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I want to be
                 your happy poem
    to write myself
                             into your eyes
your lips, your shoulder blades
to fall into your soul
                         and leap from there
into that heart within your heart
not known to you just yet

I want to be
                    the verse that rings as true
        as the promise of your gaze
late in the day, an uncontemplated
word
a whispered phrase which keeps
and holds and stays with you
                throughout the day

I want to be the sound
                        and smell of fresh felled rain
to stir your thoughts as you awake
                        a storm
relentless, unafraid
                       to bring your laughter
and retreat into the wants
                                      within your veins
I just want to be honestly romantic. Did I fall close?
I don’t know if you know
I carry you
in an involuntary sigh
in a constant exodus of yearning
and in the frantic deepness of all
nostalgic thought, shaking time and distance
to place me near you
in the closeness of your warmth
remembered

I carry you in sorrow
precipitated
in the absence of your voice
and in the memory of your rib cage molded
in the shape of ardent weakness
my embrace

I carry you, the braille at the tip of my fingers
life drawn in lines on my left palm
and in the carcass of calm interrupted
by the pounding of a heart’s ill-time

I don't know if you know, but
I carry you in the crown of memories consoled
and in the spine of excess
where I fall, between involuntary sighs
defeated
in your skin remembered
from the confines
of the heart
On a night...just a night.
New love, new love, where are you to lead me?
  All along a narrow way that marks a crooked line.
How are you to slake me, and how are you to feed me?
  With bitter yellow berries, and a sharp new wine.

New love, new love, shall I be forsaken?
  One shall go a-wandering, and one of us must sigh.
Sweet it is to slumber, but how shall we awaken--
  Whose will be the broken heart, when dawn comes by?
 Apr 2016 Vanessa Grace
Bailey
5 am
WAKE UP
I am wasting my life, sleep, health, five days a week
6:45 am
ANXIETY HURTS MY CHEST
crap I'm late
7:30 am
WAS THAT DUE TODAY?
gotta do that after school
w--
2 pm
GOT MY TEST BACK
okay no more laziness, I'm getting stuff done at home
wh--
2:35 pm
WAKE UP IT'S YOUR STOP
so tired, so tired, so tired
3:50 pm
WAKE UP GO GET YOUR SISTER
I wasted an hour...
7 pm
wouldn't you like to write poetry instead? It's okay if you do..
10 pm
STAY AWAKE FINISH YOUR HOMEWORK
I'm going to hate myself in the morning
why--
?
daily
the
                                                                ­ whole
               world
                                          shrieked
        ­                and
                                                              roiled
                                                          ­                       and
                     the
                                              pain
                                                       ­                              didn't
          
                                                          lessen.
often i look down at myself,
my body,
and ask myself what have i done to it?

these feet,
used to nakedly wander through grass,
roll wobbly on blades,
kick carelessly in water.
now,
they sink into quicksand.

these legs,
used to run for infinity,
swing into clean air,
lounge across chair arms.
now,
they are streaked pale.

this stomach,
used to tremble with light,
dance in the sun,
lie flat.
now,
it dips in hills and valleys.

these arms,
used to lace through trees,
hang heavily on bars,
hold my body.
now,
they recoil.

these hands,
used to form art with fire,
write to remember,
caress plant buds.
now,
they pick at petals.

this body.
now,
stained with regret.
a poem i will go back to and revise, i haven't written a poem for so long but i finally felt like it
I felt empty;
every possible notion
of happiness, and the brilliant light
that once stood so stark
against this aching, hollow dark,
had been eclipsed
by the encompassing knowledge
that i was an undersea mountain
forced to stand alone and unmoving
and watch as the faces i knew
pass me by, onto calmer waters

I stand inconsolable in my emptiness
it is a captivating and terrible thing to behold.
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