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I'm not burning bridges, I'm cutting ties
You start with pity, and then you despise
But, it's only because you now realize
That this pack of white lies and alibis,
These stories by which you were tantalized
To no surprise were just fantasized
By a mind over-worked, projected through two cold, pale, eyes.

I'm your cherished childhood plaything, barely given a single thought
Toss me with the rest of your keepsakes in your souvenir box
Just a container filled with the memories of the days you smiled a lot
Used to make you laugh more than anything, now I'm just where you stash your ***.

You bet your *** I cared alot, I loved you twice, you loved me not
It's sad, but true, no more flowers grew
I hope next season something blooms for you
But, for now I've given all I got, I've grasped these stems until the petals rot
I'm digging up the roots I grew and movin' on to soil another plot

                                                           ­                                                              don't try to chase me
                                                              ­                                    now that the pace is changing
                                                        ­                          from a crawl into a trot


   please, stop lying
                                    don't say you're trying
                                                          ­                            when you've barely given a shot


                                                          ­                                                    my silver tongue did shine so untrue
                                                          ­ every time just so I could protect you
       from the worries that would plague your mind if you knew
                                                                ­                                           exactly what it is that I've gone through...

but here's what I plan to do:


Grab a cup, drink it up, soak up the Sunday news
The end is near, you're the last one here, what have you got to lose?
So, just fill your lungs and laugh all night long; put on your dancin' shoes
Play your last song it'll not be long before your soul walks out on you
I just close my eyes and let all pass by; begin to pay my dues
Time goes fast, so I took my chance, dancing with my devils to the Pale Moonlight Blues.

I'm under cardiac arrest, tried two times couldn't pass the test
At least when I'm at worst I can't be any less
At best my brain is pained by songs of protest
And you can bet I did my best to forget

I went through solitary confinement, momentarily confident
I'm impressed I haven't died yet, on the contrary, I despise it
Why do I kick myself for providing the ropes by which my hands are bound
When I should just strike out and bite the hands that tied it

                                                             ­                                                        it's time to go...

I bet a fiddle of gold you can't save your soul; can't solve a mystery if you don't have a clue
Try as you might, you won't win a single fight until you learn how to lose
Oh, you'll never know until you're on your own what it's like to have the Blues
I've been there before, I can't take a second more, that much I know is true
So, just close your eyes and kiss all goodbye; it's time to pay your dues
As time burns to ash, so does your final chance
To dance with your devils to the Pale Moonlight Blues
Original Song
Robin Goodfellow Jul 2016
Prayers amongst the cold
ash-stricken
skies.

I saw you there
weaving pretty lies
along edges of night,
with all your hellish plights,
as you lose sight,
of your innocent light.

Prayers amongst the cold
eve of unquiet
dead.

I saw you there,
screaming your past regrets,
crying out what needed to be said,
while following the blood you've bled,
as you dye your childhood red.

Prayers amongst the cold
words of forgotten
tales.

I saw you there,
with your abandoned sails,
your dreams and everything you've failed,
neglecting the praises you've hailed,
while traveling the icy gales.

Prayers amongst the cold,
for the weeping stories
untold.
Joseph Peterman Oct 2017
the world is not ours
we step all over it like it is though
implodes an inferno
of ash and rain
never to be the same again
color coded
our labels folded
we're pinned up and examined
when our hearts are broken
we cover it
dealing with other people's ****
or with our indecent president
only causing more damages
never glancing towards the innocent blaming other countries and
we act like we're not all immigrants
I don't know where my standing is
I don't know why Trumps planning this
or acting like the planets his
in this world white is right
minorities lacking privileges
it doesn't help by dismissing it
this is the future we'll grow up in
leaders only over throwing it
I'm a pacifist who'll let things slide
but I'll make a fist when no one's by my side
wish labels were gone
wish we'd support one another
wish I didn't hear on the news that "so-and-so" shot their brother
this is not our culture
don't you understand this?
what you see right now is a worldwide epidemic
get attacked because you're black
no sympathy for the LGBT
giving bad vibes to the word diversity burning down family trees
judging those close to me
people contemplating suicide
people wanting to cry and hide
people who don't even go outside
cause they're scared of the world around them
Scott Howard Jun 2012
If the world was torn asunder
And rebuilt from spare parts
My dying wish would be to
Occupy your heart

As the sun bursts into space
And earth is turned to ash
When only love prevails
And heavens begin to crash

If ever there is no light
And all becomes too dark
You always have my word to
Occupy my heart
Cute little poem, not sure if I want to add more to it so I wouldn't call it done.
Ash
Set me on fire like a wooden mirror
full fledged desire a night seen so clear
a moonlit night, but try as I might
a paramore, a beauty, a sultry sight
skeletal trees imposing upon our sleep
we're taken apart and thrown to the breeze.
can't you see? with the smoke in your lungs
and the fires burning us down

In the longing of a falling star
A cascade of near and far
these blackened lungs with a blackened heart
will soothe us all or tear us apart
Trying, but if I should fail
scratch me with your fingernails
leave me scars I can't erase
even if my mind's forgotten your face

bite deeply into my skin
give me just one more sin
kiss my lips until they're blue
perhaps i'm falling for you
light me up and burn me down
steal away my only crown
follow birds into the far
leave me with only these scars

I'll trace your body with my tongue
blow smoke in my blackened lungs
Make me feel I've been so numb
I'll make your heart beat like a drum
inhale me like your cigarettes
kiss me like i'm your last breath
dig your nails into my back,
grey burned lungs soon to collapse

Inhale me like your cigarettes
kiss me like I'm your last breath
Collaboration with Gaia.
Lilith Meredith Jul 2013
blood is on this page
dripping deliberately from delicate fingertips
begging for a closer inspection than the cursory
begging for understanding
don't you know these words are flesh?
pressed from the ash of my bones
Eric W Mar 2015
Sometimes I can't find the solace I require in my loneliness.
Other times I can.
I can rejoice in my presence, and
be grateful to be alive.
But now...
All there is now is a singular floating leaf
that is blown away from the pile before it can
land.
So Spring comes and the grass grows,
and I am still alone.
I search within myself for some seed,
some growth,
that proves that the soil is not spent,
and that my joy does not always require
recompent,
in vain.
And in vein these rivers and Spring wet-weather
branches flow,
for it rains and rains,
but nothing may grow.
But alone.
And as the limestone gives way to
ash, and roots that enclose to form
a ring,
we lose ourselves but for a moment,
but what could also be a hundred hundred years
that many many tears will allow me to
live
encircling an eternal hell
that may yet be
heaven.
I find the ways to say
as surely as the trees find a way
to reach toward the sun,
that the sun may give such life,
may turn the Winter to Spring to
Summer to fall as I do,
in love with you,
but will blind and burn
as surely as
you,
and will set and night will come
where I will howl and cry and sigh
at the moon,
alone,
without you.
And the stars shine bright as a reminder
that there are a hundred million hundred suns
like you,
but also that my sun has departed and
the hundred million hundred other suns
could burn a hundred million hundred years and not be
like you.
As surely as I search and the night grows long
with the shadows on the inside, and
all I find are the writings on
the chalk-hide to symbolize the turnings of years,
you rise,
with a greeting and a smile,
welcome,
my solace.
Jimmy Timmons Jul 2013
Take my hand and hold on tight
My hand: the string, my heart: the kite
Let it float and flutter in the wind
Let it shine before the sun gets too dim
Instead, you tugged and pulled it down
Metal stakes barred and pinned me to the ground
Attaching a metal key and a note
"My love for you always dies" you wrote
Soon clouds formed in the sky
And once again, you let me fly
Ascending higher and higher until it was struck
By God's good flicker from above
The kite's wings burned and turned to ash
This day in the field is now a day of the past
Amanda Fletcher Oct 2012
And I almost forgot how it felt to be cold,
A touch of light reached my face
and brushed my bones.
The ash is raised off my skin
and I can feel the fever again,
God ****** it burns.

I'm injected with a heat
that serves to the cold.
It lights the way,
Softens the concrete,
Opens the Winter Sun.

Then the rain settles in,
Washing and cleansing
The long roads of their dirt
and grime.
My feet feel clean,
and ready.

Finally.
Gabriel Jan 2014
The aroma so sweet
With its burgundy hue
Drinking in her scent
While her vision eludes view

Veins pump with intensity
Red music plays its rhythm
For no normal humans propensity
Heart beats to him like a marching drum

Feeling her quickened emotions
Drawing closer with each step
She tries to cause commotion
As he quick and softly bites into her neck

The slowest embrace of ****** passion
Leaving one more lively than the other
He hates to leave her in this fashion
But vampires rarely take on lovers

So as he turns to dash away
A shadow in the night
It may not be the day
But a stake through the heart leaves ash in her final sight.....
Alanna Jun 2013
The pain I feel is strange to me.
So strange to me it is,
that I don't believe it should count as pain.
It is more a feeling that makes me omit pain out.
I feel nothing
Nothing but numb
My heart rate picks up at the mention of things, not quit non yet
Though I feel as if I have left something and need to remember it.
Like I have forgotten something, or misplaced.
Though now when I try to only think of it,
It strikes me fast and hot,
across my body
at a full blown trot
Like a stamped of horses wild and free has been giving a path to come and run over me.
They step on my heart, my stomach, my chest
Like a burning wild fire,
it will soon spread through to the rest.
Till there is nothing left in its path,
but ashes ashes ash
There is cast among us each day
Such garbage and filth and trash
Things that need to be burnt, destroyed
And turned forever into ash

We walk each day among the filth
It blocks our path upon every side
Sometimes it seems to overwhelm
And causes me to seek to hide

It repulses the senses as rotted flesh
Clouding up my mind
A path not littered is what I seek
But that path it seems I cannot find

This rotted filth of which I speak
Floats all around unseen
Near the ground and n the air
And is unto our ear a fiend

The trash the filth the rot
Is mankinds spoken word
In songs and speech and poetry
Are uttered things that never should be heard

Matthew 12:36-37
AMcQ Jan 2017
I scuffed along a dreary trail;
Lit by the orb of night.
A muted glow, grew 'neath the haze
Of fog disrupted light.

A pathway hemmed by fir and ash.
Its' silence taunts the nerves.
Your outline there, amid the trees,
My mind thought it observed.

I stalled, 'neath creaking wooden limbs,
Froze still and calm, I gazed.
It was your frame, your gait, your hair
There, ambling in the haze.

I felt you turn your face t'ward mine;
Racing heart, now in repose.
I drew in deep, your silent tale
Of why this path you chose.

I held your story in my chest
'till fog and dark did cease.
'till wary eyed, I woke and smiled
To know you're now at peace.
Emily Archer Jul 2014
I crave you like a cigarette and I just as equally want to burn you.
Smoking is an addiction of poison that will waste you away and acid drenched flowers will grow from your ribcage. But I assure you, I'd rather turn my lungs to ash than ever be kissed by the putrid lips of love.
Hannah Marr Jun 2018
happily, you decompose
releasing your woes
even as they drag away your laughter

euphorically, you dissolve
losing your resolve
to live, even as your fears leave you

elatedly, you decay
your skin turns ash-grey
and maggots dig into your flesh

passionately, you molder
your recently-cremated ashes smolder
the flame devoured you with all the ferocity of a lover

joyfully, you disintegrate
forget the cold burn of hate
and misplace the memory of love, too

blissfully, you rot
lose your affinity with thought
your mind a directionless searching

delightedly, you wither
there is no time to dither
no time, full sprint to oblivion

reverently, you splinter
welcome eternal winter
relegate warmth to your fleeing memories

earnestly, you break down
your will is to drown
all your issues are a rising sea

fervently, you fall apart
you thought you were so smart
with death comes release, no?

h.f.m.
Beth Ivy Jan 2014
caustic cleansers eating away at
caked on ash and peeling dead skin.
silent snowfall smothering wholly
dried up earth, a new, unmarked grave.

dribbling paint slathered thickly onto
walls erasing nicotine stains.
smooth-as-silk milk blotting out brightly
the emptiness of a clear glass.

merciful fluid starkly removes
sins of a pen lost from its thought.
What comes to blank out, smother, dissolve
the murky shadows in my head?
Barton D Smock Nov 2013
film.  prayer.  kittens in a box.  serene nudes thrusting the skylight.  trinkets in a first floor gift shop lifted by a man dreaming beneath a decompression chamber.  a one use snowglobe.  ash.

hole in a rabbit.  a woman who talks once a year to firecrackers.

earth on earth.  a baby without toes applauded for having two heels.  a pregnant person who’s played on god

a simple hoax.
Christopher KD Mar 2015
He—
Her ginger.
Limp handshake.
Cacophonous  laugh.
Features, disproportionate.
In most ways- narrow minded.
Exceedingly self-assured.
Without money he is
No better than I.
Loving she:
Always.
-Me


Yet
here I stand.
Clinging to the bottle.
Watching the years pass by.
Alone atop this cold, cobble, stoop;
Coat covered in cigarette ash.
I don’t think of  you—
or  at  least  I
try  not
to.


Not
quite dead…
However, not entirely
alive either. And I made a sincere
effort to climb out of the plot you left me in;
but darling that hole you dug me was  ******* deep!
And the only tool you’d left me was that ****
bottle; which for a short while helped.
Until eventually, like you,
it consumed
me.
    
  
Now
I  awaken,
only to find that I’m
no longer capable of feeling;
and what a great disappointment this
is to me. It would seem as though my receptors,
synapses, neurotransmitters, etc- have flickered and fried.
Dopamine, will no longer travel within these
useless,  dried-up,  old veins of mine.
Evidently my demise, resultant
of a life lived alone
in a faster
lane.
Its been a long time since I've written something that I'm this happy with. I hope everyone enjoys reading this piece as much as I enjoyed writing it.

-Christopher K.D.
All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the lustre as of olives
where she stands,
and the white hands.

All Greece reviles
the wan face when she smiles,
hating it deeper still
when it grows wan and white,
remembering past enchantments
and past ills.

Greece sees, unmoved,
God's daughter, born of love,
the beauty of cool feet
and slenderest knees,
could love indeed the maid,
only if she were laid,
white ash amid funereal cypresses.
Eva Oct 2014
Pain inside curls up in cramps
And so to the window I go.
I watch the cars and people go by
Like a circus running a show.
I light up and breathe in hard and fast
******* the ash to my soul.
Disgusting and dark it doesn't cut out
Or come close to filling the hole.
But on I puff the cinders glow red
And quickly come to an end
And right until my finger ends burn
And the smoke itself starts to bend.
I smoke one, and two and three and four
Trying to find some spice
To fill that freezing emptiness inside
And melt my heart made of ice.
karen champagne Dec 2014
End has come.
End of the dark road.
The wretched twisting of my heart.
Heart drained of blood.
Wringing of wet cloth ****** dry.
So much darkness.
Secrets.
Be at peace, the forgiven one.
Turned to ash.
I will grieve you.
For them.
Put you to rest in my head.
Be at peace, the forgiven one.
Jasmine Marie Aug 2012
Your caress is silky and creamy like butter
And my darling, I'm afraid that your lingering touch will give me diabetes
Your heart crumbles like flour when I press mine against it
And beads of sugar hang like dew upon your lashes

Maybe if I blended you up into cookie dough
And baked you at 350 for 15 minutes until you were golden brown
Then I wouldn't be afraid to stroke your resplendent face

Perhaps I wouldn't wince at the thought of pressing my ear against your chest
Just to hear your confectionary heart quiver
And there wouldn't be the slightest trepidation when I kissed your intoxicating tears

But I'm afraid that I'll leave you in for too long
And your saccharine core will harden and reek of soot
And with the slightest touch, you'll be reduced to ash
And your cremated remains will get frightened at the accusatory wail of the smoke detector
And they'll seek refuge in my oven's crevices
Never to be seen again
I felt a need to write again today and so, shazam, poetry.
Megan Cahill Feb 2011
He showed himself today;
A trespasser on the land where leaves reign.
The morning sun proved his Achilles heel,
In the space where my inner soul
And the outside world collide.
“I can see you.”
The words are a dance -
Hot chocolate and cotton-candy,
Swirling sluggishly together in sweet adoration;
He melts at the exposure.
And at the tip of her engine roaring lips
Heat divulged his truth, young and bare –
The David fighting the Goliath air.
Surrender your almond sun skin and
Forfeit the strawberries in your hair.
He feasts and diminishes,
With no appreciation for the warmth,
But coal coated shame burning into ash
As bloodied juices dangle in anguish.
The calendar vigorously holds deep, intrepid letters:
“Beyond the Autumn lines, Winter quivers with fear.”
Sealed lips savor their secret:
Winter just trespassed here.
All rights to this poem belong to the author.
Pearson Bolt Jan 2016
and it was as if
the entire universe
shrank to the size
of a microscopic dot
and found its niche
perched atop
my chest

there it lingers
spinning
at once
an unstoppable force
and an immovable object
a paradox of
time and space

void

a black hole the
size of a quark
swallowing everyone and
everything with an
appetite unlike anything
anyone in the galaxy
had ever seen

so complete was its
crushing gravity that
nothing escaped its grasp

neither fire
nor ash
not life
not death

its emptiness was total
it gobbled up the light
and garbled what mangled
remnants of hope remained
contracting on the event
horizon's scope before

digesting the detritus
in a series of  
torturous depravities that
would make even
Marquis de Sade
tremble with a mix
of shock and awe
in his padded cell as
he begged a nonexistent
god for forgiveness
Anjana Soman Jul 2016
I had learnt to love her.
As she was,
wrought with all her surprises;
when she moved in,
with her books and her vices,
I had learnt to love her.
Waking at 2,
to find her crouched by the window;
shaking her awake
as she wrestled with her ego.
Keeping my peace,
when her heart roamed town untethered;
The door clicking shut,
and at 3, I had learnt to love her.
I’ve felt her warmth against me,
even in the coldest of her nights.
I’ve caught her gazing at me;
I remember the ghost of a smile.
Nestled against each other on my warm brown couch,
listening to her verses, her secret art
Tracing our fates along the ridges of her spine,
‘I’ve learnt to love her,’ whispered my defeated heart.
I had learnt to love her when I knelt, drenched,
hugging her under the shower, dressed in my Sunday best.
And when I sat unmoving, convinced by her words,
that she had to break herself down to build herself back up.
Unable to sway her fiery soul,
I walked through the debris
scouting the wreckage of forsaken art;
shards of glass, ash, and pieces of me.
It’s dark now and I can finally see –
learning to love her was never meant for me.
Packed bags, taking everything in my world but me,
there are no words or lingering touches as she turns to leave.
Wretched and enchanted, I had learnt to love her.
Now I must learn to love myself without her.
—and a semicircle of dirt-colored men
about a fire bursting from an old
ash can,
Will Griffiths Jun 2014
As the world is shaking beneath my feet like the rumbling crunch of a volcano, my eyes glaze over.
The fright of death is more crippling to me, and more a presence in my soul than my own beating heart.
Stuck frozen as if all the time of the Earth had stopped to watch for itself.
The bellowing cries of plea from my brothers, fallen to the ground.
The grip I have of reality is fast overwhelmed by the chaos of the dying.
My thoughts trembling in my mind as the very air around me purges sense from my bones.
I fall.
Upward looking to the dark greyness that’s become the mid day sky.
A sky alive with fire and smoke, and all manner of flying things.
Silence encompasses me for the first time in what seems like a lifetime.
I breathe, breathe as though every breath is a symphony requiring tireless thought.
My purposeful pause between each cycle, I listen to the drum of my heart bursting through my chest and ears.
I hear the dying. I hear the crying.
Taunting clatter and pounding overhead condemning us to the mud beneath.
Still and broken I lie.
I hear the dying. I hear the crying.
A wave of force ripples to my side nudging me, burning my body.
Scattered parts of wood and ash, bone and rock sprinkle awash down on my face.
Choking, my stomach flutters.
I hear the dying. I hear the crying.
My eyes open with questionable recognise.
My bedroom ceiling, calm and content.
My wife’s hand upon my chest, a question of soft remorse to my wellness.
My brothers, where are you?
I hear the dying. I hear the crying.
Not really a poem, more a short scene of war and a realisation of the power of PTSD.
Persephone Feb 2022
Today I wish to not wake up
I wish to go from yesterday to tomorrow and forget that today ever exists
I wish for the sun to stay below the horizon and the song birds to sleep past noon
I wish this world to skip today

Today I wish to be nothing
I wish to not be a mass of energy or to take up space on this planet
I wish for Einstein to be wrong and Newton to be full of sh*t
I wish this world breaks physics today  

Today I wish for fire
I wish to have water scald my throat and for food to become ash on my tongue
I wish the air I breathe turns to smoke in my lungs and my skin to char from the heat of the sun
I wish this world to burn today

Today I wish for ice
I wish for no smile to melt my bitter heart and no embrace to warm my calloused soul
I wish for Arctic wind to bring forth a new ice age and for frost to encircle my home
I wish this world to freeze today

Today I wish for disaster
I wish for my tears to flood the highest cities and my screams to cause cracks in the sea floor
I wish for wild fires to incinerate all forests and global warming to evaporate all oceans
I wish this world to destroy today

Today I wish to have a chat with death
I wish to be kissed by the lips of a viper and down hemlock until I’m no longer parched
I wish for the gods to send down a new plague and Mother Nature to take revenge on us all
I wish this world to die today

Today I wish for you to not care
For today I wish that you turn your check the other way when you see me and you don’t whisper a word for the wrongness I am causing
I wish for you to let my anger consume me until she can see it from the heavens and let me destroy myself until her absence feels less empty than I do
I wish for today that you let me embrace death with open arms so I can be close to her once more
Because Today I wish to no longer exist

But if you refuse to grant me any of these wishes than grant me this one simple request
That today of all days you let me have this hate
You let me have the same hate for myself that I have for this world on the day that it took her away
LA Hall Sep 2013
O four twenty six AM night in small city apartment bedroom studying alone, under stars, under
             roof,
Steaming green porcelain teacup on sill of window propped open by ownerless two
            by-four
O Steam, rising into cool wind, swirling, disappearing in howling black night to silver
            maple leaves on limbs of giant bushy tree lathering in wind.
Desk light, O, my desk is covered in court cases,
Fugitive slave in shack by river staring glassy-eyed in oil lamp at pink dawn weeping,
***** in rags shuddering in corner sweating, lacerated by whip of laughing bearded
    man in gallon hat
and my spliff ash on twelve scattered pages.
O awe, teacup, steam and cool wind dancing, tree
    fanning in great commotions of wind-breaths through the window
Buzzing on energy pill I sat in black leather desk chair gazing, stood up, walked quietly in socks
    and grabbed the mug, extended my arm ***** out window in icy air
grasping Olympian Statue of Liberty torch of steaming green tea I brought my
    head through window looked up and cool-eyed I saw a star.
Nonah Oct 2016
Just be honest, my love
I know why it is like this
The dull shine in your eye
The ash I taste in your kiss

I know who you are, love
Why we must be this way
Why the river flows so cold
Why the clouds cover the day

I found it in your heart, dear
The darkness that I now see
My heart is rotten, love
You are right, to run from me
Asa D Bruss Oct 2014
Hold the lamp shade for me dear, I have need of it's feather-dusted stature.
Tell me closely the refrains of that song you've killed me with so many times.
Does it not go like this?:
"Smokey softly smokey like a cloud unworthy to be turned around.
Smokey softly smokey everything is burned down to the ground."

Let the fire in those words drip like lava down your chin.
The burn-holed beginning of my baker's street body
that baked all my fears alive; cleansed of it.

The race of men with their flaming tempers makes for quite a study.
The quantity of corruption found within.
Their stated lusts
in fires burnt,
their corpses left to ash.
Great fires fought by careful study;
yet the fire fought will always win.
Obviously this one has a bit of a theme to it.
Ali Hassan May 17
A flame once thrived on outer heat,
In comfort’s arms, its life complete.
It danced on winds, so wild, so free,
Unknowing warmth could ever flee.

It never learned to guard its core,
Believed the warmth would ever pour
The world had fed its every spark,
And lit its path through every dark

But one still day, the skies turned gray,
The winds grew cold and pulled away
The warmth it knew slipped out of sight,
And left the flame to face the night

It gasped for warmth, for hands, for light,
But frost had chained its wings in flight
Its hues grew pale, its spark withdrew,
A golden heart turned cold and blue

It tried to shout, but none replied,
No flame to spark, no light to guide
It fought to burn but lost the fight,
Now flickered weak in ash and night

Deep in the dark, a whisper grew,
A hidden beat no one once knew
A memory kept, by heart it's known,
A spark that glows when all alone.

In that silence, a spark was born,
A brand-new blaze, untouched, untorn.
No sun, no wind could feed its flame,
It burned alone untamed, aflame.

It shed the wish for borrowed light,
And made its warmth against the night.
Not just to live, but to ignite,
And turn the freeze to glowing white

The cold around began to shift,
Its biting edge began to lift.
The flame, now still but burning deep,
Had taught the dark itself to weep.

And as the frost began to fade,
A dance of light and shadow played.
For even in the coldest night,
The smallest flame can birth the light.
Edward Coles Oct 2016
I have been the crying drunk in the hotel lobby,
The mosquito bite in the thin white sheets.
I have been the monsoon rain in the tropical heat;
I have been everything you said I could never be.

On the streets of dust I can eat my fill,
No more clouded eyes, no more ash-filled windowsill.
No more patient wait for my timely death,
No more passing glance; no more loneliness.

I will find my place with this foreign tongue,
On the precipice I write my immigrant song.
This culture shock makes me feel alive,
It kick-starts my heart; I finally turned the tide.

I finally made my peace in this call for arms,
In this incessant storm, I could feel the calm.
Could feel it loosen my bones,
That age-old ache, that I kissed on the mouth,
That I tried to replace

With every chemical within my reach,
With every pill or lie
That passed through my teeth.
I have been the crying drunk,
I have been the victim, too long.
I sit still and breathe.
I write my immigrant song.
C

— The End —