"flatlining" poems
Glances in passing and nothingness,
I'll drop out and take up gardening.
And you are so cool, all German bred,
and sometimes braided. I see you, so
well-read and rather regal. ***** blonde
nuclear, alabaster, aluminum rods -
electricity dripping from the soles of
your shoes. This classroom, my own
ink blotted incubator, the radiator sits,
flatlining. Your jaw as two razor blades,
your shoulder blades, broad, gentle.
I wonder how you look in the morning,
How you look at yourself in the mirror.
Do you practice smiling, and
how often do you wash your hair? Oh,
you exist in glass, and I will not try to
know you. Leaving this poem limited,
and yet. Your jam drop mouth houses all
well-spoken soliloquies, radical requiems.
So, what would happen if we brushed
shoulders in passing? Your little accent.
Accident, we appeared in the same
huddled mass. Literary plugs in the
drain, and your new American. So,
why don't we just go walking on
airplane wings? Some transcontinental
affair. Frequent flyer ******* stranger.
Feb 27, 2017
Feb 27, 2017 at 5:48 PM UTC
you should’ve never unpacked your bags,
because it gave me this expectation that you were in this for the long run. i’m still running. i have swallowed so much blood that tastes like your regret from biting down my tongue to cage it behind my teeth from screaming about you to a world that wants my blood for ink.
i am more than a number, but 24 makes me feel better than 26, so i sit in jeans that leave red marks on my hips and make it hard to breathe, but see it’s two inches and
i am more than a number, but i know every test score i ever got and still remember fourth grade and question three and crying because suddenly my mistakes had weight and i couldn’t fix things by saying sorry and
i am more than a number, but i was always the middle child, always the not-quite one, not the best friend to anyone, just a girl with kind eyes and jeans that are a little bit too tight and
i am more than a number but to you i am seventeen, ten and three. and lets be clear; it’s the three that haunts me, because *** doesn’t matter and ‘girlfriend’ is just a label, but i wish i was the first girl you truly loved, and sometimes i still wish i was the last, but with you i fear i’ll forever be just another number.
i drove over 17 bridges the other day and next week i'll do it again and i think nobody gets what that means except maybe you.
i just tell them i love the scenery, that somebody must've made these trees blush just for me.
you know how i love to change the subject?
i bet they'd love the view. i bet you would too.
and all these metaphors for other things are beside the point.
this is a metaphor for why i don't wear my seatbelt, a metaphor for why whiskey knows me better than you could ever try to.
all the buildings seemed to sag yesterday and all the stars are doing that cliche thing where they talk quiet jet noise and some lumbering giant made everything shake.
not those hand metaphors, not another one of those & keep the sea to yourself,
i think it was a train, it's sound hugged the embankment for a moment and then trailed off into nowhere,
and that's kind of like me
how there's a town called 'rescue' close to my home and it's no coincidence that i've never been there.
i’m just flatlining now and hoping that you can look at the next girl the way i looked at you.
Oct 6, 2014
Oct 6, 2014 at 9:54 PM UTC
1.
immortal stone
rolled away.
2.
..........pinwheels rolling on
O O O O O O O O O O O O
then just
flatlining ---^-^---^------^--------------------^----------------------------^--------------------
S T, 8 July 2013
Jul 8, 2013
Jul 8, 2013 at 2:01 PM UTC
*Psychic Trance & ****** Dance,
Emitting Chemical Solace Dipped In Her Capital Romance,
Feral Atmosphere Written In Her Carnal Elegies,
Rapturous Serenades Forming Phantasmal Effigies,
Magnetized Synchronicity & Metamorphized Reciprocity,
Animating Foreplays Dazzling Her Astral Virtuosity,
Phantasmal Lips Illuminating Cherub Faces In Draped Compositions,
Painting Supernatural Visions Forged In Her Vocal Inhibitions,
Prototype Voids & Spiraling Realms,
Religious Frenzies In Her Temporal Screams,
Autumn Sun Reincarnating The Light Of The Spring,
Glass House Perspectives Blooming In Her Prismatic Bling,
Rhapsody Confessions Of Her Divine Obsessions,
Rainbow Skies Dressed In Her Spiritual Progression,
Coral Spells & Synthetic Desires,
Floral Pastels Engineering Her Romantic Fires,
Nightlife Flatlining Through Her Lonely Avenues In LSD High,
A Congenital Sinner She Respires ****** Hues With A Luminescent Sigh!
– 05:13 AM –*
Apr 30, 2017
Apr 30, 2017 at 7:51 AM UTC
if you were comatose i wouldn't worry so much
everything i write i write for you so when you read this please stop and
close your eyes and
notice me leaning against your back and reading over your shoulder sometimes i
reread my words and try to imagine how you feel when you
read them
but i read them and i feel so empty i hope you don't feel the same because
people have told me i made them cry but
i find that hard to believe when i just make myself
bored
just know i'm curling around your feet i'm hoping my words will help you when you want to hurt
i'm hoping you know i wrote this for you because
i know you read this in the dark in your room in solitude with
the light of your screen turning you
pallid and blue but
you know
blue is better than red
black words on a white screen i read once that monotony is ataractic but it
just makes me itch and
i hope i'm an anomaly and you're part of the norm because i don't know how to make you feel
something i don't know but
i'm trying everything i can
i want you calm i hope my words can be
a soporific for you they say
that you're not alive unless you hurt unless you never stop moving but
in that case maybe i want you in a coma because
i saw what
being alive
did to you
please sleep they say it isn't art if it doesn't make you
uncomfortable if it doesn't make you itch but
artistry was never in my future anyway i just want you to have my words when
you want to test your nerves to see if they're
picking up any signal at all because
your emotions are flatlining but maybe the physical sensation's still there and
you are so ragged and i hope i smooth your edges at night when you can't sleep and you seek out
the light that makes you pallid and words
written just for you and
maybe that night you won't
itch so bad
i wrote this for you because i know when you're alone with pallid light and music you
want to hurt but please
close your eyes i'm right behind you i'm
leaning over your shoulder and trying not to cry because
you don't need another burden cause
all your thoughts are
the heaviest material on earth but i can make it better
i can make my words meaningless enough that they can lift you up just
a little more you
don't have to stand on your own my words can hold some of the weight because
maybe you grew up too fast or maybe not at all cause
i can tell your body is far too heavy for your heart to support and
sometimes your hands are too far away for blood to reach them
cause a pulse can only do so much and
sometimes it feels like simply living is another type of malaise but
maybe i can ease that just for the minute it takes for you to read this and
close your eyes and
feel me against your back i
just make myself bored but maybe i can help you
i hope my words are so monochrome they help you sleep
i hope my words are so empty they're like
air sacs to help you stay upright i
hope nothing i say resonates with you because
the world gives you enough to swallow you don't need one thing more
my words can be your sleeping pills
i wrote this for you so you could sleep easy tonight
and i'll hold your hand and hope you don't dream
Jun 11, 2013
Jun 11, 2013 at 1:02 AM UTC
time moves forward
winding through galaxies
coursing through milkyways
pulsing through universes
hanging on heartbeats
yesterday, today and tomorrow
happening concurrently
burned onto disks stacked on top of each other
lifetimes skipping tier to tier
peeking through veils of reality
scoping inward to Brownian motion
zooming outward to life’s whole
energy flowing freely through meridians
navigating congestion and voids
finding balance in life’s peaks and valleys
like electrocardiograms
my lifereadings on paper
lately I’ve been flatlining
routines can be boring
drudgery stagnates
maybe I’m just physically tired
maybe I’m tired of life
caught behind a rock in a river
awaiting a cataract to break me free
and restore the song of life’s flow
maybe I’m an insignificant speck of dust
a blip off life’s radar
or maybe the smallest piece of jigsaw
is an equal part of the whole
Sep 13, 2010
Sep 13, 2010 at 10:41 AM UTC
My body is a roadmap
Dotted with state lines and stretch marks and red arrows pointing to You Are Here.
There are scars like flags crossing my arms claiming gripping holding fast to this
Earth this life
Highways that lead nowhere
Train tracks that click clack against my ribcage
Cars that rumble in my brain.
Exhaust fumes fogging thoughts.
My body wears these hills on my chest like rugged territory unstaked unstated these weight plateaus like failure flatlining against the horizon.
My body is untraveled unfolded uncreased
These eyes like lakes see depth from new perspective dipping fresh into cool clear vision.
These legs like rivers cut through worlds rushing hard and fast
This head like boulder
steady and stoic even with anxiety
quaking through my core.
My body is a roadmap.
I seek only adventures within.
Dec 1, 2014
Dec 1, 2014 at 4:46 AM UTC
Two hands wrapped around my heart,
It's a death grip.
Two hands lunging for your throat
It's blood for blood, love for love.
911
What's the emergency.
I have an urgency
I need a needle sharp enough to slice
And the strongest rope that will suffice
To get these stitches in.
Gasping for breath but still breathing
My hearts still beating
From the bottom of my heart I can tell you
the pools of my love still ripple waves
The richest shades of red
Call it cardiac arrest.
If you really broke my heart; I'd be flatlining
Anatomically incapable of life; I'd be dead.
Dec 3, 2012
Dec 3, 2012 at 4:32 PM UTC
I am flatlining.
I can see my life projected out and witness all of my goals achieved. So many accomplishments. Everything I've ever wanted to do. And yet...
I feel empty.
As I feel now, sitting here with an empty head filled with light from the computer screen. It's so late that it's early.
We all arrive here, sometimes.
When was the last time your hand touched someone else's?
Sep 21, 2016
Sep 21, 2016 at 4:13 AM UTC
I perch here
idle hands,
administer the dregs
of my coffee, to
a flagging, dull head
agonizing over
every flimsy word
I might utter
to make my dull life
bright
grasping at a flatlining pulse
a woody smile
from the wreckage of my past.
Look!
Look at this earnest celebration of chaos
that drives away oblivion.
Oct 18, 2018
Oct 18, 2018 at 5:01 AM UTC
i was never quite sure as to why you left, but the only answer i can come up with is that you found someone better.
you were the air i breathed, everything i ever felt, my sky and my earth and everything in between.
you were my lifeline.
and it seems like now i'm just flatlining, flatlining.
people don't need someone who can't fuction properly, can't be fixed with a simple "it gets better".
you walked away and i tried to follow you, hoping you would lead me to live amongst the stars.
most nights i can't even look out the window knowing i might see you again.
i'm not sure where you are, if you're watching me, if you remember all the promises you made me.
i hope you look at the next person the way i looked at you.
Sep 10, 2014
Sep 10, 2014 at 11:57 PM UTC
I raise the blinds to let the world in
Fix your coffee just to see you smile
Footfalls echo throughout the hallway
And I want to stay here for a while
I hear the shower running
Knowing how hot you like the water
I reflect on the evolution of us
And how our love burned even hotter
Simple complexity is our principle
Our imbalance is a shortened fuse
I dream of different happy endings
You dream of life as a muse
I hear the hum of Adele through walls
Amazing all that a heart can distort
This love born in a summer haze
Is flatlining on fall's life support
I grab my keys and wallet
Yet leave my prudence on the table
Goodbye is never uttered
Because tomorrow is always unstable
Sep 3, 2016
Sep 3, 2016 at 10:13 AM UTC
Up on a limb
I found the stars and the moon
Together
Flatlining
Oct 21, 2018
Oct 21, 2018 at 4:08 PM UTC
Roads,
Dark tar pathways
Winding in infinite lines,
And going nowhere in particular
And everywhere else,
With tell-tale markers
When you stray.
Endless routes
To nowhere
Oct 22, 2015
Oct 22, 2015 at 10:53 PM UTC
As my hands comb through my hair,
I stare between my knees
looking into the depths of this
unfamiliar wooden floor.
The foundation creaking
from the wind howling outside,
its feral cry
full of pent up emotions,
filling the night with chaos,
mirroring the landscape of my emotions.
Pictures so lovingly framed,
propelled by chaotic winds,
splash
into an unbroken lake
sending ripples scrambling away
as they try and escape the touch
of these cherished memories.
The golden light of a sunny day
spent laughing and crying
under pine trees,
shines from the depths.
The cold grey light of a rainy day
spent looking out the tear stained window
trying to make sense of this hurricane of emotions,
cuts through the inky black water.
The constellations of so many memories
seems just in reach
as I syphon this inky black water
through my pen,
drawing from the depths of my soul,
a straight IV
into these flatlining lines
of this black notebook
that holds my soul.
Apr 9, 2016
Apr 9, 2016 at 2:28 PM UTC
*Give them guns , have them come back
tortured , depressed and disabled
Label them heroes , pay no regard to their
high suicide rates , give them hometown
parades and let them fend for themselves
in the American rat race
Vietnam Part II is being played out for all to see
via the internet , laptops have replaced Walter Cronkite ,
Arlington is slowly being filled week after week
Color guards bring cheers at sporting events , our
young people are flatlining on our countries streets
A painful Presidential election is coming our way ,
tear gas and rubber bullets on Cleveland's streets ,
The violence will spread from city to city
Watch with fear as 1969 plays out once again*
May 9, 2016
May 9, 2016 at 10:37 PM UTC
I see it like the lines on a monitor,
spiking with each beat of my heart,
crossing from one point on the map to the next.
It was rather uneventful at first, flatlining, if you will,
but I can see the increase in frequency and amplitude as my heart beats faster
each second,
third,
fourth time he messages me
and I am not so slowly falling for some beautiful boy on the other side of this, one of the largest countries on the Earth, whom I barely even know.
Mar 12, 2016
Mar 12, 2016 at 11:50 PM UTC
Delirium taints the every
effort to motivate
All was elation, before it faded to
a collection of false
effigies...
My ecstasy is an overdose,
and I'm flatlining with
every smile...
Jun 3, 2020
Jun 3, 2020 at 5:34 PM UTC
my old heart is failing, oh it's beats are fading,
no, my blood, it won't flow.
the whole world is edging, off the page, I'm dreading
what comes next, I don't know.
jagged pieces finely cut, into this poem, but
it's lines do turn faint.
God knows I'm not ready, for this test, mind heavy
with the thought of your pain.
Mar 7, 2018
Mar 7, 2018 at 5:23 PM UTC
Pull the plug, return the feeling
Resurrect its deeper meaning
Eternally internal bleeding
Out the suicidal beating
Of a barely living being
Worth less than the air I'm breathing
Further in the dark receding
Nothing real to keep believing
Blinded by a faith misleading
Echoes torture chamber screaming
Silently I wither, grieving
Elegizing starless evenings
Mourning joyous moments fleeting
Buried by the grimmest reaping
Rotting slowly, maggots feeding
On whatever's left of needing
Flesh to form my muse appeasing
Where I find myself exceeding
Astral plane existence seeing
In a world of lucid dreaming
Mar 19, 2017
Mar 19, 2017 at 2:20 AM UTC
And the days were full enough
and the nights were full enough
and life did not seem to move
and was like death in that regard.
Before the spikes,
flatlining snapshots
of the unattainable.
May 17, 2017
May 17, 2017 at 12:38 PM UTC
all my calls are going to voicemail
you don’t pick up the phone, you don’t show up where you’re supposed to be
I have flashbacks of train tracks and flatlining machines
want to run my hands through your hair
let my lips tell you that I’m here, I’m right here as they’re pressed against yours
The monster in my head is whispering
The same one that lives under my bed
it’s asking me why you didn’t trust me enough to let me be there
it’s reminding me that I’ve been close to having blood on my hands before
it’s running memories in my head like home movies
im pushing past the crowd, I’m reaching for you
There’s never going to be a world where my light is off, my phone is on silent, and my doors locked
I’m here whenever you need it darling
the porch light is on if you find your way to this part of town, I’m here if you remember for long enough that that used to mean something to us
Apr 7, 2019
Apr 7, 2019 at 9:45 PM UTC
I was born for extraordinary love,
A prisoner to a heartbeat,
Seductive, captivating, mine.
Never flatlining in the outline of us,
A hidden agenda filled with time stamps of you.
Two stars never falling away from each other.
Powerful, guiding, free.
Sep 30, 2018
Sep 30, 2018 at 11:50 PM UTC
Soon
Worship nothing
Before a false idol
Consider these signs
That I’m seeing
As vital
Flatlining
And idle
Of minding
Its business
Its dealings
Provoking
The pulse
Of the polls
To its feelings
For fear
Is the sheep
To the slaughterhouse
Martyrdom
I am the bomb
In its first class’s
Carrion
Sep 9, 2025
Sep 9, 2025 at 1:52 AM UTC