Hello Poetry
Submit your work and get some sparkles! Create free account
"spattered" poems
there are women who love demons you can see it in their eyes like a sick hunger silence in a straight jacket smiling limbs on a pyre staring entranced whiskey blind as if marveling at a howling blood-spattered dingo in a crater seduced to wander off half-naked into a bush of thorns ********* barbed hooks for heroine kisses women on fire who believe in nothing except their atavistic compulsions they are a burning land beauty in ruin ready for the slender whip and black-toothed kisses who giggle and then plunge into an abyss i hold her like a jaw holds teeth
0
Jul 26, 2018
Jul 26, 2018 at 3:08 PM UTC
*Burning Land
Just a quiet woman polished bright by nerves, I once felt wild for dipping my hair in purple. Noticing, my hairdresser asked if I had anyone special. I dated a man with a good job who liked museums. We saw a drunk girl in a leather skirt- heels hobbling down cobblestone, her bird-arm linked through a friend’s. He rolled his eyes:   _would you go out wearing skirts like that?_ On the dating app I’d written: loves dogs, drinks champagne from paper cups. It wasn’t a lie, but I am such a liar. I told him yes, because I needed his reaction, his self-corrected mind, though I’ve never worn one. I say I’m fine with whatever, or this is stupid, but truthfully I’m afraid I’m only a very nice lady, soft in the hands of whoever will take me. I carry anger like a weak religion- a god I light candles for twice a year, more symbol than practice. I’ve heard of burying St. Joseph upside down to sell a house. But there’s no charm, no saint, for loosening the knots I keep tied. I want to keep the bright mess of my dog heart, mud-spattered, mulch-snuffling, faithful to its own scent, while crows, squirrels, and the occasional fox paw through the dirt for what they almost forgot.
0
Aug 15, 2025
Aug 15, 2025 at 8:33 PM UTC
Dog Heart
I heard the bullets scream Smashed by the moment Silence as the pin dropped His head had hit the pavement ****** in the window Blood spattered wall Brother taken before me Intrepid moment takes us all Held his hand within mine Closed his open eyes Angered by the second Said my final goodbyes Bombing in the distance Death cuts through the air War is such a ***** and life isn't fair Ribbons fill the trees Markers field the green Memories not forgotten Brothers forever seen
0
Nov 11, 2014
Nov 11, 2014 at 1:44 AM UTC
War is such a *****
green hills, rolling green i like you with fresh dewy innocence you speak in hushed voices. your sides are guilded with coral white your tops are crowned with clouds. green hills, rolling green i like you for the majesty you wear your verdant vestment forever stretched your arms to the blue forever sheltered by the stars. green hills, rolling green tell me, do you like me too? would that when i harken to the trumpet call, when there would be no excuse to tarry i should lay spattered on thy peaks first touched by the divine finger piercing the nimbus mantle.
0
May 10, 2015
May 10, 2015 at 10:54 PM UTC
green hills, rolling green
Shut amid the swell of boredom Hole in the nose, sparkling adornment Dye in the hair....a blonde invention Image altered......still bored Plenty to do, still bored Not whilst doing it.....always But the longing for a bolt hole Registers, raising its voice to be heard Yet boredom creeps in, mud spattered steps Flicking dirt here and there Clinging sometimes leaving telltale tufts Staining....can’t wash it out or hide it away A rash of what you want lands perfectly Creates a broad grin in anticipation And no sooner it’s arrived ...well boredom Rears up grabbing the lead role You might say ‘be careful what you wish for’ And you might be right...how come...?? Wager the odds on r and r ...v... Over exposure in the commitment arena You’d think it would win out So what’s going on here? “Boredom”
0
Aug 10, 2012
Aug 10, 2012 at 8:19 AM UTC
Boredom
The porch bends beneath me, its gray boards sighing. I light a cigarette, send my breath to the wind- maybe White‑Shell Woman will carry it to the horizon. He's fired again, last kitchen inside forty miles that could stand him, bridge burned behind. At lunch I’ll call, say get out or Daddy and Jimbo will haul your whiskey bones to lie with the rattlesnakes. I swore to Mama and to Owl, I will keep the night honest, I wouldn’t spend my years driving a man to dialysis, watching Irish blood unravel like wet lace. But I remember the long Covid winter- two bears in one den, one soft, one starved- when Spider Grandmother wove us together in the dim blue light of tele-novellas and snow. I almost believed it was love again. He pops up like a coyote in the truck’s passenger door, smelling of smoke and ruin. Eighty‑five down the prairie road, bug‑spattered glass, sky bending blue, fields gold as escape. This isn’t working, I whisper. We want different things. Don’t, he says, fingers crawling my thigh No- I shove. Sweetness peels, the sleeping volcano wakes. Before his hand can teach me the rest, I already know: there is no leaving. The road is long, lined with white crosses, and the Ghost Buffalo that's been leading me down it all my life.
0
Aug 5, 2025
Aug 5, 2025 at 3:41 PM UTC
Prairie of White Crosses
. Bonnie & Clyde You held my hart in your hands and my soul in your mouth, we watched the moon slip through the dark knight, A lullaby of blood and sticky labels, reach for the sky, reach for the sky, No more dollars, No more heists, No more; No more, Bonnie & Clyde. won't you save me, for I've been running all my life, I've been sinning, I've been stealing and I know that that ain't right, won't you save me, won't you teach me right from wrong, I've been sinning, I've been stealing, please take me home. We sang to the pound of the engine, you lay your head in my lap, so sweet so simple, you toyed with the coins in my pocket, reach for the sky, reach for the sky, No more dollars, No more heists, No more; No more, Bonnie & Clyde. won't you save me, for I've been running all my life, I've been sinning, I've been stealing and I know that that ain't right, won't you save me, won't you teach me right from wrong, I've been sinning, I've been stealing, please take me home. We danced to the backdrop of yellow fields, spattered with red confetti, shookhands with the devil, all dressed in rags, reach for the sky, reach for the sky, No more dollars, No more heists, No more; No more, Bonnie & Clyde. The devil he has taken me, and I can't run no more, No more sinning or stealing, for now my life is done; you can't save me, You can't teach me right from wrong, No more sinning, No more stealing, For now this soul has gone. Ten cops, camera and a smile, Photo for a trophy, V8 Ford full of holes, reach for the sky, reach for the sky, No more dollars, No more heists, No more; No more, Bonnie & Clyde.
0
Jan 9, 2019
Jan 9, 2019 at 10:07 AM UTC
Bonnie & Clyde
. Bonnie & Clyde You held my hart in your hands and my soul in your mouth, we watched the moon slip through the dark knight, A lullaby of blood and sticky labels, reach for the sky, reach for the sky, No more dollars, No more heists, No more; No more, Bonnie & Clyde. won't you save me, for I've been running all my life, I've been sinning, I've been stealing and I know that that ain't right, won't you save me, won't you teach me right from wrong, I've been sinning, I've been stealing, please take me home. We sang to the pound of the engine, you lay your head in my lap, so sweet so simple, you toyed with the coins in my pocket, reach for the sky, reach for the sky, No more dollars, No more heists, No more; No more, Bonnie & Clyde. won't you save me, for I've been running all my life, I've been sinning, I've been stealing and I know that that ain't right, won't you save me, won't you teach me right from wrong, I've been sinning, I've been stealing, please take me home. We danced to the backdrop of yellow fields, spattered with red confetti, shookhands with the devil, all dressed in rags, reach for the sky, reach for the sky, No more dollars, No more heists, No more; No more, Bonnie & Clyde. The devil he has taken me, and I can't run no more, No more sinning or stealing, for now my life is done; you can't save me, You can't teach me right from wrong, No more sinning, No more stealing, For now this soul has gone. Ten cops, camera and a smile, Photo for a trophy, V8 Ford full of holes, reach for the sky, reach for the sky, No more dollars, No more heists, No more; No more, Bonnie & Clyde.
Continue reading...
9
The honey in the lion sounds like a delicious thing–– a gentle balm capable of subduing the cruellest of monsters. According to the stars and tattooed, you fancied yourself king of the jungle–– lazy in hot African afternoons. Golden and tawn with sleepy sun-gold eyes, shaggy mane, muzzle red with the blood of a gazelle. Did you think me such easy prey? Or was I so much fermented honey, only a sweet intoxicant. Sun warmth seeps from jungles of cold concrete. I mistook your gargoyle wings for those of a guardian angel’s. I overlooked your rough skin, your crooked hawk nose and your skinny ribs, and assigned fine things in you that didn’t exist. So duped, I acquiesced to your slimy kiss. Your mouth a neglected cemetery, teeth a row of mossy tombstones. Vampire. Incubus. Your seduction like grotesque death. You named me tempest in a teacup, but I was the eye of the storm. Until the night the eye was eradicated, and the storm blew in, striking me dumb with your sound and fury. But no spattered blood and no spreading bruise to be found in the pattern of the kaleidoscope. No cause for alarm. Today I am lost in a picture show, a beautiful world coloured by nostalgic past. Women’s lips the vivid red print of a velvet valentine. Head in the Clouds, I fantasize about a certain scene. Because you think violence is **** retaliation – ********** in my dream. Give me an eye for my eye, for all the eyes you plucked, from women and breadwinners. Give me blood running down your back, sweet as honey.
0
Sep 22, 2016
Sep 22, 2016 at 5:37 PM UTC
The Honey in the Lion
The honey in the lion sounds like a delicious thing–– a gentle balm capable of subduing the cruellest of monsters. According to the stars and tattooed, you fancied yourself king of the jungle–– lazy in hot African afternoons. Golden and tawn with sleepy sun-gold eyes, shaggy mane, muzzle red with the blood of a gazelle. Did you think me such easy prey? Or was I so much fermented honey, only a sweet intoxicant. Sun warmth seeps from jungles of cold concrete. I mistook your gargoyle wings for those of a guardian angel’s. I overlooked your rough skin, your crooked hawk nose and your skinny ribs, and assigned fine things in you that didn’t exist. So duped, I acquiesced to your slimy kiss. Your mouth a neglected cemetery, teeth a row of mossy tombstones. Vampire. Incubus. Your seduction like grotesque death. You named me tempest in a teacup, but I was the eye of the storm. Until the night the eye was eradicated, and the storm blew in, striking me dumb with your sound and fury. But no spattered blood and no spreading bruise to be found in the pattern of the kaleidoscope. No cause for alarm. Today I am lost in a picture show, a beautiful world coloured by nostalgic past. Women’s lips the vivid red print of a velvet valentine. Head in the Clouds, I fantasize about a certain scene. Because you think violence is **** retaliation – ********** in my dream. Give me an eye for my eye, for all the eyes you plucked, from women and breadwinners. Give me blood running down your back, sweet as honey.
Continue reading...
39
Have you known the winter days? Late February falls like frigid snow Merciless undertow Of evergreen and alpenglow And grey ground pavement walking Like Grocery shopping and weak chai tea Moonlengths from all family And surrounded like strawbury temptation, Late night lamp light contemplation And drowsy-dampened mornings Grey glaze of diluted boring Spattered over every orifice Charcoal eyes, platonic kiss. Pull your bow to shoot and miss Tell me all this is is what it is And I will tell you, “okay” (but you know this isn’t what I wanted) Hide the roadsigns Blur the guidelines This is how I love you Have you known the winter days? Late February fell like fire on hell And shook me from my sleep Ashes cover snow-banked heaps of rubble I slice my wrist on the sharpened stubble Of your half-assed beard (this is how I bleed my dear) This is how I bear my soul ******* smile And dominoes Carnation cults And buried bones (This is how I build your throne) Hide the gravestones Burn the rainbows This is how I love you. And have you known the winter days? Late February fallen like Lucifer to the underworld We both knew I wasn’t altogether that typeof girl But we pretended anyways Alcoholic halo haze And foreign intervention Of somewhat insidious intention And the legitimate logistical question That defined our discourse on fear (this is how I think my dear) This is how I speak my mind All that grey Those missing roadsigns Smoke and soot and Blurry guidelines And Gravestones gone And rainbows ash (and we are never coming back) This. This is how I love you.
0
Mar 4, 2015
Mar 4, 2015 at 11:43 AM UTC
Fallen-angel February
Have you known the winter days? Late February falls like frigid snow Merciless undertow Of evergreen and alpenglow And grey ground pavement walking Like Grocery shopping and weak chai tea Moonlengths from all family And surrounded like strawbury temptation, Late night lamp light contemplation And drowsy-dampened mornings Grey glaze of diluted boring Spattered over every orifice Charcoal eyes, platonic kiss. Pull your bow to shoot and miss Tell me all this is is what it is And I will tell you, “okay” (but you know this isn’t what I wanted) Hide the roadsigns Blur the guidelines This is how I love you Have you known the winter days? Late February fell like fire on hell And shook me from my sleep Ashes cover snow-banked heaps of rubble I slice my wrist on the sharpened stubble Of your half-assed beard (this is how I bleed my dear) This is how I bear my soul ******* smile And dominoes Carnation cults And buried bones (This is how I build your throne) Hide the gravestones Burn the rainbows This is how I love you. And have you known the winter days? Late February fallen like Lucifer to the underworld We both knew I wasn’t altogether that typeof girl But we pretended anyways Alcoholic halo haze And foreign intervention Of somewhat insidious intention And the legitimate logistical question That defined our discourse on fear (this is how I think my dear) This is how I speak my mind All that grey Those missing roadsigns Smoke and soot and Blurry guidelines And Gravestones gone And rainbows ash (and we are never coming back) This. This is how I love you.
Continue reading...
57
Your eyes are blue In the sunshine, But not just any blue. They are the color of The wildflowers that grow In the fields we run in (sometimes. But not anymore) Except for in the morning, When I awake next to you (once, but just friends) They looked green. In fact, they were the exact color Of the leaves outside my window When I see them through rain spattered Panes: storm-colored. Your eyes are grey In the shadows when you Laugh and tell me silly things That mean more to me than Anything I've ever been taught (I love you) Your eyes are blue Even when you say nothing is better, Nothing is what you want for us. Through my tear clouded mind, Your cold, careless eyes are blue. And I still love you.
0
May 15, 2014
May 15, 2014 at 11:16 PM UTC
Blue
In high-school chemistry classrooms across the country, you are forced to memorize all of the different lab equipment. They never tell you to memorize the constellation of freckles spattered across the bridge of your lab partner's nose, but you do it anyways. You learn about Marie Curie and radioactive decay, but you find you are more interested in the way his smile starts small and grows to light a fire in your cheeks. You blame it on the Bunsen burner. You study polyatomic ions and how they act as a single unit, and it reminds you of how he winks at you right before quizzes and you find you can't focus on anything at all. You blame it on the lack of breakfast. You test over periodic trends and ionization energy, but all you can think of at night is the way he taps his fingers and maybe it's why you can't sleep at night. You blame it on a restless mind. In high-school chemistry classrooms across the country, you are forced to be careful when handling Erlenmeyer flasks. They never tell other students to be careful when handling your heart. They never tell you how much easier it is to clean up the mess from a shattered beaker than it is to clean up the mess from your shattered heart.
0
Oct 25, 2015
Oct 25, 2015 at 4:06 PM UTC
Chemistry Class
In Rome on the Campo di Fiori Baskets of olives and lemons, Cobbles spattered with wine And the wreckage of flowers. Vendors cover the trestles With rose-pink fish; Armfuls of dark grapes Heaped on peach-down. On this same square They burned Giordano Bruno. Henchmen kindled the pyre Close-pressed by the mob. Before the flames had died The taverns were full again, Baskets of olives and lemons Again on the vendors' shoulders. I thought of the Campo dei Fiori In Warsaw by the sky-carousel One clear spring evening To the strains of a carnival tune. The bright melody drowned The salvos from the ghetto wall, And couples were flying High in the cloudless sky. At times wind from the burning Would driff dark kites along And riders on the carousel Caught petals in midair. That same hot wind Blew open the skirts of the girls And the crowds were laughing On that beautiful Warsaw Sunday. Someone will read as moral That the people of Rome or Warsaw Haggle, laugh, make love As they pass by martyrs' pyres. Someone else will read Of the passing of things human, Of the oblivion Born before the flames have died. But that day I thought only Of the loneliness of the dying, Of how, when Giordano Climbed to his burning There were no words In any human tongue To be left for mankind, Mankind who live on. Already they were back at their wine Or peddled their white starfish, Baskets of olives and lemons They had shouldered to the fair, And he already distanced As if centuries had passed While they paused just a moment For his flying in the fire. Those dying here, the lonely Forgotten by the world, Our tongue becomes for them The language of an ancient planet. Until, when all is legend And many years have passed, On a great Campo dci Fiori Rage will kindle at a poet's word.
0
3.6k
Campo di Fiori
In Rome on the Campo di Fiori Baskets of olives and lemons, Cobbles spattered with wine And the wreckage of flowers. Vendors cover the trestles With rose-pink fish; Armfuls of dark grapes Heaped on peach-down. On this same square They burned Giordano Bruno. Henchmen kindled the pyre Close-pressed by the mob. Before the flames had died The taverns were full again, Baskets of olives and lemons Again on the vendors' shoulders. I thought of the Campo dei Fiori In Warsaw by the sky-carousel One clear spring evening To the strains of a carnival tune. The bright melody drowned The salvos from the ghetto wall, And couples were flying High in the cloudless sky. At times wind from the burning Would driff dark kites along And riders on the carousel Caught petals in midair. That same hot wind Blew open the skirts of the girls And the crowds were laughing On that beautiful Warsaw Sunday. Someone will read as moral That the people of Rome or Warsaw Haggle, laugh, make love As they pass by martyrs' pyres. Someone else will read Of the passing of things human, Of the oblivion Born before the flames have died. But that day I thought only Of the loneliness of the dying, Of how, when Giordano Climbed to his burning There were no words In any human tongue To be left for mankind, Mankind who live on. Already they were back at their wine Or peddled their white starfish, Baskets of olives and lemons They had shouldered to the fair, And he already distanced As if centuries had passed While they paused just a moment For his flying in the fire. Those dying here, the lonely Forgotten by the world, Our tongue becomes for them The language of an ancient planet. Until, when all is legend And many years have passed, On a great Campo dci Fiori Rage will kindle at a poet's word.
Continue reading...
64
blunt tips of bent cigarettes were incisive as razors - sliced wrists weeping bright red sentences, spattered unborn to blank paper and turned into statues so the dead would always remember what they did, never safe in the graves in which they'd took refuge but blue on blue was ever her color; blue on blues seeping from old sins, deep, hidden within spidery veins that traced pale, soft ******* finally filling mute lips as she slept, subsumed in oceans of color, blues that gave stories, as waves to shore subsided, reclaiming their pain, and cleansed sand once more What end to life! a collection of furies like stone turtles arranged on the mantle - just a few dozen last words tucked among ads for Old Spice and Polident tabs unread, used to line litter boxes in Cambridge or wrap fresh fish at Hay Market; then, someone pausing to wave at the sky missed saving the drowning woman by years, if he'd tried, finding questions in every answer; child curled in hard lap of his mother, her cold affections of words blew from dead lips like old wishes without tender touch or wet kisses; but that life continued, if lived only blue on blue
0
Jun 27, 2010
Jun 27, 2010 at 6:02 PM UTC
Elegy for Annie
There was something wrong with the sky today in the melancholy cold September sun. Frost sculpted clouds hung in the empty blue, bereft, uncelebrated The swallows are gone. No more exalting in our wet summer unfettered by earthbound grumbles: now they scythe the skies to Africa leaving us completely behind. A white-spattered woodshed - over-bold insects - and perhaps the promise of return.
0
Sep 23, 2012
Sep 23, 2012 at 3:10 PM UTC
Swallows
*"mary mary quite contrary how does your garden grow with silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row”* homecoming queen ballgown made of polythene they always said in trash bags you could still look haute couture leave em wanting more now, the only thing i’m sure of is laura, laura, laura in the ground nothing but her aura and a lily spattered mound remains, it pains me to concede that she’ll be eaten up by ghost **** by the time she turns 18 she’ll still be homecoming queen below my lungs and all the earth she will be crowned laura in the ground angel dusted lips of blue and eyes of lapis lazuli all the water in the river couldnt fill the chasm this microcosmic monster ****** bone dry cause the only thing i’m sure of is laura, laura, laura in the ground nothing but her aura and a lily spattered mound remains, it pains me to concede that she’ll be eaten up by ghost **** by the time she turns 18 she’ll still be homecoming queen below my lungs and all the earth she will be crowned laura in the ground even her jewellery is broken hearted all cut up like lines of cheap ******* it feels like all the world is utterly uncharted with you gone i am lost in fog you’re planted in my brain oh, laura, laura, laura in the ground nothing but her aura and a lily spattered mound remains, it pains me to concede that she’ll be eaten up by ghost **** by the time she turns 18 she’ll still be homecoming queen below my lungs and all the earth she will be crowned laura in the ground oh laura, laura, laura palmer golden girl, enchanted charmer you will still be crowned laura, lovely laura palmer you’ve got a date with the embalmer and afterwards there’s coffee in the ground i promise, doll, i swear you’ve nothing, no one left to fear you’re all walled in and safe, my dear my darling laura, laura in the ground
0
Feb 18, 2014
Feb 18, 2014 at 10:11 PM UTC
Laura in the Ground
*"mary mary quite contrary how does your garden grow with silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row”* homecoming queen ballgown made of polythene they always said in trash bags you could still look haute couture leave em wanting more now, the only thing i’m sure of is laura, laura, laura in the ground nothing but her aura and a lily spattered mound remains, it pains me to concede that she’ll be eaten up by ghost **** by the time she turns 18 she’ll still be homecoming queen below my lungs and all the earth she will be crowned laura in the ground angel dusted lips of blue and eyes of lapis lazuli all the water in the river couldnt fill the chasm this microcosmic monster ****** bone dry cause the only thing i’m sure of is laura, laura, laura in the ground nothing but her aura and a lily spattered mound remains, it pains me to concede that she’ll be eaten up by ghost **** by the time she turns 18 she’ll still be homecoming queen below my lungs and all the earth she will be crowned laura in the ground even her jewellery is broken hearted all cut up like lines of cheap ******* it feels like all the world is utterly uncharted with you gone i am lost in fog you’re planted in my brain oh, laura, laura, laura in the ground nothing but her aura and a lily spattered mound remains, it pains me to concede that she’ll be eaten up by ghost **** by the time she turns 18 she’ll still be homecoming queen below my lungs and all the earth she will be crowned laura in the ground oh laura, laura, laura palmer golden girl, enchanted charmer you will still be crowned laura, lovely laura palmer you’ve got a date with the embalmer and afterwards there’s coffee in the ground i promise, doll, i swear you’ve nothing, no one left to fear you’re all walled in and safe, my dear my darling laura, laura in the ground
Continue reading...
58
Her press on nails graced her sunken in cheek Tracing the bone that seemed to cut like glass Remembering days of endless driving Her high heels out the window The sun whispered sweet nothings But no one knew how personal those were And here she is At the vanity of a ****** motel Dusting powder across lesions that spattered her skin ****** patches on her skin Just like holes in her skin She cries Removing the brown wig that she tossed for years Brushing it in her hands The tears held on as if they didn’t want to let go Standing She slips off her briefs Gazing into the mirror Horrified at the person staring back at her Invisible bones now visible Crevices and cavities too deep Webs of veins that were colored too brightly Wearing the anatomy of a man that was no longer there A body not worth surgery Wiping sweat off her forehead Smearing her drawn on eyebrows All she can hear is “Your mother and I gave birth to a son named Raymond. What happened?” That name echoed in her head Drawing pleads from her ears She collapsed Her thighs bruised from one too many needle-pricks Tracing each hole with her finger As if to draw out an answer She A forgotten woman Who only tried to cope Her t-shirts were too big “Raymond, Your T-Cell count is too low” A forgotten woman Who only tried to cope “Is this ‘cause you’re a ****** Raymond?” A forgotten woman Who only tried to cope “Raymond, there is no cure for AIDS” She wept Mascara staining her pale face Press on nails clutching her arms Hugging herself Because no one else was would Rayon died alone She was no longer forced to love from an infected vessel To hurt from a torn home To pray on laced knees This hotel room became a mausoleum Smelling of death and perfume Rayon was a forgotten woman Who only needed to cope But exiled by a community of people For loving too much
0
Apr 9, 2014
Apr 9, 2014 at 11:46 PM UTC
Rayon
Her press on nails graced her sunken in cheek Tracing the bone that seemed to cut like glass Remembering days of endless driving Her high heels out the window The sun whispered sweet nothings But no one knew how personal those were And here she is At the vanity of a ****** motel Dusting powder across lesions that spattered her skin ****** patches on her skin Just like holes in her skin She cries Removing the brown wig that she tossed for years Brushing it in her hands The tears held on as if they didn’t want to let go Standing She slips off her briefs Gazing into the mirror Horrified at the person staring back at her Invisible bones now visible Crevices and cavities too deep Webs of veins that were colored too brightly Wearing the anatomy of a man that was no longer there A body not worth surgery Wiping sweat off her forehead Smearing her drawn on eyebrows All she can hear is “Your mother and I gave birth to a son named Raymond. What happened?” That name echoed in her head Drawing pleads from her ears She collapsed Her thighs bruised from one too many needle-pricks Tracing each hole with her finger As if to draw out an answer She A forgotten woman Who only tried to cope Her t-shirts were too big “Raymond, Your T-Cell count is too low” A forgotten woman Who only tried to cope “Is this ‘cause you’re a ****** Raymond?” A forgotten woman Who only tried to cope “Raymond, there is no cure for AIDS” She wept Mascara staining her pale face Press on nails clutching her arms Hugging herself Because no one else was would Rayon died alone She was no longer forced to love from an infected vessel To hurt from a torn home To pray on laced knees This hotel room became a mausoleum Smelling of death and perfume Rayon was a forgotten woman Who only needed to cope But exiled by a community of people For loving too much
Continue reading...
61
corundum puppies and you begin to wonder if they’ll ever move again not much escapes your midas touch you used to organgrind your teeth and nails at the dusty mayhem floors (it’s suppertime baby let’s **** some airtime by eating the fish right off the CAUTIONwet hardwood as they gasp for air so we gasp for blood) seashell lakeshore pumpkinpatch painting of bugjuice spattered on the back windshield; you’re not afraid of a little fog. not enough sodium in the air (not enough salt in your wounds) and you begin to choke on the potassium of our bananasplit ages ago; if you’re eating your own molasses words please make sure you spit them back out again where the children can have them they wouldn’t say no to something sweet
0
Oct 24, 2012
Oct 24, 2012 at 1:05 PM UTC
pea soup & pending
River bamboo arrayed in lace tiers consoles the birdbath on its loss of robins Intemperate August staggers in liquored air of wavery heat and layered sighs Leaves relinquish their rush toward this “ripe on time” Blackberry brambles have ceased to reach now bow to ponder their plunder while petunias, those bold delinquents! bloom as if the frost’s lethal cling were some myth the antique roses had made up Bud, bloom, revive! See the generation of the bee! Bud, bloom, survive— to do it all again for the single sake... of treasuring beginning in the end... Her bicycle, my geranium have found eternity together on the sun spattered patio She— opens the screen door as I— climb the morning stairs She— squints smiles amongst sleepy freckles who has not brushed her hair in a late August moment of not caring And I know it will all happen anyway no matter what I do....
0
Aug 26, 2017
Aug 26, 2017 at 12:43 PM UTC
The Place Where Summer Ends
the night was already crazy-wild by the time we arrived at Jarred's pool. he had a big house but we never went in 4 teens, teen dream, a dream team; but I knew deep down just what it was we snuck out for. a "transform-optional" rite, this hollow night. but I still had doubts... as Jarred offered me an aluminum can of something and I nervously said, "no thank you", the moon had proudly jut out he had a big house but we never went in. I hadn't noticed, without the moonlight, just how sharp Jarred's teeth and fingernails were. canines, ivory & sporadic. looking at me I hadn't noticed how reptilian our 2 friends were The fangs and dislocating jaws, tendrils & scales. Man-o-war for a head, giant earthworm for an arm She looked scarier than he. Those 2 went at each other in a murderous way A blood sport of sorts. Confusing to me. She spread her jaws wide - a parachute with teeth And bit down hard between his legs. Blood everywhere. Blood spattered on her face She looked ****** god-awful by then. The meat of his dead body then re-animated And assimilated with hers. Anabiosis + Differentiate Jarred, a werewolf or something like it, approached me. He had a big house but we never went in. we chatted poolside for a while he'd go harmoniously from monster to human, human to monster. Boiling cancerous growths under his fur Grew angry eyes that glared at me. clawhand on the back of my neck, he went in for a kiss (or a bite) with a puckered face and bared teeth. This is it. I finally felt a grossness so profound that I, without thinking, jumped in the pool to splish-splash, cool, to escape, whatever I opened my eyes and just floated there for a bit. hanging in the stillness trying to forget those alien freaks staring up at the moon from the bottom of a pool.
0
Aug 21, 2012
Aug 21, 2012 at 10:33 PM UTC
Jump In the Pool
the night was already crazy-wild by the time we arrived at Jarred's pool. he had a big house but we never went in 4 teens, teen dream, a dream team; but I knew deep down just what it was we snuck out for. a "transform-optional" rite, this hollow night. but I still had doubts... as Jarred offered me an aluminum can of something and I nervously said, "no thank you", the moon had proudly jut out he had a big house but we never went in. I hadn't noticed, without the moonlight, just how sharp Jarred's teeth and fingernails were. canines, ivory & sporadic. looking at me I hadn't noticed how reptilian our 2 friends were The fangs and dislocating jaws, tendrils & scales. Man-o-war for a head, giant earthworm for an arm She looked scarier than he. Those 2 went at each other in a murderous way A blood sport of sorts. Confusing to me. She spread her jaws wide - a parachute with teeth And bit down hard between his legs. Blood everywhere. Blood spattered on her face She looked ****** god-awful by then. The meat of his dead body then re-animated And assimilated with hers. Anabiosis + Differentiate Jarred, a werewolf or something like it, approached me. He had a big house but we never went in. we chatted poolside for a while he'd go harmoniously from monster to human, human to monster. Boiling cancerous growths under his fur Grew angry eyes that glared at me. clawhand on the back of my neck, he went in for a kiss (or a bite) with a puckered face and bared teeth. This is it. I finally felt a grossness so profound that I, without thinking, jumped in the pool to splish-splash, cool, to escape, whatever I opened my eyes and just floated there for a bit. hanging in the stillness trying to forget those alien freaks staring up at the moon from the bottom of a pool.
Continue reading...
44
_red neon rain spattered pavements teeming; one thousand prismatic shades of meaning graffiti-laden puddles splish, splosh, splash; as midnight turns to blue, and dawn to ash_
0
Aug 16, 2019
Aug 16, 2019 at 10:10 PM UTC
Neon Rain
i have countless scars on my skin from a battle with depression i almost lost. twice. i have twelve scars on my leg from a car accident that saved my life. i have tracks of stretch marks on my ******* and thighs from growing up too fast i have a million freckles on my face spattered from too much time in the sun i have curves that show my womanhood gifted to me by the devil: puberty i have so many distinctions that make me who I am. These are my marks.
0
Oct 10, 2011
Oct 10, 2011 at 5:47 PM UTC
My Marks
I was sent to work at the old Repat. It was forty years since the war, Those ancient diggers would sit and swear At the pain of the limbs they wore, The wounds would open as years went by, They’d come for another slice, That war was never over for them, And morphine was paradise. I saw one veteran struggle and curse As he ripped at the buckles and straps, The new prosthesis had rubbed him raw As his knee began to relapse. He tore the leg from his wounded stump Sat on his bed, and roared, Then swung the article over his head And flung it across the ward. The others had ducked as the leg took off And bounced off the opposite wall, ‘I’ll have to report you,’ the nurse exclaimed, ‘It’s a good leg, after all!’ ‘You wear it then,’ was the man’s response, ‘For it’s driving me insane, What would you know of Flanders Fields? You wouldn’t deal with the pain!’ My job was to settle and calm him down So I asked him about his leg, ‘When and where did you lose it, Dig?’ The veteran tossed his head. ‘You’ve heard of a place called Flanders Fields Where the bullets came in like hail? Well, I was there with the Anzac’s, son, At a place called Passchendaele.’ ‘Our Generals were trying to ****** us, I swear, on my mother’s head, They kept on sending us over the top Until half of the men were dead. The German gunners would enfilade As we struggled against the mud, I’ll never forget the battlefield, It was spattered with bones and blood. They’d send artillery shells across At the height of a soldier’s knee, We’d watch them come as they parted the grass, They were Grasscutters, you see! Well, I was running with bayonet fixed And praying for God’s good grace, When suddenly I was lying there, I’d tumbled, flat on my face.’ ‘It’s strange that I never felt a thing, When the Grasscutter got me, It took a while ‘til I saw my leg Was gone, from under the knee. But that was the end of the war for me, The end of the life I’d known, I spent some time back in Blighty, then I came on a ship, back home.’ I never chided those men in there Though they’d curse and swear, and roar, For every man was a hero where They'd trudged in mud through the war. That Repat. job was a fill-in job And I left, still young and hale, But I never forgot the Grasscutter Or the man from Passchendaele. David Lewis Paget
0
Mar 13, 2014
Mar 13, 2014 at 5:39 AM UTC
Grasscutters
I was sent to work at the old Repat. It was forty years since the war, Those ancient diggers would sit and swear At the pain of the limbs they wore, The wounds would open as years went by, They’d come for another slice, That war was never over for them, And morphine was paradise. I saw one veteran struggle and curse As he ripped at the buckles and straps, The new prosthesis had rubbed him raw As his knee began to relapse. He tore the leg from his wounded stump Sat on his bed, and roared, Then swung the article over his head And flung it across the ward. The others had ducked as the leg took off And bounced off the opposite wall, ‘I’ll have to report you,’ the nurse exclaimed, ‘It’s a good leg, after all!’ ‘You wear it then,’ was the man’s response, ‘For it’s driving me insane, What would you know of Flanders Fields? You wouldn’t deal with the pain!’ My job was to settle and calm him down So I asked him about his leg, ‘When and where did you lose it, Dig?’ The veteran tossed his head. ‘You’ve heard of a place called Flanders Fields Where the bullets came in like hail? Well, I was there with the Anzac’s, son, At a place called Passchendaele.’ ‘Our Generals were trying to ****** us, I swear, on my mother’s head, They kept on sending us over the top Until half of the men were dead. The German gunners would enfilade As we struggled against the mud, I’ll never forget the battlefield, It was spattered with bones and blood. They’d send artillery shells across At the height of a soldier’s knee, We’d watch them come as they parted the grass, They were Grasscutters, you see! Well, I was running with bayonet fixed And praying for God’s good grace, When suddenly I was lying there, I’d tumbled, flat on my face.’ ‘It’s strange that I never felt a thing, When the Grasscutter got me, It took a while ‘til I saw my leg Was gone, from under the knee. But that was the end of the war for me, The end of the life I’d known, I spent some time back in Blighty, then I came on a ship, back home.’ I never chided those men in there Though they’d curse and swear, and roar, For every man was a hero where They'd trudged in mud through the war. That Repat. job was a fill-in job And I left, still young and hale, But I never forgot the Grasscutter Or the man from Passchendaele. David Lewis Paget
Continue reading...
65
I scream But a world of deaf can not hear A wail so loud piercing the night Excruciating pain tearing at my heart But a world of deaf can not hear I bleed But a world of blinds can not see Crimson red, staining the bedsheets Blood spattered across the streets But a world of blinds can not see I suffer I’m battered and withered But they choose not to see They choose not to hear My bleeding agony and silent screams My bruised body and burning tears I’m hurting But a heartless world can not feel.
0
Apr 27, 2019
Apr 27, 2019 at 4:08 PM UTC
Silent screams
The sky is aflame. To the west, it burns crimson. A warm gradient that seems like a massive forest fire, turning to a bright copper in the middle and ending as a quiet mahogany. To the east, a near-blinding white. With no gradient or change as it rises, simply dying down eventually, propped up by unholy spotlights that pierce the atmosphere. The north is charred a mute maroon, a short glass of auburn carelessly splashed to the horizon. To the south, pale bone paints away the stars, spattered with shades of pewter and smoke. I cannot see the stars through all the light, and I do not know which way to follow. The sky is aflame, lit by so many sources, rendering it empty and dull, burning away.
0
Feb 4, 2019
Feb 4, 2019 at 2:00 AM UTC
Light Pollution
Pure cane sugartar that sits on teeth, sits on a canine porch swing and swings too far, kicking the enamel siding, wood knots, and greying-thin windows. More exposed than Brad Pitt's marriage or JonBenét Ramsay on the cover of Old World News Daily in the dentist's office. And there we are. We're bleached white and burning beneath paparazzi bulbs and a a ****** case. Brief case money/ two thousand fourteen and it's still relevant, still useful blood money. Novocain lightning flash; burn a tree. Cali home tucked behind parsley palms. Fortune teller, baby, O.J. didn't do it. Not The Juice, not him. The gloves. The gloves. The gloves. Comfort of picket fence rainbrushed paint stripping. Raymour retail of a mocha-cushion couch half-off 'cause the back's spattered with toothpaste and taxpayer juice like Grandma's cancer handbag. Put your feet up, stay a while. Don't leave.
0
Nov 17, 2014
Nov 17, 2014 at 10:14 AM UTC
The Gloves