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"engagement" poems
In a world without technology, can you imagine how it would be? To not have any lights. We'll probably stay home at night. In a world without technology, we'll lose forms of connectivity. We'll not have wifi or 3G, distance will be as it should be. However, without technology, We won't have people far away, because we can only walk on foot. Most will live at home for good. Without technology, perhaps there'll be more sincerity, where more people would be seen, not looking at their phone screens. Instead they'll stop and listen, giving undivided attention, to the people by their side. Perhaps without technology, we would have to do things manually. Life may be tough physically. But with technology, is our life really that easy? Is the world really as it should be? Are people living in harmony? Or is there more strife? More people losing their lives? Or is there more pain, more people dying in vain? What about pollution? Isn't it part of our contribution? All the fuels and carbon, it'll soon bring us to extinction. Our earth today is now diseased, life on earth is not at peace. We can deny all this, And this is the utter irony, while it gives us mass connection, It reduces engagement, attention and perhaps even compassion. "Across the globe, millions reported dying", ends up being desensitizing. Technology's connectivity, leaves us more detached than we should be.
0
Oct 18, 2014
Oct 18, 2014 at 8:53 PM UTC
Technology
Events Marketing Inform your followers on the latest update of your business. Whenever there are business engagements, such as trade show or conventions, business owners can notify their followers by uploading images on Instagram. Taking pictures and tagging subscribers in the specific location can boost visits and sales. It is important to be creative in taking pictures. Photogene and ColorSplash are the two most commonly used editing application in Instagram. In event marketing, VIP discounts can be offered to subscribers. Contests People are looking for excitement and rewards. Holding a contest as an activity is an exciting engagement to attract audience. Geotagging Instagram users can use the feature of geotagging in order to tag a specific location as to where the images were shot. For business, customers can be more familiar with the location of the business with the geotagging feature. Remember that today, the most successful people are known to take advantage of the social media.
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Nov 17, 2014
Nov 17, 2014 at 5:02 AM UTC
3 Strategies on How To Take Advantage Of Social Media
My baby moves in jumps and flutters inside me, like the barn swallows that make nests of dirt and twigs outside the restaurant. Yesterday they disappeared and I learned that a maintenance man came and hosed them down.   Tragic, he said. But necessary.   Too much bird ****   When I got pregnant it felt like waking up at the top of a roller coaster. And then an engagement.   Somehow this is how my life is going and somehow it does not feel like cliche. Ask as many what-ifs as you want but there is just a single trajectory. Even though you have to fall asleep one day before waking in the next. Moving through concentric circles and trying to find the center. Biology is happening in a part of me that I am still getting to know.   Kaleidoscoping. She was once the size of a grape but now I read she can blink her eyelids. She is also not like the barn swallows.
0
Jul 15, 2018
Jul 15, 2018 at 7:00 PM UTC
Concentric Circles
Beautiful summer day. You know you're gonna die that's why you know no joy unless religion, tv, stories, sports matter. For men like us dying's easy, it's living that's hard. And since dying's much like living, that's hard too. There's some contentment in letting community decide your place in it. A good day to die, the Apaches say. Can't stop the quince from blossoming or my sons from smoking, speeding. The best that can be done or said's a blessing. Less tv, less guessing about the effects of your anger unless you want to be an angry man forever. Becoming knowledgeable is the best defense against your insignificance. OK about being alone. Alive, almost sure of it. Whether I'm a visitor to my life or the actual owner. Mature poets steal, most are masturbators. There are a million poets, I'm poet #500K. Plenty of mysteries, infinite philosophies, prayers, laws and unwritten rules. That's why we go to school, life's complicated. All I do not know: ATP, probabilities, the glorious revolution, meiosis and mitosis and all I'll never see, the bottom of the ocean, the palm at the end of the mind, a wolverine. Forget-me-not, is that all I want? To get lucky, you gotta be careful first. To be great, you gotta be willing to sound BAD. In last night’s movie, a young writer and an older, married with children French woman fall in love. They did not meet during a village massacre and money is no object, Manhattan. But after everything has happened she cannot leave her children, not even for love, because of love, the love that brooks no serendipity. In the subsequent late night movie, a wealthy altruistic doctor arranges for the ****** of his neurotic concubine. His guilt provides us with an opportunity to consider the concepts of faith and forgiveness, that all will be well in the end after a period of meaningless suffering.
0
Mar 6, 2017
Mar 6, 2017 at 5:21 AM UTC
Aging as a Spiritual Practice
Beautiful summer day. You know you're gonna die that's why you know no joy unless religion, tv, stories, sports matter. For men like us dying's easy, it's living that's hard. And since dying's much like living, that's hard too. There's some contentment in letting community decide your place in it. A good day to die, the Apaches say. Can't stop the quince from blossoming or my sons from smoking, speeding. The best that can be done or said's a blessing. Less tv, less guessing about the effects of your anger unless you want to be an angry man forever. Becoming knowledgeable is the best defense against your insignificance. OK about being alone. Alive, almost sure of it. Whether I'm a visitor to my life or the actual owner. Mature poets steal, most are masturbators. There are a million poets, I'm poet #500K. Plenty of mysteries, infinite philosophies, prayers, laws and unwritten rules. That's why we go to school, life's complicated. All I do not know: ATP, probabilities, the glorious revolution, meiosis and mitosis and all I'll never see, the bottom of the ocean, the palm at the end of the mind, a wolverine. Forget-me-not, is that all I want? To get lucky, you gotta be careful first. To be great, you gotta be willing to sound BAD. In last night’s movie, a young writer and an older, married with children French woman fall in love. They did not meet during a village massacre and money is no object, Manhattan. But after everything has happened she cannot leave her children, not even for love, because of love, the love that brooks no serendipity. In the subsequent late night movie, a wealthy altruistic doctor arranges for the ****** of his neurotic concubine. His guilt provides us with an opportunity to consider the concepts of faith and forgiveness, that all will be well in the end after a period of meaningless suffering.
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42
A is for Alpha B is for Barbie C is for Couple D is for Destiny E is for Engagement F is for Fancy G is for Gullible H is for Happy I is for Illusion J is for Jealous K is for Kingdom L is for Lonely M is for Mistress N is for Nagging O is for Often P is for Pregnant Q is for Question R is for Rejecting S is for Suicide T is for Traumatize U is for Understand V is for Vaguely W is for Whisky X is for Xanax Y is for Yesterday Z is for Zombie.
0
Jul 6, 2018
Jul 6, 2018 at 3:07 AM UTC
Alpha bets
***Crossing the room in slow motion She watches his muscles move in the moonlight Oh how they glisten in anticipation Sit my pet, in a whisper At her feet he waits with bated breath So pleased at his obedience Proceed Such a simple command He inches closer His eagerness evident in his silence In his omission of a proper response An outfaced palm and he stops short Sitting back on his feet, hands in lap, eyes to the floor I'm sorry Ma'am, he says That is evident by his failure to respond He knows what is coming Grabbing the back of his hair she forces his eyes to hers Position, she says disgustedly She leans back in the armchair as he pulls her hips to the edge He lifts one leg and gently places it over the arm Then he positions the other in the same manner Sitting back on his feet, facing the floor His arousal is evident, as is his moist anticipation Respire. The word is grunted through gritted teeth He leans into heaven Hovering an inch away Slow deep breaths He breathes in her essence wanting nothing more Than to bridge the gap with his tongue White satin and peekaboo lace She runs down the rules of his punishment Will you touch the Goddess No Ma'am Will you drool on the Goddess No Ma'am Will you move without permission No Ma'am How long will you hold your position As long as my Goddess sees fit...Ma'am Good boy His breath is slow, deliberate, and heavy The heat of it permeates the thin fabric She runs her hand over the object of desire Accentuating the outlines of what lies beneath An accidental whimper Silence! A gruff command Followed implicitly In a slow and graceful motion A hand slips under the fabric Opening her flower releasing a hint of nectar The scent grows exponentially upon the unfurling of petals A glistening finger touches him just above his lip Is that what you want? It's a rhetorical question Yes please What will you do to get it Such a simple question with but one answer Anything you please, Goddess Stick out your tongue He does so in silence, careful that he does not touch her She uses his wet flesh to wipe her finger clean Closer she whispers Now, within a half inch he breathes her in deeply Mesmerized by the dewy goodness held behind the smooth satin Watching desire grow in painfully slow motion He blows out on the growing dampness As he waits for her next command***
0
Jul 2, 2015
Jul 2, 2015 at 11:20 AM UTC
Rules of Engagement
***Crossing the room in slow motion She watches his muscles move in the moonlight Oh how they glisten in anticipation Sit my pet, in a whisper At her feet he waits with bated breath So pleased at his obedience Proceed Such a simple command He inches closer His eagerness evident in his silence In his omission of a proper response An outfaced palm and he stops short Sitting back on his feet, hands in lap, eyes to the floor I'm sorry Ma'am, he says That is evident by his failure to respond He knows what is coming Grabbing the back of his hair she forces his eyes to hers Position, she says disgustedly She leans back in the armchair as he pulls her hips to the edge He lifts one leg and gently places it over the arm Then he positions the other in the same manner Sitting back on his feet, facing the floor His arousal is evident, as is his moist anticipation Respire. The word is grunted through gritted teeth He leans into heaven Hovering an inch away Slow deep breaths He breathes in her essence wanting nothing more Than to bridge the gap with his tongue White satin and peekaboo lace She runs down the rules of his punishment Will you touch the Goddess No Ma'am Will you drool on the Goddess No Ma'am Will you move without permission No Ma'am How long will you hold your position As long as my Goddess sees fit...Ma'am Good boy His breath is slow, deliberate, and heavy The heat of it permeates the thin fabric She runs her hand over the object of desire Accentuating the outlines of what lies beneath An accidental whimper Silence! A gruff command Followed implicitly In a slow and graceful motion A hand slips under the fabric Opening her flower releasing a hint of nectar The scent grows exponentially upon the unfurling of petals A glistening finger touches him just above his lip Is that what you want? It's a rhetorical question Yes please What will you do to get it Such a simple question with but one answer Anything you please, Goddess Stick out your tongue He does so in silence, careful that he does not touch her She uses his wet flesh to wipe her finger clean Closer she whispers Now, within a half inch he breathes her in deeply Mesmerized by the dewy goodness held behind the smooth satin Watching desire grow in painfully slow motion He blows out on the growing dampness As he waits for her next command***
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69
I caught you staring at me, you looked away, and pulled your sly little smile. I've been warned, from the very first day, to stay away. But like our first impression, you're hard to forget. You caught me staring at you, and i didn't look away. You have my attention, a forbidden engagement.
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Dec 18, 2014
Dec 18, 2014 at 7:48 PM UTC
Forbidden attention.
Tar-dark world. The defining color is black, the inky night of her nocturnal hunts and the deep, bottomless dark of her alien retreat. A watcher of men, she is everything and nothing. She might be too much of something, or too little of something else. Time will sort out the particulars. There are no simple entry points – she demands engagement, and to be taken as a whole. Her discomfort is over her own allure, her undisturbed surface. It’s more about intuition and gesture than dialogue. They remain as echoes. They’ve made her beautiful in a real way, with hips and blemishes and dimples in her skin. The imprint of the lives she begins to grapple with as her time on Earth extends, leads her to stop seeing herself as a mere conduit for her mission, and to start developing a sense of subjectivity. Her life force is overlapping, shaping itself into a pattern of rings that simultaneously suggests a birth canal dilating, the stages of a rocket separating, and a lunar eclipse as seen through a telescope’s lens. She's a life-form you can’t quite understand, but it’s carrying on relentlessly, like a beehive, moving backward through the constellations at first approach.
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Feb 23, 2025
Feb 23, 2025 at 2:06 PM UTC
First Approach
This poem casts a line from insomnia to morning On the wind of a prayer that whatever bites, holds on. See I have counted eleven score and ten, with rainbow like curves of my neck - contemptuous beasts leaping in formation each bleating out a preach of vague platitudes; A narrative for the night sky. My hands clamour at keys for escape until I tumble headfirst into a web so vast it has ensnared the whole world wide - millennials are living in-ter-net over in-the-world; a new ultraviolence against humanity. I beat my words into the screen until it breaks; shattering scarlet emoticons like confetti pouring over language as if it were a compliment. My mind massages shapeless polypous thoughts like tight constricted muscles aching for release. 3am casts these philosophies into horses, whipping them into shape and speed before the eyes of this statuesque ****** This anxious wakefulness begs my manic self to dance; suggestively ********* tickets to ride like cleavage. Sleep is fast becoming a neglected former engagement; as my mind trips over fallen heroes wades through my favourite mistakes in a wonderland unfolding faster than I can fall while the world beyond my window remains dark.
0
Apr 6, 2014
Apr 6, 2014 at 10:52 PM UTC
Insomnia
(Part 1, The Engagement) Draw blood, draw blood for me. Not with a crayon, do it with a knife. Show me that you mean it, you need me in your life. Tell me that you love me and need me always near. Surrender all suggestion, your purpose and your fear. (Part 2, The Controller) Why, that's a lovely dress but why you wear it here? I'm sitting with friends, we're trying to have a beer. You make me ******* mental and I know, you know! Now ring a ******* taxi, get in it and just go! (Part 3, The Victim) Hey baby baby, I missed you so tonight. You know how I hate it when we fight. You don't know why you make me mad and then you'll cry like I've done bad. You need to work out what you want but don't dare tell me that we're through. I haven't done a single thing and all this **** is down to you. Poetry by Kaydee.
0
Sep 29, 2018
Sep 29, 2018 at 1:49 PM UTC
An Ode to the Narcissistic Sociopath.
Strapless and lace That's what I thought it'd be It wasn't just a dream I really thought that was me With the done up hair With a bouquet of roses I thought that was me. White picket fences Children in the yard Cooking breakfast and dinner For all of us, three With that picture perfect life I thought that was me. But, forget about that I remind you of the wedding dress That I won't be able to wear Because it has your name on it The wedding dress The engagement that could never be salvaged Not that I want it...anymore It's just a pity That poor wedding dress Will never be worn Because it's meant for me But, still has your name on it.
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Nov 13, 2013
Nov 13, 2013 at 10:42 PM UTC
Wedding Dress
The whole concept of adulthood is one that seems to trespass from the ever-anticipated world of the theoretical, just to barge into your life one night like an uninvited drunken friend. It will never really “hit you,” but it’ll come **** close the first time your aunt offers you a glass of wine as she and your mother gossip frankly about your father’s mistress— you sip on cheap Chardonnay and pretend to be used to the taste, as they talk with a middle-aged bitterness of the man you were raised to believe was too virtuous to be in debt for some glitzy engagement ring that he bought to restart his life with a woman he left your mother for shortly after the pandemonium of a guiltless affair. The man whose brutishness you were told to overlook, cradling the sparse memories of when he’d tuck you too tightly into bed, or when he’d tell you that he loved you even though half the time you really didn’t believe him— The man whose love confused you, whose clumsy attempts of fatherhood kept the heart of a young girl perpetually guarded by a cautious skepticism— The man who brought you into a world he found absurd as carelessly as he raised you to face it, torn apart like every illusion that makes a child, the ashes of which that slip through your fingers inevitably declare you another bitter adult. More wine will reveal that your beloved father is a controlling ****** and his relationship with that ***** the whole family hates only appears to be functioning because she lets him have all the control he couldn’t exert on your mother, even though you’ve had dinner with the two of them a couple of times and if you had met her under any other circumstance (though you’d feel like a traitor if you said it aloud) you wouldn’t think she was all that bad. In red, declarative letters I want to write to any children I may ever bear into this bittersweet game of ******** we play that we’ve since called ‘life,’ that when they first gaze with awe at the unattainable grace with which every grown-up seems to navigate the world they created, with all the pain of tax-paying and womanhood, I want to scream that we don’t know what the hell we’re doing either and if at any point I try to convince you otherwise you should tell your mother that she’s full of ****
0
Nov 12, 2013
Nov 12, 2013 at 3:25 PM UTC
"Adulthood" (revised)
The whole concept of adulthood is one that seems to trespass from the ever-anticipated world of the theoretical, just to barge into your life one night like an uninvited drunken friend. It will never really “hit you,” but it’ll come **** close the first time your aunt offers you a glass of wine as she and your mother gossip frankly about your father’s mistress— you sip on cheap Chardonnay and pretend to be used to the taste, as they talk with a middle-aged bitterness of the man you were raised to believe was too virtuous to be in debt for some glitzy engagement ring that he bought to restart his life with a woman he left your mother for shortly after the pandemonium of a guiltless affair. The man whose brutishness you were told to overlook, cradling the sparse memories of when he’d tuck you too tightly into bed, or when he’d tell you that he loved you even though half the time you really didn’t believe him— The man whose love confused you, whose clumsy attempts of fatherhood kept the heart of a young girl perpetually guarded by a cautious skepticism— The man who brought you into a world he found absurd as carelessly as he raised you to face it, torn apart like every illusion that makes a child, the ashes of which that slip through your fingers inevitably declare you another bitter adult. More wine will reveal that your beloved father is a controlling ****** and his relationship with that ***** the whole family hates only appears to be functioning because she lets him have all the control he couldn’t exert on your mother, even though you’ve had dinner with the two of them a couple of times and if you had met her under any other circumstance (though you’d feel like a traitor if you said it aloud) you wouldn’t think she was all that bad. In red, declarative letters I want to write to any children I may ever bear into this bittersweet game of ******** we play that we’ve since called ‘life,’ that when they first gaze with awe at the unattainable grace with which every grown-up seems to navigate the world they created, with all the pain of tax-paying and womanhood, I want to scream that we don’t know what the hell we’re doing either and if at any point I try to convince you otherwise you should tell your mother that she’s full of ****
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85
Inertia the process of doing nothing Contradiction the art of jumping intellectual rope Intellectualism the active engagement in educated debate Spinning the result of which is dizziness Dizziness a state of uncertainty Debating the conversational to and fro Art is conversation nothing more Conversation a non productive but necessary social engagement Formal education Relative information specificity Consider the ****** lilies Consideration Debate Intelligence Conversation Inertia
0
Mar 8, 2012
Mar 8, 2012 at 8:03 AM UTC
Lilies
I hate love songs. It's just a sappy little tune of someone else's expectations. I expect certain things for my life But they'll never be what is written in a song Love songs are like movies. People write songs and movies about people living happily after ever. Well that's completely false. Because no one lives happily ever after. We watch these movies and listen to these songs and build up our own expectations Only to be let down when we realize that this is reality We think "Oh I want a love like that." When really, there's no such thing as true love. Right? I don't know. That's kinda how I think of it. Love songs **** Because we latch onto what that person is saying, hoping we're gonna find that someday But look at how hopeless we are I'm so hopeless I don't know what to think about love There's so many degrees of love Finding that true person who just happens to know everything about you And likes it. And you like all those things about them But why? Everybody's all like "love is such an amazing thing." Like there's no faults in it Like people don't cheat on each other And people don't break up with each other for no reason Like there's no back-stabbing Like it doesn't ever fall apart because you have the glue to hold it together But what's the point of love when there's so many faults that come with it Let's face it Everybody throws the word "love" around like it's a baseball "I love you" "I love you too" Bull. Because then it ends and it's like "Oh but I thought you were in love?" I wonder if love lasts forever. I mean nothing lasts forever I wonder if you can stay in love with the same person forever I mean how's that possible? Don't you get sick of looking at that person? Don't you ever feel like being with someone else I don't know. Maybe I'm saying this because I've never experienced love With anyone special Just meaningless relationships From my youth that I knew would never last Then what was the point of being with that person Fun? It ***** to have a hopeless crush that you know will never happen But maybe it never happens because you DON'T believe I don't know. People should find that one person Everybody has a God given right to find love They need to find it the right way People have one night stands with random strangers How can you honestly make love to someone and feel something called "love" to someone you just met? Like how? You shouldn't give yourself to someone you don't know In my opinion, you shouldn't give yourself to anyone unless you know you're gonna spend the rest of your life with that person And I'm not just saying that because I'm a Christian I wasn't planning on giving myself to anyone before I was married, before I found God Sure, that's a part of it Because *** before marriage is a sin But I didn't have an expectation of having *** with anyone before I was married And the only way to know if you'll spend, "forever", "eternity" With that person is not when you put the engagement ring on But the wedding ring Because an engagement ring means nothing It's just an announcement that you're planning on a future It's nothing set in stone People might say, "Yeah but you can always get divorced." When I get married, that's not an option. Because why would I throw something away that I know can hopefully be fixed? People might say, "How can I not have *** in this relationship?" It's easy. Don't. Love is so fake. And yet, so real. I have love songs But listen to them all the time because I build up that expectation But let's face it We don't always get the fairytale we want I hate love songs for one reason You expect so much in your future You're waiting for that prince to come save you But come on. That's fake. I hate love songs. I hate love movies. I hate love.
0
Dec 23, 2013
Dec 23, 2013 at 12:34 PM UTC
I Hate Love
I hate love songs. It's just a sappy little tune of someone else's expectations. I expect certain things for my life But they'll never be what is written in a song Love songs are like movies. People write songs and movies about people living happily after ever. Well that's completely false. Because no one lives happily ever after. We watch these movies and listen to these songs and build up our own expectations Only to be let down when we realize that this is reality We think "Oh I want a love like that." When really, there's no such thing as true love. Right? I don't know. That's kinda how I think of it. Love songs **** Because we latch onto what that person is saying, hoping we're gonna find that someday But look at how hopeless we are I'm so hopeless I don't know what to think about love There's so many degrees of love Finding that true person who just happens to know everything about you And likes it. And you like all those things about them But why? Everybody's all like "love is such an amazing thing." Like there's no faults in it Like people don't cheat on each other And people don't break up with each other for no reason Like there's no back-stabbing Like it doesn't ever fall apart because you have the glue to hold it together But what's the point of love when there's so many faults that come with it Let's face it Everybody throws the word "love" around like it's a baseball "I love you" "I love you too" Bull. Because then it ends and it's like "Oh but I thought you were in love?" I wonder if love lasts forever. I mean nothing lasts forever I wonder if you can stay in love with the same person forever I mean how's that possible? Don't you get sick of looking at that person? Don't you ever feel like being with someone else I don't know. Maybe I'm saying this because I've never experienced love With anyone special Just meaningless relationships From my youth that I knew would never last Then what was the point of being with that person Fun? It ***** to have a hopeless crush that you know will never happen But maybe it never happens because you DON'T believe I don't know. People should find that one person Everybody has a God given right to find love They need to find it the right way People have one night stands with random strangers How can you honestly make love to someone and feel something called "love" to someone you just met? Like how? You shouldn't give yourself to someone you don't know In my opinion, you shouldn't give yourself to anyone unless you know you're gonna spend the rest of your life with that person And I'm not just saying that because I'm a Christian I wasn't planning on giving myself to anyone before I was married, before I found God Sure, that's a part of it Because *** before marriage is a sin But I didn't have an expectation of having *** with anyone before I was married And the only way to know if you'll spend, "forever", "eternity" With that person is not when you put the engagement ring on But the wedding ring Because an engagement ring means nothing It's just an announcement that you're planning on a future It's nothing set in stone People might say, "Yeah but you can always get divorced." When I get married, that's not an option. Because why would I throw something away that I know can hopefully be fixed? People might say, "How can I not have *** in this relationship?" It's easy. Don't. Love is so fake. And yet, so real. I have love songs But listen to them all the time because I build up that expectation But let's face it We don't always get the fairytale we want I hate love songs for one reason You expect so much in your future You're waiting for that prince to come save you But come on. That's fake. I hate love songs. I hate love movies. I hate love.
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91
I I stole my brother’s car and drove to Phoenix in the dark. The blue-green glow of dashboard gauges, the biting scent of roadkill and desert marigolds. Tap. Tap. Tap. Insects slapping the windshield, incipient rain. Keep driving. Drive until the sun blooms. II Some days were more dire than others. CCTV footage confirms I pawned a shotgun, a Gibson guitar, and my wife’s engagement ring at the pawnshop next to Fatty’s Tattoo parlor on MLK Boulevard. The typographically accurate Declaration of Independence inscribed on my back also confirms this. III I ran the tilt-a-whirl at the Ashtabula county fair, fattening up on fried Oreos and elephant ears, twisting behind tent ***** with a one-armed contortionist with strawberry-blonde hair. IV I derailed in a dive bar. V I disappeared in a city lit by lavender streetlights, where buildings blotted out the stars and the traffic signals kept perfect time. I picked through trash bins. I paid for love with drugstore wine. VI I closed my eyes on a mountain road. The sheriff extracted me from a ****** snowbank. VII I holed up for weeks in an oceanfront motel, dazed by the roar of the breakers. Each morning I drew back the curtains and lost myself in the crisscrossing patterns of whitecaps, the synchronous flight of sanderlings above the dunes. I dreamed of dead horseshoe ***** rolling in with the tide. VIII The moon over my shoulder tightened into focus like a spotlight. One night the barking dogs undid me. I caved in to the candor of a naked mattress. I grew my beard, an insomniac in a jail cell, clinging to bars the color of a morning dove. IX I coveted the house keys of strangers. X I opened and closed many doors. I sang into the mouths of storm drains. I stepped out of many rooms only to find myself in the room I just left. Despite all my leaving, I remained.
0
Sep 21, 2018
Sep 21, 2018 at 1:45 PM UTC
Escape Artist Sketches
I I stole my brother’s car and drove to Phoenix in the dark. The blue-green glow of dashboard gauges, the biting scent of roadkill and desert marigolds. Tap. Tap. Tap. Insects slapping the windshield, incipient rain. Keep driving. Drive until the sun blooms. II Some days were more dire than others. CCTV footage confirms I pawned a shotgun, a Gibson guitar, and my wife’s engagement ring at the pawnshop next to Fatty’s Tattoo parlor on MLK Boulevard. The typographically accurate Declaration of Independence inscribed on my back also confirms this. III I ran the tilt-a-whirl at the Ashtabula county fair, fattening up on fried Oreos and elephant ears, twisting behind tent ***** with a one-armed contortionist with strawberry-blonde hair. IV I derailed in a dive bar. V I disappeared in a city lit by lavender streetlights, where buildings blotted out the stars and the traffic signals kept perfect time. I picked through trash bins. I paid for love with drugstore wine. VI I closed my eyes on a mountain road. The sheriff extracted me from a ****** snowbank. VII I holed up for weeks in an oceanfront motel, dazed by the roar of the breakers. Each morning I drew back the curtains and lost myself in the crisscrossing patterns of whitecaps, the synchronous flight of sanderlings above the dunes. I dreamed of dead horseshoe ***** rolling in with the tide. VIII The moon over my shoulder tightened into focus like a spotlight. One night the barking dogs undid me. I caved in to the candor of a naked mattress. I grew my beard, an insomniac in a jail cell, clinging to bars the color of a morning dove. IX I coveted the house keys of strangers. X I opened and closed many doors. I sang into the mouths of storm drains. I stepped out of many rooms only to find myself in the room I just left. Despite all my leaving, I remained.
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49
Suddenly it’s broken. My beloved lies below my hands. Aquamarine, amethyst and citrine. My stones now unstrung. You were my ‘promise ring’ my ‘engagement jewelry’. You gave it to me and I promised to return to you Santorini. Then it shifts: I am pleading in your aquamarine waters. “Forgive me” Pleading to your citrine hills. “I promise” Pleading, pleading while your amethyst moon watches, because it is always watching.
0
Apr 28, 2011
Apr 28, 2011 at 9:47 AM UTC
Necklace Nightmare
Early childhood milestones **** by, first tooth, first words, first steps, first days at school. Teenage milestones are anticipated, first date, first dance, first kiss. Adult milestones arrive, first job, twenty-first, engagement, marriage, offspring. Middle age milestones are measured by milestones of offspring. Through latter years one yearns for milestones that have been. At the end of one's years one waits for the inevitable, ultimate, milestone of death and rebirth
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Jan 6, 2014
Jan 6, 2014 at 1:11 PM UTC
Life's milestones
You'll be initiated, when you are ready. Life knows, and the initiation rites are waiting. Where you are holding, you will be broken. Where you've lost heart, you will be shaken. Where you are careless, you'll meet your neglect. What you are averse to, will be total and stark. What you are attached to, will be pried from your grips. Ignorance will be wrought with vision, a burning, to make you see. You are loved so much that you will be engulfed in the flames of loves fire, in order to ignite your own hearts flames, and fulfill loves destiny. Alchemical change will ensue, destroying you, to make way for new love. Licked by some Hellish ordeal, Ambivalence gives way to Engagement, Rage engenders Clarity, Anxiety becomes Inspiration, Apathy roars into Feeling, Melancholy imbues it's Depth, Licked by some Heavenly delight. Phoenixed, you'll fly, the hero of your own journey, wielding revelatory fire, with great Wisdom and Compassion, a Gestalt, anew. The circle closes, it is a spiral, to the beginning, of another Circle.
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Mar 17, 2014
Mar 17, 2014 at 1:24 PM UTC
Initiation
The body remembers, though it has been four years since the summer you shattered your knee but still limped out across the continent to Boston to see him you idiot and this is the fourth summer you've placed between yourself and the last pin and the last ***** your body remembers, though in the torturous lengthening of fused and toughened tissues the bad leg is finally catching up, and the scar with its ten numb inches of puckered track has come to fade bone white against your skin but it’s still stored somewhere in your sockets or cells and when you fall off your bike you still cry Though you’re not really hurt your body remembers So that when you’re confronted with their engagement photo (you didn’t even know he was seeing anyone) the darkened garden at the Plymouth Plantation begins to bloom up around you before you can stop it like a seizure or a vision, and you’re there again trespassing after him through shadowy pines and night-damp atlantic air to where the white chairs encircle the altar.
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Mar 11, 2015
Mar 11, 2015 at 12:17 AM UTC
Thoughts on Forgetting
You become my words, When I became speechless. You became my sunshine, When I drowned in darkness. You became my inspiration, To wake up and live my dream. You became my reason, My pride, treasure and esteem. You my darling, became my Kanna, My strength, love and best friend. You and I are now not two, but one, Together, forever, beyond every end.
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Sep 10, 2016
Sep 10, 2016 at 1:19 PM UTC
Announcing My Engagement
I am not some street cowboy punk i am a quiet sweet rampant drunk i play the spoons with the air of a saint i have a tongue that can swallow paint sour and acrid, the tone of my voice i have never left without a choice punched back sideways even more today than tomorrow for your heart i will bed, steal or borrow Superman don't have ***** on me don't need no wings now i am free saving the restless, curing the weak you can laugh at me when i dance like a freak. I will kiss you when i drink too much wine when i am restless and hungry you will be mine I will do nothing when you are nothing to me i will drive you crazy with all you can be no more talkin no more of that **** i'll hold you apart, break you bit by bit if you're too polite i'll bite my tongue i'll whip you and shake you, then i'm done. carefree to be careless, shareless boy talk tell me to go and i will surely walk don't ask me to be kissed or hold my hand i am not that girl that you left unplanned i am a midnight demon on ferocious terms i grasp you and hold you tight and firm. I am not lost, or fragile or broken bound i am not looking for someone to make a sound i am no paige boy scarlet harlot wild child thing i am not yours, can't you hear your telephone ring? I am a sordid freak of gigantic endeavours i will solder your heart regardless of your tremors i am torturous and painful and weak to the bone i am the mightiest fallen, can you not see my throne? i have a **** me, buck me, tie-me-tight gaze if i look at you slowly, be patient but don't wait i want everything and all and i want it now i am no gleaming bronze statue know-all-know-how i am surely what you ever thought you knew i am surely what you never thought when i met you i am free to please anyone at night i am free to sit and cry by candlelight alright now, oh baby its all right now **** me gently and i'll show you how to be nothing more than anything is something i suppose but i really can't tell for the state of your clothes you dress me up slightly more than your vision i've never met a person with such succint precision and well here i go, superbly astute and blunt never did i see such a spectacular *** **** and well that is really the way that i go i fly here, there, everywhere i flow i am not some pretty naieve little thing i am a mess of entirety with 2 engagement rings i'm living with despondence and its ******* me off holy **** batman i hear you cough come see me, come stay a while come see me, come see me, and i will **** you in style
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Jan 30, 2013
Jan 30, 2013 at 1:41 PM UTC
Holy **** Batman
I am not some street cowboy punk i am a quiet sweet rampant drunk i play the spoons with the air of a saint i have a tongue that can swallow paint sour and acrid, the tone of my voice i have never left without a choice punched back sideways even more today than tomorrow for your heart i will bed, steal or borrow Superman don't have ***** on me don't need no wings now i am free saving the restless, curing the weak you can laugh at me when i dance like a freak. I will kiss you when i drink too much wine when i am restless and hungry you will be mine I will do nothing when you are nothing to me i will drive you crazy with all you can be no more talkin no more of that **** i'll hold you apart, break you bit by bit if you're too polite i'll bite my tongue i'll whip you and shake you, then i'm done. carefree to be careless, shareless boy talk tell me to go and i will surely walk don't ask me to be kissed or hold my hand i am not that girl that you left unplanned i am a midnight demon on ferocious terms i grasp you and hold you tight and firm. I am not lost, or fragile or broken bound i am not looking for someone to make a sound i am no paige boy scarlet harlot wild child thing i am not yours, can't you hear your telephone ring? I am a sordid freak of gigantic endeavours i will solder your heart regardless of your tremors i am torturous and painful and weak to the bone i am the mightiest fallen, can you not see my throne? i have a **** me, buck me, tie-me-tight gaze if i look at you slowly, be patient but don't wait i want everything and all and i want it now i am no gleaming bronze statue know-all-know-how i am surely what you ever thought you knew i am surely what you never thought when i met you i am free to please anyone at night i am free to sit and cry by candlelight alright now, oh baby its all right now **** me gently and i'll show you how to be nothing more than anything is something i suppose but i really can't tell for the state of your clothes you dress me up slightly more than your vision i've never met a person with such succint precision and well here i go, superbly astute and blunt never did i see such a spectacular *** **** and well that is really the way that i go i fly here, there, everywhere i flow i am not some pretty naieve little thing i am a mess of entirety with 2 engagement rings i'm living with despondence and its ******* me off holy **** batman i hear you cough come see me, come stay a while come see me, come see me, and i will **** you in style
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Maroon, crimson, dark red. Whatever color you want to call it, it sits balled in front of me on my old bedside table. You want it back because it has "sentimental value," your brother bought it for you before he went off to the military and it cost him seventy dollars. On the top shelf of my current bedside table, at the back, hidden from light, from sight, sits the ring you bought me that cost over two hundred dollars, the ring that signified a promise that you swore you'd keep. You asked if it bothered me to have, if it hurt, and I told you that it didn't. You said that I should keep it. You say the hoodie has sentimental value but I sit here with a ring of mineral, real diamond centered on its band, coveted only by the box you presented it to me in when you tricked me into finding it, when you told me you'd love me until the day that you died. The ring that later represented not only our connection, our relationship, but our engagement that I hear you're denying ever happened. You did not ask for the ring back. You never said that it held "sentimental value," but your seventy dollar hoodie from the brother who has given you fear to be touched by unprecedented betrayal, does. I cannot help but wonder how you are not bothered by an item that once held such meaning no longer being in your possession. I cannot help but wonder why you have not mentioned it. I cannot help but wonder if you hear a certain artist in the car, or with friends, and think of me but do not say anything in fear of making a scene. I cannot help but wonder if you are still in love with me. If a hoodie can hold such sentimental value and the ring you proposed to me with does not, did the words " I love you " mean less than " I'm trying to get over you " when you said them within a week of one another? Am I never meant to know? I fear I am not privileged enough to know whether or not these words, these things that have passed through my life were ever meant to mean more than a cool March night of lying on the roof of your car, staring at the constellations and wishing to be with you forever when I saw the shooting stars. I fear that I am no longer privileged to say no one knows you like I do. You said you wanted your hoodie back, and I told you that I found it. You said you'd find my clothes as soon as possible and I told you to take your time. I told you not to push yourself too hard. I didn't want you to hurt anymore. I don't know what to do with your hoodie, though. It's moving from my bed, to dresser, to bedside table to bed to dresser to bedside table and I wake and see it and think of you and I wonder if I should put it on when I go for a walk because it's warmer than anything else that I own, but I don't, because it has sentimental value. I do not.
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May 21, 2015
May 21, 2015 at 10:27 PM UTC
Hoodie
Maroon, crimson, dark red. Whatever color you want to call it, it sits balled in front of me on my old bedside table. You want it back because it has "sentimental value," your brother bought it for you before he went off to the military and it cost him seventy dollars. On the top shelf of my current bedside table, at the back, hidden from light, from sight, sits the ring you bought me that cost over two hundred dollars, the ring that signified a promise that you swore you'd keep. You asked if it bothered me to have, if it hurt, and I told you that it didn't. You said that I should keep it. You say the hoodie has sentimental value but I sit here with a ring of mineral, real diamond centered on its band, coveted only by the box you presented it to me in when you tricked me into finding it, when you told me you'd love me until the day that you died. The ring that later represented not only our connection, our relationship, but our engagement that I hear you're denying ever happened. You did not ask for the ring back. You never said that it held "sentimental value," but your seventy dollar hoodie from the brother who has given you fear to be touched by unprecedented betrayal, does. I cannot help but wonder how you are not bothered by an item that once held such meaning no longer being in your possession. I cannot help but wonder why you have not mentioned it. I cannot help but wonder if you hear a certain artist in the car, or with friends, and think of me but do not say anything in fear of making a scene. I cannot help but wonder if you are still in love with me. If a hoodie can hold such sentimental value and the ring you proposed to me with does not, did the words " I love you " mean less than " I'm trying to get over you " when you said them within a week of one another? Am I never meant to know? I fear I am not privileged enough to know whether or not these words, these things that have passed through my life were ever meant to mean more than a cool March night of lying on the roof of your car, staring at the constellations and wishing to be with you forever when I saw the shooting stars. I fear that I am no longer privileged to say no one knows you like I do. You said you wanted your hoodie back, and I told you that I found it. You said you'd find my clothes as soon as possible and I told you to take your time. I told you not to push yourself too hard. I didn't want you to hurt anymore. I don't know what to do with your hoodie, though. It's moving from my bed, to dresser, to bedside table to bed to dresser to bedside table and I wake and see it and think of you and I wonder if I should put it on when I go for a walk because it's warmer than anything else that I own, but I don't, because it has sentimental value. I do not.
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