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I keep myself
occupied
all of the
time
with busywork to
keep
me from thinking
about
you for too
long.
Kesha - Praying
Niko Walsh Oct 2013
When I was twelve,
my uncle told me that
when I got older,
I would only have enough
"best friends" to count on
one single hand,
and they would be the
best best friends I'd ever had.

And I can count my five
best friends,
but they are not
my best best.
Because they tug
and twist
and ****
and pull
on my heartstrings
in ways that could make
a grown girl cry;
and they do.

So I can tell you the names
of my best friends
that rip me to shreds
and throw my heart
onto a floor covered in
broken glass;
and you will be able
to identify the names,
because they might be your
best best friends, too.

Wanderlust
the beast to slay them all,
pushing my desire
and reinforcing my disability,
reminding me that I have
nowhere to go
and everything to see

Disorder
in my bedroom,
in my essays,
or in my brain;
all of them causing
someone (me)
to explode in a fit of
unwanted emotions.

Apathy
Towards my schoolwork and
busywork handed to me
by middle-aged "can't-do-so-teach-ers"
that need a handful of capsules
to numb the pull to leave
just as much as I do.

Dysfunction
in my brain's chemical makeup,
and my family's emotional one,
not to mention the relationships
I attempt to handle like a
one-handed juggler.

Imagination
creating scenarios in my heart
that could never come to be,
leaving me in a perpetual state of
disappointment.

So now I will tell
my nieces and nephews,
sons and daughters,
or countless grandchildren
to never trust the ones that
try to make something different
of your heart,
because they don't really love you,
they love what the can make you become.
EJ Aghassi Sep 2013
there is a certain kind
of magic
to the tangible hell
that is the workplace

these walls can
hardly breathe
their lungs weighed
by grease

but within them
I'm subjected
to certain things--
-rationale
-truth
I'd never think
it'd bring

I've scrubbed away
at my second thoughts

& I've slaved through the
constant heat of my desires

I have been suffering all along anyway

so these
pushed buttons,
rattled nerves
and our
heavy bones
is something
we share

it is magic of
a certain kind

and I rather enjoy suffering with you
John McDonnell May 2014
I’ve got a list of things to do
That’s longer than my arm;
As soon as Item 1 is finished,
It’s time for Item 2.
I never get a break it seems,
I’m always on the clock.
Would you believe I feel this stress
Even in my dreams?
My day is just an exercise
In busywork, I think.
I have no time for pleasure,
Or a joyful surprise.
But today is like a work of art,
The flowers are in bloom.
Isn’t that a gorgeous sky?
Such beauty fills my heart.
To heck with all those mindless tasks!
I’m tearing up my list!
I’m going to savor this fine day:
Enjoy it while it lasts.
whyshouldiknow Apr 2014
the stress was taking over

so i took a minute,
and folded my clothes.

the stress was taking over,

so i took a minute,
and paired up my socks.

the little things,
busywork.

they saved me.
Henrie Diosa Sep 2020
a wasp upon a flowered branch,
around and round she flew —
her carapace electric black,
her wings electric blue.

of nectar-drops inebriate, she
swerved from bloom to bloom;
i tarried from my errand, but
she wouldn't, i assumed,

but for a while. so i went on
and she went on her way;
the busywork of insectkind
their flutterings belie.
26 June 2020 — When I went out to buy a bouillon cube from our neighbour, I saw a beautiful blue-winged wasp in our white angel flowers. So I wrote a little thing for her, in imitation of my good friend Emily Dickinson.

I love how she uses these serious Latinate words for simple natural things, the badinage birds and the emolument of the sky; her work has been and continued to be an unexpected wellspring in my journey to enrich my vocabulary. I used some of my new words here. Maybe you can learn some new words with me too.

— The End —