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"futon" poems
You're just a tiny bit minimalist in your own unique way a white star I have to squint to see in daytime sky not a Mercedes five point but a Nissan Micra car you park neatly in a three point turn by my netsuke and put a circular dent on my platonic furniture Your two humble rooms devoid of any bold sculpture except a fold-out table and a miniature bubble chair and a futon for a bed which is troublesome to share you draw the line at adornments but allow a wallflower A bulb in a bowl is your ornamental garden feature mealtimes a nibble on grated carrot celery cucumber you run so long on empty you're an eco friendly teacher stretching out the energy is a passion of my lover engaging in lessons on sustaining a resourceful nature Your shoes two pointe ballet slip ons easy to care barely there g-string thin cotton underwear nothing loud to upset your understated figure slight as a pin drop your bottom's semi-derrière sits so light on feet I'd swear you float on air I rarely get to hear you come before you're in my hair with a voice pitch high as a smitten kitten's purr your upper reaches get a score sized single 'A' nice when it fits into our schemes of feng shui I carry your bundle home on the roadway rivers of light yet you only burn one ray of candle power at night born of scintillating atoms which flow along each vein containing so much love without clutter in your frame a brave star small as wings formed of minuscule wire flutters in your eyes with minimal flare but deep desire
0
Jul 24, 2014
Jul 24, 2014 at 12:54 PM UTC
My Bonsai Ballerina
You're just a tiny bit minimalist in your own unique way a white star I have to squint to see in daytime sky not a Mercedes five point but a Nissan Micra car you park neatly in a three point turn by my netsuke and put a circular dent on my platonic furniture Your two humble rooms devoid of any bold sculpture except a fold-out table and a miniature bubble chair and a futon for a bed which is troublesome to share you draw the line at adornments but allow a wallflower A bulb in a bowl is your ornamental garden feature mealtimes a nibble on grated carrot celery cucumber you run so long on empty you're an eco friendly teacher stretching out the energy is a passion of my lover engaging in lessons on sustaining a resourceful nature Your shoes two pointe ballet slip ons easy to care barely there g-string thin cotton underwear nothing loud to upset your understated figure slight as a pin drop your bottom's semi-derrière sits so light on feet I'd swear you float on air I rarely get to hear you come before you're in my hair with a voice pitch high as a smitten kitten's purr your upper reaches get a score sized single 'A' nice when it fits into our schemes of feng shui I carry your bundle home on the roadway rivers of light yet you only burn one ray of candle power at night born of scintillating atoms which flow along each vein containing so much love without clutter in your frame a brave star small as wings formed of minuscule wire flutters in your eyes with minimal flare but deep desire
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30
The great dictatorship of the futon A hybrid beast not truly made for two Cover play turned treatised malice The brilliance of cold imposed on waking To find no roses just pillows between Lying nestled in inert ecstasy Singing rusty hist'ries, its a sales job For the masses Know that it will return No wit like the brain before sleep sets in No sight like a deaf dreamers providence No solution like the one no one wants To drift away and return on waking The day seems touched to find us divided A restful sleep met with a restless heart
0
Nov 11, 2012
Nov 11, 2012 at 8:45 PM UTC
The Great Dictatorship of the Futon
I Stacked green crates by the futon, records sealed as buried letters, each sleeve longing to be drawn out into daylight by her small, thoughtful hands. I just want to play that Nick Cave again teenager’s resolve in her voice, she drops the needle on "Tupelo", traces Peter Murphy with her thumb, holds Kate Bush to the light like stained glass. She laughs at the ****** box on the speaker. I tell her it’s never going to happen. She grins, unbothered, says she only came for the vinyl. I watch her tilt each sleeve, never touching the grooves, brush the dust, lay the needle like a secret, slide the disc back without a wrinkle. Each time I’m surprised by her precision. It’s the third time she’s dropped by. She makes mixtapes. Pressing pause, pressing record, stitching songs into a spine of hiss. Once, to me, or to herself, she said her father wanted a tape. She’d mail it when he had somewhere to send it. She follows me across the bridge, talking about her brother, an ex-best friend, mimicking her professor, how he wags his tongue when he writes on the chalkboard. I haul a duffel: apron, uniform, boots heavy with grease. She skips in the rain, strumming cables, humming the last song played, still in the air. II I unlock the door, steeped in garlic and kitchen sweat, boots leaving grime on the boards. She isn’t there- only the crates, stacked neater, jackets squared, spines aligned, as if her care was meant for me. The room settles with her absence, yet holds me upright in its small, thoughtful hands.
0
Sep 17, 2025
Sep 17, 2025 at 8:11 PM UTC
Crates
I Stacked green crates by the futon, records sealed as buried letters, each sleeve longing to be drawn out into daylight by her small, thoughtful hands. I just want to play that Nick Cave again teenager’s resolve in her voice, she drops the needle on "Tupelo", traces Peter Murphy with her thumb, holds Kate Bush to the light like stained glass. She laughs at the ****** box on the speaker. I tell her it’s never going to happen. She grins, unbothered, says she only came for the vinyl. I watch her tilt each sleeve, never touching the grooves, brush the dust, lay the needle like a secret, slide the disc back without a wrinkle. Each time I’m surprised by her precision. It’s the third time she’s dropped by. She makes mixtapes. Pressing pause, pressing record, stitching songs into a spine of hiss. Once, to me, or to herself, she said her father wanted a tape. She’d mail it when he had somewhere to send it. She follows me across the bridge, talking about her brother, an ex-best friend, mimicking her professor, how he wags his tongue when he writes on the chalkboard. I haul a duffel: apron, uniform, boots heavy with grease. She skips in the rain, strumming cables, humming the last song played, still in the air. II I unlock the door, steeped in garlic and kitchen sweat, boots leaving grime on the boards. She isn’t there- only the crates, stacked neater, jackets squared, spines aligned, as if her care was meant for me. The room settles with her absence, yet holds me upright in its small, thoughtful hands.
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57
In Đà Nẵng my friends cradled me like a child. We screamed Taylor bridges, tequila-toasted in bars until the lights blurred. A single candle in the bathroom danced warm sighs through open windows, and all felt calm. I grew new muscles balancing on a motorcycle, sometimes gripping Harry’s jacket, sometimes throwing my weight into the wind. The city flared neon and gasoline in stuttered traffic, but along the coast he drove so fast the vibrations in my chest harmonized. I pictured my bones becoming butterflies if I let go. I had entered the Year of the Dragon on a futon, swayed to half-sleep by a hundred chanting voices from the temple next door. I did not dream of dragons. I only learned to breathe fire. At midnight Bailey stood at an ancestral altar, kumquat branches, apricot blossoms, red envelopes, wine, burning full sticks of incense, and smoking half a pack of Esse Lights. This is how the year turns over safely. Tết is not about faith; it’s about continuity. The Year of the Snake slid in with new bones and old habits. It hissed that suffering could be scripture until letters slithered free from the page and coiled like cold jewelry around my wrist. I didn’t make it for Tết that year no silk áo dài, blood orange, too big for a body that learned shrinking before it learned staying. That was the shedding. Salt water peeling old skin away, songs shouted so loud they drowned the ache, poems that did not start tragic, nights when my body finally kept time with the moon. At home the water did not move. At home the dog’s teeth found my hope. A terrified mouth rerouted rivers through my soft parts. A jewel carved from my nose. Six punctures blooming across my arms like altars. In Vietnamese stories the snake waits beneath the water to claim whoever dares the bank. I wonder if I was chosen the moment I opened my mouth in those bars, when I leaned into the bike’s curve as if danger could be a swan song. Now I lie awake at hours unnamed, tracing scars that hiss answers back. Something from Vietnam keeps breathing through me, the candle’s heat, the coast’s long nerve, voices braided into salt and night, and I cannot tell if they are echoes or fangs testing the dark. They say snakes shed to grow, but no one warns you how thin the new skin feels, how everything burns against it, how you mistake survival for prophecy. I touch the scar and wonder if I am still that girl clinging to the bike, or if the snake has already swallowed me, patient, sleepless, feeding on my own venom.
0
Sep 11, 2025
Sep 11, 2025 at 1:24 PM UTC
The Year of the Snake
In Đà Nẵng my friends cradled me like a child. We screamed Taylor bridges, tequila-toasted in bars until the lights blurred. A single candle in the bathroom danced warm sighs through open windows, and all felt calm. I grew new muscles balancing on a motorcycle, sometimes gripping Harry’s jacket, sometimes throwing my weight into the wind. The city flared neon and gasoline in stuttered traffic, but along the coast he drove so fast the vibrations in my chest harmonized. I pictured my bones becoming butterflies if I let go. I had entered the Year of the Dragon on a futon, swayed to half-sleep by a hundred chanting voices from the temple next door. I did not dream of dragons. I only learned to breathe fire. At midnight Bailey stood at an ancestral altar, kumquat branches, apricot blossoms, red envelopes, wine, burning full sticks of incense, and smoking half a pack of Esse Lights. This is how the year turns over safely. Tết is not about faith; it’s about continuity. The Year of the Snake slid in with new bones and old habits. It hissed that suffering could be scripture until letters slithered free from the page and coiled like cold jewelry around my wrist. I didn’t make it for Tết that year no silk áo dài, blood orange, too big for a body that learned shrinking before it learned staying. That was the shedding. Salt water peeling old skin away, songs shouted so loud they drowned the ache, poems that did not start tragic, nights when my body finally kept time with the moon. At home the water did not move. At home the dog’s teeth found my hope. A terrified mouth rerouted rivers through my soft parts. A jewel carved from my nose. Six punctures blooming across my arms like altars. In Vietnamese stories the snake waits beneath the water to claim whoever dares the bank. I wonder if I was chosen the moment I opened my mouth in those bars, when I leaned into the bike’s curve as if danger could be a swan song. Now I lie awake at hours unnamed, tracing scars that hiss answers back. Something from Vietnam keeps breathing through me, the candle’s heat, the coast’s long nerve, voices braided into salt and night, and I cannot tell if they are echoes or fangs testing the dark. They say snakes shed to grow, but no one warns you how thin the new skin feels, how everything burns against it, how you mistake survival for prophecy. I touch the scar and wonder if I am still that girl clinging to the bike, or if the snake has already swallowed me, patient, sleepless, feeding on my own venom.
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65
This Love Song seemed like a safe place to unpack my **** But a safe place is where Lyrics go to die. And this is Not a Song. and it starts like this. all the time. II i fella sleep in a widdle boat and told a seagull that i was having a dream about talking to seagulls and he was astonished to have the pleasure of meeting a boat that had the good sense to plug the hole with a poet…. because they never wake up and they do so with extreme prejudice. that simply screams Resident. In Fact! He’d never even seen a boat. So there’s THAT. I offered Seagull “ The Cool -Side of The Pillow. “ So I could sit upright for a moment and jot this down. He was like “ What’s a pillow? “ And I had no idea what it was that brushed against my legs but It was There. then It was Gone. when i stopped using the metaphor. I was treading a fathom of pixie dust and transgender proto-gods, all cuddling in a huddle of metaphysics as adorable as a radioactive abrupt stop. III Ah yes… someone was cooking bacon… and bacon is sleep’s kryptonite. so the dream was a wrap. and i had a bird’s nest woven from the silk of my discarded cocoon. codename: Chrysalis. and my mouth was dry. a stubborn dry that follows a deluge of phantasmagoria   on a Futon that is a God to cat hair. My Futon is Oblique and Omnipotent. Apparently. Uber Mecca for Cat Hair. I fell asleep on that.
0
Jul 26, 2018
Jul 26, 2018 at 7:59 PM UTC
MECCA WATTS
The rooster swivels on its axis returning coarse wind into the pyre of mad, mad tongues raving alongside charred ivory. Lifted by sorry hands from dying embers’ embrace and eased with foreign pity, ceremoniously, into a cardboard crate wheeled against the traffic, stumbling backwards through yellow canvases, between my family dressed in black, to dress the void (deck), mourners spitting soda into their cups, as word paddle upstream, onto a thin futon within four walls stained with unfinished ghosts. The doctor removes the white shroud like God coaxing pink light on the first day and wine oozes through elastic veins to the far corners of my skin thin ventricular walls. One crack, in the doors and in my chest, paramedics in white blur in, heel first, Pan-island couriers on reverse gear to the corner of a numbered street, where I am delivered like a gladiator thrown into the arena of nosy gazes, with the urgency of hens clucking away from premeditated slaughter: deep Christmas red on the tessellated parking lot. Clumsy thumbs dialing 599, I moan inwardly to the concentric circles of strangers retreating, erasing me from cell-phone cameras. Then like a flip animation I snap backwards, up 21 floors, pause for about an hour on the ledge before smashing backwards, back down, past kids scratching graffiti off the cement and growing cigarettes in their mouths. The rain ascends and I take wet cash from the driver while I fidget on the leather and throw up mediocre coffee into my cup. I dig into my throat and return the bread to its plastic bag and when the cab stops I fall left out onto another parking lot, moonwalk up the stairs to where I unwrite my name in the annals of failure and shove the Fs of my past back then I take the bus instead.
0
Jan 12, 2013
Jan 12, 2013 at 3:24 AM UTC
Backwards
The rooster swivels on its axis returning coarse wind into the pyre of mad, mad tongues raving alongside charred ivory. Lifted by sorry hands from dying embers’ embrace and eased with foreign pity, ceremoniously, into a cardboard crate wheeled against the traffic, stumbling backwards through yellow canvases, between my family dressed in black, to dress the void (deck), mourners spitting soda into their cups, as word paddle upstream, onto a thin futon within four walls stained with unfinished ghosts. The doctor removes the white shroud like God coaxing pink light on the first day and wine oozes through elastic veins to the far corners of my skin thin ventricular walls. One crack, in the doors and in my chest, paramedics in white blur in, heel first, Pan-island couriers on reverse gear to the corner of a numbered street, where I am delivered like a gladiator thrown into the arena of nosy gazes, with the urgency of hens clucking away from premeditated slaughter: deep Christmas red on the tessellated parking lot. Clumsy thumbs dialing 599, I moan inwardly to the concentric circles of strangers retreating, erasing me from cell-phone cameras. Then like a flip animation I snap backwards, up 21 floors, pause for about an hour on the ledge before smashing backwards, back down, past kids scratching graffiti off the cement and growing cigarettes in their mouths. The rain ascends and I take wet cash from the driver while I fidget on the leather and throw up mediocre coffee into my cup. I dig into my throat and return the bread to its plastic bag and when the cab stops I fall left out onto another parking lot, moonwalk up the stairs to where I unwrite my name in the annals of failure and shove the Fs of my past back then I take the bus instead.
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31
My bed is a mass grave My toilet is a mass grave My kitchen sink is a mass grave Stretched out in lines of chrysalis coke, choking the evanescent life that could have been. Straight into the empty Coca Cola can you go. A litany of atrocity in every bed, futon, desks, truck stop bathroom, camera lens, attempting to capture the genocide on film. Alas, the lens is Covered with white, bioluminescent death. Choking the unborn in the ****** drain. Coffee mug refill, for but a single dime, sweaty palms connected to strained veins on wrists, connected to thrusting elbows. Firing wrist rocket, V2, V1, buzz bomb. Unsuspecting future citizens, blocks of thousands at a time. Tadpoles, rotting in murky basement suits the world over. The war is on. Auschwitz, Dachau, Sachsenhausen. Arbeit Macht Frei. Swim for dear life
0
Apr 29, 2014
Apr 29, 2014 at 11:54 PM UTC
The *** Stain Massacre
I’ve wasted all my money on **** again. I don’t even like it, the stench, the habit, the headaches, the fake smiles, declarations of “I’m so high”, I’m done. I’m done splattering my guts in the morning displaying my vulnerabilities to the world, the world of 275 girls. I just can’t seem to find the acceptance I want, but don’t deserve. what I need is a pill to forget who I am and what I’ve done, because I haven’t done enough. **** kids my age travel to Tajikistan, hack government websites, cure complex diseases in their sleep. I just lay on my futon, plop dvds into my Mac, and waste my life away. another day wasted, staring into a screen. which reminds me I also waste too much money on dvds, while my Netflix account remains untouched. could I be anymore of an abomination, with my tattooed skin, and pierced face, cutting the crusts off of my bread. as mementos of my past seep into my mind, I wonder when I’ll see the starting line, or if it’s already left me behind.
0
Jul 28, 2014
Jul 28, 2014 at 2:37 AM UTC
*wheelchair race*
White, calloused hands Gripping white soft belly Bushy white hair Rubbing clean white face Unfurling smoke rising Rising like the tide on a full moon Into blue sky Blue as the ocean itself Lakes north of the Twin Cities Life living liberally under rocks Death staring darkly from the depths Moon glowing brightly above Train brakes screech The passengers rustle a bit Black as the night Hard as a rock Rampant youths file into the alley Raging inside Ranting out Rigid bones cease The drug addicts plead mercilessly With their alter ego More more more **** **** **** The businessmen do their fast walk And the women do their little sway Walking dogs and walking strollers Clinically insane they repeat Dark blond hair Ripped jeans Tighter than skin Gay shoes Beautiful brunette Big *** **** Smirking smile She knows she’s hot Random dudes street talking Random chicks street banging Random kids street dealing Random guys finish the job Men in work clothes Buy love symbols for their niece And rock shows for their nephew But nothing for their sons Watching the sunset Watching the moon rise Watching the tides roll Watching you fake it all Justine took all the pills She’s passed out on the futon This basement gives me chills I think I heard someone call 9-1-1 Someone in uptown died tonight Shot On the street Blood rained like rain Red towels from the hotel Stolen again Marriot’s free swimming pool Cost me 800 dollars *** and drugs combined Rugs and thugs And enemy teams Gunshots, gun fights
0
Sep 18, 2012
Sep 18, 2012 at 4:31 PM UTC
In Some Far Off Fairy Tale
White, calloused hands Gripping white soft belly Bushy white hair Rubbing clean white face Unfurling smoke rising Rising like the tide on a full moon Into blue sky Blue as the ocean itself Lakes north of the Twin Cities Life living liberally under rocks Death staring darkly from the depths Moon glowing brightly above Train brakes screech The passengers rustle a bit Black as the night Hard as a rock Rampant youths file into the alley Raging inside Ranting out Rigid bones cease The drug addicts plead mercilessly With their alter ego More more more **** **** **** The businessmen do their fast walk And the women do their little sway Walking dogs and walking strollers Clinically insane they repeat Dark blond hair Ripped jeans Tighter than skin Gay shoes Beautiful brunette Big *** **** Smirking smile She knows she’s hot Random dudes street talking Random chicks street banging Random kids street dealing Random guys finish the job Men in work clothes Buy love symbols for their niece And rock shows for their nephew But nothing for their sons Watching the sunset Watching the moon rise Watching the tides roll Watching you fake it all Justine took all the pills She’s passed out on the futon This basement gives me chills I think I heard someone call 9-1-1 Someone in uptown died tonight Shot On the street Blood rained like rain Red towels from the hotel Stolen again Marriot’s free swimming pool Cost me 800 dollars *** and drugs combined Rugs and thugs And enemy teams Gunshots, gun fights
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64
He was lying on the futon, watching Battlestar Galactica. I was in my nightgown sitting in his windowsill, smoking a cigarette, bored, restless & lonely. I stared out the window, looked down at the ground. “Do you think if I fell out of your window, I would die?” I asked him. “I don’t know if you’d die, but you would get seriously hurt that’s for sure.” He mumbled. I took a long drag from my cigarette and looked back out the window. The street was empty and dark. The only illumination came from a single streetlight about half a block from where I was sitting. I stared at that streetlight for a long time, feeling as alone as ever. After a minute or so, I began to feel his eyes penetrate my core. I looked at him. He was all limbs spread in every direction. The flame in his eyes told me more than I wanted to know. “Do you ever feel like a moth?” I asked him. “In what sense?” “I dunno, like do you ever feel like you’re always attracted to something that is out to destroy you in the end? Like no matter where you end up, you find yourself hitting the same lightbulb over and over as if it could save you… When really it will be the death of you?” He looked at me quizzically. Electricity filled in the gaps between us. “Why are you thinking about that?” He reminded me of myself - always answering a question with a question. I looked back at the streetlight and I could see the silhouettes of insects all around it. “Oh, I was just noticing the streetlight over there and all of the bugs surrounding it. Don’t you ever feel like that though?” I asked him again. “Well when you put it that way, I’ve always felt like that, yeah.” “I have a book of poems that my friend Emma gave to me a while back - there’s a poem in there that reminds me of feeling like that. It’s called ‘the lesson of the moth’. I’d like to read it to you sometime.” I took a drag from my cigarette and looked at him again. Beautiful, he was in that moment. Just lying there listening to me, I felt like I was being heard for the first time. Battlestar Galactica had then become just a fuzz of white noise. I stared at him in silence. “What are you staring at?” I smiled. “You.” “Why?” “You’re beautiful.” I looked back at the streetlight and exhaled a long puff of smoke. Minutes rolled by. I couldn’t bear to look at him again. I have a hard time being seen. “Looking at you is like listening to a symphony.” He said at last. I was caught more by the charm of how he was more absorbed by the moment of me and not the boring television series that blurred in the background, never mind the romance of what had just escaped from his mouth. Because I knew I wasn’t the first girl he’s looked at like that, and I wouldn’t be the last. But dammnit, he sure knew how to make my skin melt and my heart burn.
0
Nov 22, 2012
Nov 22, 2012 at 10:35 PM UTC
just a fling
He was lying on the futon, watching Battlestar Galactica. I was in my nightgown sitting in his windowsill, smoking a cigarette, bored, restless & lonely. I stared out the window, looked down at the ground. “Do you think if I fell out of your window, I would die?” I asked him. “I don’t know if you’d die, but you would get seriously hurt that’s for sure.” He mumbled. I took a long drag from my cigarette and looked back out the window. The street was empty and dark. The only illumination came from a single streetlight about half a block from where I was sitting. I stared at that streetlight for a long time, feeling as alone as ever. After a minute or so, I began to feel his eyes penetrate my core. I looked at him. He was all limbs spread in every direction. The flame in his eyes told me more than I wanted to know. “Do you ever feel like a moth?” I asked him. “In what sense?” “I dunno, like do you ever feel like you’re always attracted to something that is out to destroy you in the end? Like no matter where you end up, you find yourself hitting the same lightbulb over and over as if it could save you… When really it will be the death of you?” He looked at me quizzically. Electricity filled in the gaps between us. “Why are you thinking about that?” He reminded me of myself - always answering a question with a question. I looked back at the streetlight and I could see the silhouettes of insects all around it. “Oh, I was just noticing the streetlight over there and all of the bugs surrounding it. Don’t you ever feel like that though?” I asked him again. “Well when you put it that way, I’ve always felt like that, yeah.” “I have a book of poems that my friend Emma gave to me a while back - there’s a poem in there that reminds me of feeling like that. It’s called ‘the lesson of the moth’. I’d like to read it to you sometime.” I took a drag from my cigarette and looked at him again. Beautiful, he was in that moment. Just lying there listening to me, I felt like I was being heard for the first time. Battlestar Galactica had then become just a fuzz of white noise. I stared at him in silence. “What are you staring at?” I smiled. “You.” “Why?” “You’re beautiful.” I looked back at the streetlight and exhaled a long puff of smoke. Minutes rolled by. I couldn’t bear to look at him again. I have a hard time being seen. “Looking at you is like listening to a symphony.” He said at last. I was caught more by the charm of how he was more absorbed by the moment of me and not the boring television series that blurred in the background, never mind the romance of what had just escaped from his mouth. Because I knew I wasn’t the first girl he’s looked at like that, and I wouldn’t be the last. But dammnit, he sure knew how to make my skin melt and my heart burn.
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25
It's the little things I miss. The way you slipped your hand to the small of my back. Or how you grabbed my waist as you walked by. Your lips on my temple. We smiled as we kissed. Spending long moments not talking, just gazing and kissing. Do you remember that we slow danced in my basement? When you missed semi for hockey. You joked about how clumsy I was. ...Always thought it was cute. That's a little thing. Why won't you miss it? Why won't you miss me? I fell asleep on the futon, Safe. Warm in your arms when I woke up, as you still slept beside. It's the way you twitch in your sleep. The way you're always warm when I'm cold. The way you told me stuff no one else knows. But will you tell her? If she falls for you? Will she see the little things? That sweep my dreams? How couldn't she love you? How can I stop? When all I miss are the little things.
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Aug 10, 2012
Aug 10, 2012 at 3:25 AM UTC
The Little Things
Soon after the sky had cast off The tattered cloak of night, And the midnight sun had set, Helios himself climbed above the trees. Dancing across the tops of dueling oaks, Those primordial brothers between the ponds Who, over time, grew up and into each other, He sat spinning madly. Shedding his golden rays, As a lab shakes and sheds the water from his back, They fell deliberately onto And through my open blinds. And I, stirred by the small streams of light Cutting through the dark as if empty space, I opened my eyes, only to close them again. Lying, silently, I wait, Tracing shadows as they slowly shift, Dancing across the dull, white walls. Fetid clothes lay protecting the floorboards. The stale smell of smoke lingers, Trapped in the soft cottons and polyesters Of the cream throw pillows, The blue waves of comforter, The vast canyons of the corduroy futon. Wine, fresh on my tongue, Tells tales of the evening, Lost of late in a world so distant. My memories slip away like slack tide Beneath rotten planks of a dock. Twin cities, London and Paris, A cold Christmas morning in Montmartre, The warmth of the café we shared, All hung up neatly on the wall. Maps of emotions I never knew I had. Only the breeze may speak here, Whistling through the fissures in the wall.
0
Oct 21, 2012
Oct 21, 2012 at 11:15 PM UTC
Back Room
I miss having the entire upstairs. I miss sitting on the futon on the landing outside of my room and writing. I miss having three closets. I miss the old fashioned doors I had upstairs. I miss climbing outside of my window onto the roof at night. I miss the outdated pink-ish red carpet. I miss the 70’s wallpaper and how the wall by my bed was different. I miss the silence. I miss the sound of the train going right by. I miss going out to the barn to practice trombone and play pool. I miss summers there. I miss walking home from school to the house. I miss how close town was, yet it had a special seclusion. I miss riding my bike to the cemetery. I miss the long gravel road behind the barn. I miss the willow tree. I miss the neighbors. Even “keep off my lawn” Mike. I miss the feeling I got pulling up to the house. I miss being 13. I miss the parties. I miss my brother and sister sharing friends. I miss living on Finn Street.
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Oct 26, 2012
Oct 26, 2012 at 11:19 PM UTC
I miss living on Finn St.
Darling what your words have claimed, is true. I have grown an affintity for you, and, but a mere fatuation would undermine my emotions for you. You could be as poor as the dictionary can describe it, but I would have no dispute with breaking bread on a futon in a one bedroom apartment, for my darling I would have you to share it with. I cannot explain in any way or word what linkage I feel towards you and what imminent, unborn quandry, disagreements or dilemas we might face. I'll be over and above to put those problems to their knees, shut them down and subjugate them. Eye, there will be exceptional recherche, eye there will be dissatisfactory and atrocious, but I vow to never slant in our interconnection. I'll stand by you during quandry and I'll stand by you in a war, because not only my heart that loves you so dearly, my soul has grown quite fond towards you, that never before have. And in all verity, I have gone far more than fall in love. I vow to preserve and protect thee love.
0
Aug 11, 2018
Aug 11, 2018 at 4:45 PM UTC
Darling
Already seven cars, I pull in late. Put my keys by the candles and stare at the lake. Sit down, sip your wine. What's in? Where have you been? How long since? You never drop a line. You must be busy. I avoid your gaze and your hand grazes my thigh and brings us eye to eye. Ready for the bar, we barely ate. No shame in the champagne I consume, but I assume it's the fine wine I spewed all over the ballroom. Took it too far, it's getting late. You don't want me to stay. Uninvited,how you always made me feel anyways. Turn in slighted, ******* futon. Last time we met we slept side by side, you and me, two reasons to care. The letter and the locket you kept and tried to hide, I think I need some fresh air. light a cig and figure some things are better left unsaid. Always tempted to trigger thoughts long dead. Staring at you, asleep in your bed, linen, lace. I always was a ***** case. Your thoughts leak out of your head, thin in space. I find them on your face. Better not be here when you wake, the next time we meet it'll be too late, so hey, by the way, you looked beautiful today.
0
Sep 9, 2010
Sep 9, 2010 at 10:35 PM UTC
Hey, By The Way
The absorbent two-ply quilted southern sky was soaking up the pre-dawn rays as we were pushing our broken green four-wheeled machine southbound on Bruce B. Downs taking up the curbside lane Our shirts were becoming stained with humid profanities despite the fan blade traffic throwing a slight breeze We were slurping brackish blacktop steam from the air plodding like the Hillsborough toward our destination My mind was already sauntering back toward a broken green futon sitting in the section-eight, eviction evaded, apartment Out the window cross-bred ducks were lording over scrawny, pseudo-feral worm host cats for which the knockabout neighbors kept a litter box outside
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Jan 20, 2011
Jan 20, 2011 at 6:45 AM UTC
The Hell with the Rabbits; All I See Are Gray Squirrels
I killed myself. A Tuesday. Fresh cut grass, the smell welcoming, as if to announce Spring and rebirth. Then you think of Hay Fever and laugh at the simplicity we hold for nature. Leave it. Don't branch off. Knock on wood. I coughed on a stranger. It was unintentional. My apology was sincere, as was his vulgarity. Made me think: This ******* probably eats with his mouth open. Food flying. Spit soaring. An intentional imbecile. To be noted: If I see this man again, I will sneeze on him. Fast food is absolutely disgusting, but there is an occasional craving. When you lift the top bun of a cheeseburger and it gets stuck to the cheese. That's all I have to say about that. The quality of the food has put us in a pickle. I'm tired. I'm sure there is a mattress salesman close by to sell me a dream. What is my most comfortable thread count? Futon it is! I haven't killed myself, yet, but I've died a long time ago. But, dying and killing yourself aren't one in the same. The dead walk. Ones who **** idolize permanence.
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Jan 22, 2013
Jan 22, 2013 at 7:20 PM UTC
Death or Permanence
Cheers to the one that finally makes it work, the time the door stayed wide long enough for a fall breeze in loafers or corduroy pants to blow down the walls of your heart and sit you down on his patent leather futon the laugh that stuck around to do battle with every grizzled teardrop in the middle of the afternoon the chance worth taking because all things can be generalized, but the best can break free
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Oct 5, 2012
Oct 5, 2012 at 10:52 PM UTC
The Pistachio
Encroaching satellites High voltage saturation and shade And an obtuse synopsis of cognitive psychology Condensing your threshold Searching for hand outs Ripping the railings out of the walls In the stairwells in the doctor's office on the way to your colonoscopy   Laying on the futon with and your therapist writing down everything you say "Go on" "Mhm" "I see" "How does that make you feel?" Skid-marked underwear Delving, dumpster diving for food In the lonesome twilight In the rippling rainstorm People shelling out gripes Squinting, doing a double take at you Followed by a wavering tumult They're gonna have you capped That is, unless you purchase this love seat -Tommy Johnson
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Jul 15, 2014
Jul 15, 2014 at 11:04 PM UTC
Psychoanalytic Mumbo Jumbo
I made four blueberry muffins for breakfast. I wore a sweater three sizes too big, and sat on a futon two sizes too small, reading a book I've only halfway finished in twice the amount of time it would take to write it. I drove without my windshield wipers on, three-quarters hoping I wouldn't make it a quarter of the way across town. I tried to picture myself walking around without pulling my past along behind me. I tried, but that doesn't matter. **** today. I only thought about you while they were in the oven. I only pictured you waking up and feeling okay every time I turned the page. I leaned over and looked through the right side of my windshield to see the view you once had. And the scars on my palms are reopened every day as I drag around everything I cannot let go.
0
Feb 5, 2014
Feb 5, 2014 at 8:18 PM UTC
I swear it gets heavier every day
Moving in was a ***** Three tiny flights of stairs. Night three and we finally had dinner. Macaroni and cheese on the floor. I was sad for the first few months. Crying on the futon. Crying in my bed. Crying on the floor. Crying in the shower. Crying on your shoulder. Netflix, Redbox, and Cooltv. Dragging bags of clothes to the laundry room. You and Cody played guitar. We had a live show every night. You wrote beautiful music. And stopped singing if I cried. Turning conversations into poetry. You introduced me to Becca. Little did I know, she'd be my best friend. Getting drunk. Getting high. Smoking out of bongs. Smoking joints. Smoking bowls. Smoking blunts. Trying to find something to smoke. The light in the bathroom stopped working. We had to smack it for it to turn on. That stopped working too. The candle caught on fire. Your drunk friend threw it into the sink. I almost killed him. We slept together sometimes. We slept apart. We slept with other people. I took out my dreads to make myself feel better. Shang was in West Virginia the whole time. But he was in the living room every day. We rolled...so many times. Laughing at everything. Going on toilet paper missions. The futon broke. New rule: no *** on the futon. Playing Circle of Death, we got to know each other. The ring of beer stains around the coffee table. Bats chirping right outside my window. We discovered our super powers. I don't remember my birthday party. The Christmas party. Justin got me drunk on white Russians. Slow dancing with Brian. Mouth **** Jello shots. You never carved the turkey cookie. New Year's Eve someone kicked in the door. It was broken for months. The next few months were the last ones. I didn't want to leave. The apartment was our home. We ****** up, we grew up, we threw up. There's no place home.
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Oct 23, 2013
Oct 23, 2013 at 3:19 PM UTC
The Apartment
Moving in was a ***** Three tiny flights of stairs. Night three and we finally had dinner. Macaroni and cheese on the floor. I was sad for the first few months. Crying on the futon. Crying in my bed. Crying on the floor. Crying in the shower. Crying on your shoulder. Netflix, Redbox, and Cooltv. Dragging bags of clothes to the laundry room. You and Cody played guitar. We had a live show every night. You wrote beautiful music. And stopped singing if I cried. Turning conversations into poetry. You introduced me to Becca. Little did I know, she'd be my best friend. Getting drunk. Getting high. Smoking out of bongs. Smoking joints. Smoking bowls. Smoking blunts. Trying to find something to smoke. The light in the bathroom stopped working. We had to smack it for it to turn on. That stopped working too. The candle caught on fire. Your drunk friend threw it into the sink. I almost killed him. We slept together sometimes. We slept apart. We slept with other people. I took out my dreads to make myself feel better. Shang was in West Virginia the whole time. But he was in the living room every day. We rolled...so many times. Laughing at everything. Going on toilet paper missions. The futon broke. New rule: no *** on the futon. Playing Circle of Death, we got to know each other. The ring of beer stains around the coffee table. Bats chirping right outside my window. We discovered our super powers. I don't remember my birthday party. The Christmas party. Justin got me drunk on white Russians. Slow dancing with Brian. Mouth **** Jello shots. You never carved the turkey cookie. New Year's Eve someone kicked in the door. It was broken for months. The next few months were the last ones. I didn't want to leave. The apartment was our home. We ****** up, we grew up, we threw up. There's no place home.
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61
I don't know what to label you As everything in my life has a place You stand in between the lines of friend and boyfriend. It's really ******* with my head Now as I said before We can't be a couple Rather, an admirer Who lives two hours away But will come knocking at your door When inquired I don't know what to tell you When I took you to the beach The cops showed up And we ran, from red and blue Lights that lit up the sea And upon your window sat a fat parking ticket I felt bad because you were sad that we missed it, The fact, of course That we couldn't be parked there anymore. Silence on the way back to my house And I still don't know what to call you As I rub your neck, The back of your head I think I should calm you Should I kiss you? Should I say sorry? Maybe you're not picking up what I'm putting down Maybe you're too selfish to notice my pout Another song to shut the **** up to It reminds me of the butterflies David gave me when he would drive me home just to f*ck me hard on my futon after my dance show. It reminded me of the fights before sociology class in the parking lot of school and pretending everything was cool, it's all in the past. He ******* played that song like it was fresh strawberry cheesecake every time he heard it I wanted to scream and thrash and cry and complain and I wanted to burn it Those songs, No matter the message Will always be negative Because they remind me of a more handsome, more ******* of a boyfriend.
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Feb 21, 2018
Feb 21, 2018 at 1:35 AM UTC
LABEL.
I like old glass windows, how they’ve blurred and frosted over looking like the back of a used postage stamp everything behind them a shadow. I laid in a conservatory, a glasshouse, after ruining your relationship. The green things just barely hid me: I wished I had been some place more antique less inhabited, less cared for. I wished I had not been seen. Leaves danced out insults, all were true, *** tourist, homewrecker, and everyone knew because I became proud to have hurt her when I had only meant to hurt you. To run would have been preferable although wine-colored flora may tango up my ankles, spiral to the belly of my heels. You know how my feet seemed ****** in the red Georgia clay? Yet the arch remained clean, elevated by itself? That is how I was, ripe and daisyed in a surrounding brick. I wished I had not been seen, rather purchased a futon set that is not more than a silhouette behind stained glass and ended myself as well I as did you and her.
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May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013 at 1:30 PM UTC
sleeping and stained
One. Two. Is this thing turned on? One. Two. resonance I can't see even a few feet in front of me. God? resonance Anyone? resonance There's nothing said back from the void. Disapproval. Deification. What difference does it make, Whether withheld or spoken? Shadows show well on the walls Before Netflix in my home at night, The futon resonance Eyes overflowing with lust
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Mar 20, 2017
Mar 20, 2017 at 3:02 AM UTC
Sebastien
Lucky Leonard Letsbe Doesn’t have a care Shopping for a futon Fussing with his hair Suddenly, commotion People running scared Poor Leonard Letsbe Unprepared Leaping Leonard Letsbe Running like the blazes Smoke inhalation Cuts and grazes Sheltered in a bistro Bitten on the ear Silly Leonard Letsbe Feeling queer Dying Leonard Letsbe Twitching for a while Sitting bolt upright Dead man’s smile Chewing on a trucker Right where he sat Hungry Leonard Letsbe Havin’ some of that
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Apr 13, 2014
Apr 13, 2014 at 7:59 PM UTC
Leonard Letsbe