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20.9k · Mar 2019
You
Jennifer Powell Mar 2019
You
and I hope that every time
your mouth moves
to make the sound
of the first letter of her name

somewhere

deep down

in the back of your head

you hear my name instead
1.3k · Feb 2014
3:58 A.M.
Jennifer Powell Feb 2014
It hurts to think about it.
It hurts to think about someday in the distant future,
he may dismiss our love as untrue.
He may tell another girl that he thought he knew what love is
but he never knew until he met her.
And maybe it will simply be a line,
but maybe it will be truth that his soul aches to say
and he will no longer think of me.

His I love you's will be built on the thoughts of someone else
and how her eyes look in the sunlight
and how her hair falls to her shoulder
and how she breathes his name into the air in the bed that they share.

It hurts to think about the future.
It hurts to think about where I may be when he's lying next to her,
tracing his fingertips across her palms
and brushing hair off of her face before he kisses her goodnight.

And we will simply be experiences and stories to keep locked away
in our memories that are never to be spoken of or reminisced.
We'll be letters that we wrote for each other
and art on our walls and knick-knacks on shelves,
all enveloped by dust and faded emotions.

And he may hear my favorite song in twenty years
and I hope he chooses to remember the good
and I promise to try not to be bitter.
And when I run into him in twenty years and he speaks of his success,
I will smile for his happiness even if it is not me.
It only hurts to think about it.
I wrote this last night because I couldn't sleep. Sorry about the format of the poem. I wrote it as a huge paragraph and I was kind of winging it with the line breaks.
782 · Sep 2012
Father
Jennifer Powell Sep 2012
Why are there gates into Heaven if it's never too late to be forgiven?
Can we not just fall to our knees and beg for mercy there at the entrance?
I just don't see the God that you preach as someone to say "too late".
I can't see how he can stand to watch his children burn in Hell.
For Heaven's sake.

I don't understand
how a man
with so much virtue and honor,
can be someone
who allows his children
to be accepted as goners.
690 · Nov 2019
Listen to It
Jennifer Powell Nov 2019
a bitter blade's first cut
will never be its last
a self-fulfilling prophecy
an echo of the past

its song still makes me sing
a whisper hardly missed
remembering the harmonies
retaining my clenched fists

there are too many broken strings
to play another song
still the music swells inside my walls
it's not a question to play along

I'd be more afraid if the music stopped
what if I forget all the words?
memories deafened through roaring silence
unsure of melodies I'd misheard

I still hear its hum inside my head
as hard as I try to forget
a question of whether it's now or forever
undoubted, hard-earned regret
670 · Nov 2019
Ocean of Alone
Jennifer Powell Nov 2019
I can't keep fighting
your perception of me
It's not that it matters
just that it stings

I've carried as much
as my mind will allow
but I keep finding ways
to keep breaking down

Sinking sand

in my heavy heart

I don't need you

weighing me down
626 · May 2019
Arrogance
Jennifer Powell May 2019
don't make a sound
they're creeping 'round the corner
watching and waiting
for our weakness exposed

go for the throat, soon as they see it
what makes you think you're so invincible?
455 · May 2019
When I Feel It
Jennifer Powell May 2019
I'm only here for my mother
her heart couldn't handle the pain.
I've tried to find other reasons to stay,
but it always ends up just the same.

I'm only here for my cat,
not that he'd be all alone.
He'd be looking for me behind every door,
wondering when I'm coming home.

I'm only here for my best friend.
I see my same sadness in her.
I couldn't bear to leave her like that,
to wish things could be as they were.

It's okay to live for others,
while we search for ourselves in it all.
And if we don't find what we need,
at least we had reasons to stall.
389 · Dec 2019
Red
Jennifer Powell Dec 2019
Red
you may have cut me deep

but I danced in each pool

of my own blood

and with each drop

I fell in love
Jennifer Powell Feb 2019
I awoke in a forest
fog whispered through the trees
too thick to cut through
I brushed off the leaves

I tried to guess what time it was
it felt like dusk,
but my heart shouted "dawn!"
So I watched the sun to see
        where
          she
           went

She hung in the sky
just out of my reach
it felt like a minute
it felt like a week

Static and cold
while showing me warmth
                             "I don't believe you"
she retorts, "You don't need to"

It felt like nothing
and that's what burned
hello again
359 · Jun 2019
and you'll forget about me
Jennifer Powell Jun 2019
The first night we met replays in my head
I could lay with you in my car forever
high and gazing at the stars out my window
feel your eyes on me through the hazy air
Raspberry kisses that I can't remember
Help me remember, I need you again.

I miss you and you were not mine.
A waste of a dream --a waste of my time.
304 · Apr 2020
Oasis
Jennifer Powell Apr 2020
I’ve never sat so close to a flame
and felt less heat than its shadow implies
I’ve never felt such fullness in emptiness
I didn’t need a new scar to help me realize

You are a mirage
an oasis bleeding crystal clear water
sparkling in the distance of my desert
but I see you disappear

Cut too close and I watch you vanish
Pacing back and forth to try to find the line
Where do you go?
All I know is that you do.
303 · May 2019
No One
Jennifer Powell May 2019
I wouldn't choose me either.
I don't know how hard I'd try,
for a girl hard to want --but uncertain.

Too much trouble for you, or for I.

and what makes a person worth it?
long since I've known love and its fight.
It feels like a lot --maybe even too much

Lonely demands to be held tight.
Jennifer Powell Jun 2019
memories feathered at the edges
I chase your shadow as you tease
"too slow!" (and I already know)
dry leaves touched by a gentle breeze

I let myself rest and fall into your empty
wading through in search of your depth
swimming in circles, I let your waves carry me.
I sunk into your shallow as it’s all that was left.

you are a quiet chaos that I invite
a whisper in my ear when I'm trying to sleep
the jolt awake before I hit the pavement
but I always knew that you were just a dream
271 · Dec 2019
I'm a Person! I'm a Person!
Jennifer Powell Dec 2019
how tired would you be  
if you were expected to shrink
small enough  
to fit into the idea of a "you"
that you didn't choose?

I don't want it
and if judgment and you
go hand in hand
I don't want you too

it's exhausting always wondering  
if I'm wasting my breath
if my love has an end
if I'll ever decide
that I've had enough

It hurts my heart more to wonder
if I could be happier still
if I just let my guard down
so I have (and always will)

it's exhausting always wondering
if I'm wasting my energy
if I'll keep over-explaining parts of me
when no one's really listening

but I don't think I need you
all I need is to see  
what keeps this cat alive  
is the curiosity  

I just have to know the ending
I'm on the edge of my seat
but don't mistake my desperation
I'm not afraid to leave
it's all over the place because so am iiiiiiiiii
Jennifer Powell Dec 2019
you made me feel like nothing
  
and I know that to your ears
you may hear a sweeter sound
reminding you of your power
  
I guess in the end,  
I just wish you saw past yourself
and the uselessness of "power"
  
and I know that to your ears
you may hear my selfishness
but let's not twist what we both know
  
I guess in the end,
I just wish you cared to see me
  
and I know that you may choose to hear
a softer song where the record isn't scratched
and although the past is just that
  
I still see you,
and I see you still seeing me
  
I guess in the end,
I sit in my hope
and pretend that's enough
  
but you make me feel like nothing
257 · Jul 2019
Untitled
Jennifer Powell Jul 2019
I am too tired
to try and take my pain
and wrap it in pretty words
to make it sound like
it deserves to be romantic
and mysterious or
like it's a part of me
more than I want it to be

I just want it to stop.
192 · Oct 2019
All at Once
Jennifer Powell Oct 2019
It's funny that life likes to fall apart  

all at once  

like it's tired of itself just as much  


like it's exhaling for the first time  

a deep breath held in  

sweeping you away in the howl of its wind  


It's funny that when we fall apart  

we try so hard to hang onto the seams  

we tend to tear a deeper ****  

still feigning shock when we bleed  


It's funny how life likes to fall apart  

all at once  

like it's its way of having fun  


like for every "why me?"  

it has to kick you in the *** a little harder  

noting that time only asked to exist as much as you did

— The End —