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JC Lucas Jun 2018
Scrubjay alights on dewdamp juniper
Jree?
he asks
Jreee?

There is no one around to answer.

Brook trout leaps to catch a bug on the wing
and for one moment
she is suspended between the stars
and their reflection

but this does not occur to her.

Ponderosa’s limbs and roots
streeeetch
into the soil and the air
it has been alive for one hundred
and ninety years

but it is not counting,
are you?
I'm a monster | an abberation.
A sightless loon | a desecration.
What do you want from me?

I live in a fantasy concentration.
A constant mental demonstration.
What do you want with me?

I'm sick.
I fail.
I quit.
I whine.
I want nothing but to make things mine.

I avoid.
I covet.
I'm paranoid.
I pine.
I want nothing but to make you mine.

I own your every move.
Control your mind and lease your soul.
You're amusement | there's no other way.
I swallow life | there's no other way.

"Can you honestly love a dishonest thing?"
Lie to me.
Lie with me.
Lie right through your teeth.
Tell me of the joy.
The light.
The sweetness.
Underneath.

Here I am
Tell me I'm lying | and hide
Your pain beneath your skin.
Tell me that you're pleased | grin

Let everyone else go.
No one.
Can know you like I know you.
No one.
Cares | cares to care | can care.
I see you laid bare.
Open | for me.

I know you | you are serpentine
Lie to me.
Lie to me.
Afford me a second look.
You are serpentine | simian.
A match | a head | a book.
Beautiful and useless | brazen and prey.
A word and a mind is all it took.

You are serpentine.
Coiled into knots.
Breathing like a drum | coming undone
Turning poison [cannots]
Into years of history-

Realms | orbs.
Spheres of stunning beauty.
"Digest a world of interest."
I eat your eyes.
You are serpentine.
Nik Jul 2016
As I sat and pondered on how to write my next poem,
I witnessed an insect trying to fit into a space it was too big for.
I watched as the insect twisted and turned with determination to try and make the impossible possible, and it made me wonder:
How many opportunities have I missed because I mistook cannots for would nots?
I wallowed in the fear of what could happen, my pessimistic tendencies taking over,
(because I have loved and lost and I wish I had never loved at all)
so maybe the situation I am in is my fault.
Maybe it is genuinely not you, but it's me because you are the small space and unlike the insect I did not twist and turn
even though you are worth it.

I will auto correct myself, if you promise to do the same.
I don't want to miss an opportunity for greatness because we're both too scared.
Chelsea Dec 2017
If you come to preach to me of love, Don’t.

Don’t tell me how great it is because I know.

Soft skin colliding, moving, connecting in perfect harmony. Warmth against warmth. Lips against lips. Hands upon hips. Enclosing – embracing –enchanting.

Don’t tell me how fantastic it is, cause I know.

I know the ins and outs. The beauty, the passion, the sparks and the moon and the stars bursting into a kollidaskope of vibrant wonders waiting for the two of us to explore.

I cant phrase it just right but I know.

And now there is a whole list of cannots that I can not seem to master.

Your love left fragmented shards scattered through the memories in my mind. So I think in splinters.

When I see you with someone else I feel that pang of jealousy I am no longer allowed to feel.

You dropped me like hot coal fresh from the flame. And I fell.
Kasey Hedges Jan 2011
Your sweet smell reminds me I'm in love.
I'm trapped in it like a caged white dove.
It hits my nose, coming from my jacket.
Reminds me of my weakness. I'm pathetic.

Hanging on every word, every statement.
Sometimes you make my heart hit the pavement.
You **** me with your cannots and lost dreams.
I see that you're scared. Nothing is what it seems.

On the outside, they control you, manipulative.
On the inside, you're screaming, vindictive.
You've got a master plan, a solution.
You can't, won't, take anymore dilution.
They've diluted your dreams with their own.
You're relationships hit bottom, like stones.
Always an excuse, an eventually.
Your dreams crushed so pretentiously.

One day, it will be your life that you'll live.
One day, they'll realize everything they didn't give.
It hurts me to see you this way,
With no way to help and nothing to say.
So alone in your life, no one around.
Always being doubted, judged, and downed.

Continue to be strong throughout your struggle.
Maybe one day, you'll take off your muzzle.
Stand up for your life, everything that's right.
It won't be easy, but it's worth the fight.
I'll be there if you need me, I'll help how I can.
I'm sorry I'm like this, I just don't understand.
Marshall Gass Oct 2014
you cant stop the rain from falling
too many drops
you cant stop freedom from unchaining itself
too many links

you cant stop the road from extending
into the sunset
its too connected
you cant stop dreaming of free flight
locked in a cage

you cant wear red
in a sea of blue because
you will stick out
you can hope for greener grass
walking in a desert
you can count your blessings
when you have little
you cant count your blessing when you have
too much. The difference will not be noticed.

you can be free
inside yourself
and you can be free
alone.

I know that much.

I've tested all these cans
and cannots!

Author Notes

Contemplation 7. Freedom
© Marshall Gass. All rights reserved, a month ago
I have found
That my most recent
Words of prayer
Constitute
The most basic
The most raw
The most desperate
Pleases and
I cannots

I cannot
I cannot
Please
I can't
I can't, Oh God,
Help me.

I can't...
Feel alive anymore.
My substance has evaporated
Leaving behind a love-empty shell
My waking hours are so consumed
By fires of what-ifs and whys
My sanity burning away
Thick black fumes of tears
Choking my already dying desire to see tomorrow
To live any moment of this
Pathetically tragic existence

"Why do we even feel?"
I find myself crying into
The much-too-sick-of-me
Green woven prayer mat
Why do we feel
Why do I feel?
When all my emotions are inherently
Corrupt
Why do I feel if I'm not entitled to these emotions?

The wrath and anger
The injustice of it all sears into my skin
Burning flesh
Before it softens into grief
A shred of understanding
Grief, pain, sorrow
Hugging the bones of my ribcage
Trying or attempting
And failing so miserably
To contain the consuming pain

White hot flashes of pain
Washing over me like volcanic waves
Dissociating my un-alive personality
Going about the motions of my daily life
With unconscious duty towards
The important elements

There's no path leading back
I've taken it apart
One spoonful of earth at a time
Its gone
Sometimes, I see a glimmer
And I'm bestowed with false hope
Sweet hope
That maybe, perhaps
Just maybe
Mayhaps
Things will be okay


But they wont, not tonight
Not for a long time
Not forever
Never

She shrugged her tired shoulders
"I'm gone", she smiled sadly.

I am gone.

— The End —