am tired beyond my years no longer content to simply exist were once I rode the wind .

My choices are but my own never try to follow another footsteps for there shadows cast will freeze you out in there ego's nature by design.

There is no more lines left .
The ink as blood no longer does course through my veins.

I'm simply waiting on the tide to take what's left away.
Next page