"stipulations" poems
Blank faces, hopeless dreams
Scattered down the boulevard
Thank the barren local streets
That shatter thoughts of working hard
Lonely moms, dying friends,
Barefoot children in the dark
Play behind a chain-link fence
Instead of in the park
Fast food & news stations
Feed on troubled minds
Claiming that the stipulations
Are changing with the times
These days you can’t wake up
Without that cup of Joe
Problems all those drugs shake up
Most people never know
Oct 19, 2015
Oct 19, 2015 at 12:54 AM UTC
Enough-
Its enough having these corporations run our nation while the infiltration of money making keeps destroying world peace aspirations-
Its like Satan and his manipulation keep telling me that success lies in the accumulation-
And the accumulation of that money making is what makes life exhilarating?
And the exhilaration of materialization keep growing as a representation of America’s successful creation-
And soon it becomes discrimination-
Upper class elevation vs. lower class stipulations-
The poor patient vs. Rich patience-
The barring margin of APR regulations-
Keep our nation rotating-Gaining speed and evaluating-
The appreciation of desperation is all for corporate gaming-
The memorization and commercialization keep our nation deprecating from the rest of the worlds visualizations-
Our accreditation creates frustration-
Segregation and integration by the new world organization-
Integration to a peaceful appropriation is questioned by this American administration-
AND I QUESTION IT?
Sep 2, 2010
Sep 2, 2010 at 2:04 PM UTC
Sitting in your car
Parked outside my house
You had to leave soon
But, it was so peaceful out
You kissed me so sweetly
deeply
Then you asked me
I saw it coming, honestly
Yet, I was still shocked
And more than a little terrified...
Mine? Yours?
Belonging to one another?
I wasn't sure how this made me feel
So many doubts and questions,
Running through my mind
I don't like admitting it
But you're really a rare find
Honest, sweet and kind
I'm not sure I feel as strongly as you do
Cause we both know the past I've been through
I think I'm gonna try
For you
But you seriously gotta make an effort too
I don't wanna do this alone
I know you're busy
Just pick up the phone
Make some time for me
You want me to be your girl?
Then you gotta be my guy
But this whole thing terrifies me
I'm not gonna lie
I'll NEVER cheat
I'll stay faithful and true
But seriously,
That's what you gotta do too...
So, what's my answer to you?
First, I have stipulations
I'm not a girl all about big DECLARATIONS
I'm the poet, I'll do that
But I gotta know you're with me
That you got my back...
I'm not afraid to admit
I need attention
If you can handle that
And my crazy A$$
Then I'll be all yours
Nov 26, 2014
Nov 26, 2014 at 7:47 PM UTC
I ran off on the plug
He knew what he signed up for. Never trust a man that has nothing to lose with you as an opportunity to gain more traction more steam.
I want to live like a king whether it be by getting a corporate job with a high salary or running with ratchets attached with a red beam.
Consequences will come as they always do with any situation but we’re not here to go over any stipulations as to what’s right and wrong
I’m looking for one major lick I been plotting on running up on papi get in and out with everything he has then leaving town I’m gone.
Where I’m from people barely live to see 25 I’m pushing 30 with nothing going after this lick I’ll be 15 again and can’t feel more alive.
All I have to do is make it.
Feb 24, 2021
Feb 24, 2021 at 12:06 AM UTC
How could you Think,
Believe,
Dream,
That you do not
Matter?
It is
All
You are made of.
Reversion of Nature
Causing
Pluralities
Where none of us are
'Enough'.
Where do these stipulations come from?
What 'is' Enough?
What is Ethnicity?
What about the Asian woman with a
Jamaican Accent?
Born and Raised.
How is she Stereotyped?
Why this need to Classify?
Sort?
De-fine.
STOP.
You.
Were born.
Enough.
Choose what your
Ears are Privy too.
It is Known.
Who you Are.
Why Hide?
Why Change?
Do Not
Blindly Follow.
Turn Around.
Give your
Soul
F L I G H T.
A beaming
Shadow.
Not soon
Forgotten.
Matter is
Nothing
Until Observed.
Observe Self First.
Decide the Definition of
'You Matter'.
Do not
Cower.
Express...
All have
Reasons.
You.
Were Not.
An
Accident.
Dec 2, 2013
Dec 5, 2013
Dec 5, 2013 at 9:23 PM UTC
So lethargic
Victim of calumny
Ruptured appendix
Constantly rebuked
On the pursuit of happiness
Receiving flack
So pusillanimous
Looking for something cathartic
Fight with yourself
When your're your own worst enemy
Leaving everyone scratching their heads
And hanging on every word
Smoke 'em if you got 'em
First impressions are my worst impressions
Bad decisions and fallen angels
Pedantic stipulations
Derogatory semantics
Fight with yourself
When your're your own worst enemy
Leaving everyone scratching their heads
And hanging on every word
Smoke 'em if you got 'em
Review the glossary
Check the index
It's a lost cause
The cut throat is fighting
The masked wrestler on a tugboat
They're both wearing Hawaiian shirts
Fight with yourself
When your're your own worst enemy
Leaving everyone scratching their heads
And hanging on every word
Smoke 'em if you got 'em
-Tommy Johnson
Jul 5, 2014
Jul 5, 2014 at 7:15 PM UTC
We sip green beer bottles under lime lights
With her ginseng tongue talking calming evergreen
And her eye’s are envious and big like granny smith apples
And now we’re downing absinthe on the other side
Laughing, getting drunk, and eating green grapes
Her skin is smooth and cool jade
But fragile
A cut under a blade of grass
But it’s emerald, and it’s all the riches we need
Because while everyone was playing life like a game with rules.
We were breaking fences and creating unfair stipulations for others.
No one is passing the finish line if I keep moving it up.
It’s not me raining on a parade
I’m closing down every street.
But still…
We have the pill poppers and the drop outs
The can do’s take up all the good face time so they say
But all I see is a weak person
Socially awkward isn’t an excuse
So if we’re all
Wild animals
Then we
Eat our young
And if you’re into that
Then we’re talking business
But until then
Write your eulogies on crumpled up bath room paper
I get the bland fairy tale story, rock band, slam poetry, baked cookies, digital photographs.
And it’s force fed down my mouth
Like a baby
**** it all
I want things to better
And I expect so much more…
If our lives are just a waiting room for something better
We’re stranded
So I’m leaving behind the white walls
And the cool
Linoleum
Floor
So I may be wildly foolish
But a slight chance at splendor
Is better than misery as a sure things
I'm moving up the hill
to see the other side
-Kevin T
Jun 17, 2010
Jun 17, 2010 at 10:23 PM UTC
kept under wraps like
an under-water welcome
bubbled up like kerosene from an
O-shaped mouth is
this hope
this hope that
someday truth should
transcend better judgment and
stipulations
that someday
you will listen
Feb 5, 2012
Feb 5, 2012 at 1:53 PM UTC
I'm up at 5 a.m., and it's cold in the basement again despite the new summer heat. I am quiet.
You know, every morning, I choose a face. It doesn't matter which one I choose, it doesn't matter what place I have to go. It only matters that I have to constantly know that I have it on, and that however long I have to wear it, I'll be able to bear it because that is what's required of me.
I say, "This is today's face...the one that everyone will see." "Today's face is funny." or "Today's face is sad." or "Today's face says 'fuck you' to everyone I pass."
Now, about the other day...just the way you said you hate it when I'm quiet.
I should tell you that I love you most when I'm quiet. Even though I know it bothers you, and I know you'll never buy it, It's the truth.
Because, though I've been doing it for a long time, and it's nothing new, putting on these faces often gets old.
So, even though I know it's 5 a.m. and it's cold, I think I may need to stand up and be bold and demand that you accept me as I am, without any stipulations or a contingency plan, and without any reservations.
I want today's face to be me. I want it to be the face that you see when I am quiet, and at peace. The face you see when I am able to laugh as a child would. The one you see when I smile and kiss you, or when I crack into a good book, or ride a roller coaster.
As you and I get closer and closer I think it's more than fair that we should share who we really are with each other.
As we get to know one another, we become a part of something special that will be good for us both.
So think it out. Even though you have your doubts, you should think about it, and we should try it.
I'm willing if you are, and more than ready...If you can love me when I'm quiet.
Aug 18, 2011
Aug 18, 2011 at 4:15 AM UTC
Crease by crease
Line by line
Day by day
I built character,
I got older, a little more tattered by the stipulations of life
Time passed and I changed.
I met you
My shade of white seemed to brighten that day, you weaved through every crease and smudge on me, dissecting the defining moments of my life
You loved them all, you loved the imperfection of me, and for that i told you how the imperfections came to be
You touched me without laying a finger on my body
You lit a fire inside of me that has embers still glowing hot
And I know it's inevitable that this can't last forever
I just hope it outlasts me-
but if not-
it's beautiful if just for a moment.
Because I'm paper, no matter who tries to flatten me out and smooth me straight, they'll see the ways you touched me, I'll never be the same.
Feb 7, 2013
Feb 7, 2013 at 1:29 AM UTC
A cadence of breaths stings my lungs,
my tissues contracting in a rhythmic pattern,
oh how it stung.
Turgid veins swelling with blood, it bites like battery acid.
Tepid vision is clouded, and I'm placing a bid, one still tacit.
Bathing in the moonlight, I have sworn to remain focused,
the stale breath of the night drawing me nearer.
Contentions bind us together, it attracts me, I almost fear her.
Atop the mountains I have had a revelation.
Unlike before, synapses fail to send reason for any stipulations.
A feverishly beating heart, once stagnant, is evolving passion again,
becoming ostentatious.
This pen and ink portend my timidity, acting out for me,
love has again become contagious.
I can feel it in my brittle bones, a tingling spine indicates
I must offer to amalgamate.
Though ardent, I linger in ambivalence, as to when my heart will proceed,
I can only speculate.
May 5, 2014
May 5, 2014 at 2:56 AM UTC
I've loved you unconditionally.
Love without limitations..
But strange your love for me has many stipulations...and always comes with a finger point...at my many flaws...
Overweight..blemished skin.. stretch marks..oversized arms...never a comment on how my obese my heart is.. flowing with nothing but love...for a human that has never fully loved me the way I do you...I will never be her...in fact she could never be me..and it could never be an us because of the limitations that has been placed on what we could've had.
Mar 6, 2018
Mar 6, 2018 at 3:00 AM UTC
Everyone tells me, "Idle time is the devil's playground."
Maybe I want to play with the devil, insisting on others
To stoop to my level. People want me to bow down to
Them anyway, telling me how I should live my *******
Life day to day. They put ******* stipulations on everything!
Can't smoke, can't drink, can't **** someone might end up
With aids. What the **** Can't look at **** nor **********
Can't be this, can't be that, can't have no ******* dreams they
Ain't worth a crap. **** I'm just a bumb, not worth much
Of anything, I like to *** and pretend I'm a king; smoke a
Cig afterward and do it all over again. ******* if it ever means anything at all, then I guess I'll live in hell, Cause I'm having too much fun as it is.
Apr 23, 2015
Apr 23, 2015 at 3:47 AM UTC
Because I am so free,
I will sleep in cages,
To show they cannot harm me,
I will walk my golden feet in mud,
To show I won’t absorb it,
Just as Christ himself,
Who never had a chain,
Chose to live under human rules,
So I will submit,
To pointless stipulations,
Covering,
To truly reveal.
Assenting,
Because I am free.
Those who fly,
Can leave the sky,
And walk,
With light steps.
Shaking off the dust,
Of crowds,
While laughing with them.
Oct 11, 2014
Oct 11, 2014 at 4:35 PM UTC
Here we are yet again. Another black life taken too soon.
Another hashtag created trending on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and the news.
Why is it open season to those who wear a badge? A badge that is suppose to protect and serve.
But instead shoots down black men and boys in cold blood without reserve.
The law is suppose to protect everyone.
Yet there is still a great divide because of the color of our skin.
Racism is still very much alive & present in today's society though Martin and Malcolm helped tried to abolish it.
When does it end? When do we all stand together and act as one?
Injustice for one race should equate to injustice for everyone.
We live in the land of the free but that seems to have stipulations to me.
Especially if you're a young black boy and black man just trying to live in 2016.
So exactly how many hashtags must trend till there's a real call to action to come about?
Cause at this rate it seems there's an undercover extinction plan in effect for the African American race.
Nov 3, 2016
Nov 3, 2016 at 3:31 PM UTC
Broken battered
Woken shattered
Descriptive of a time
Insisted to be fine
Left alone and your will to pray
Lost somewhere along the way
Your will to live
Your will to try
Your will to push on
Your will to strive
The will to get up and be alive astray
Lost somewhere along the way
Trials and stipulations
Walked miles for conversations
Memories of a hope once left at bay
All lost somewhere along the way
Try to run try to hide
Keep your chin up
But you're dead inside
Wear that smile and to everyone youll show it
Because youve already died and they just don't know it
The feelings all numb and
The liquore bottle full
Pour up a drink here here let me say
All of your life was lost somewhere along the way
Feb 18, 2019
Feb 18, 2019 at 11:03 PM UTC
You've found those in love with the idea of you
Who see your youth as supposed beauty, the way
Anyone would agree the shore and waves of an ocean
And the sparkling water, like diamonds on the surface
Is beauty itself captured, without seeing the depths --
The muddy ocean floor and vines and tentacles
You've found those who say they love you
Who talk about you like perfection encapsulated
Their dream girl who will surely save them
Kind, compassionate and caring, you love with open arms
There to hold them, cook, clean, support and keep them safe
But your love only heals like a bandaid over an amputation
You've seen love that is exchanged for goods and services
Conditional love that relies on your ambition and ability
Love that is picked up briefly and put down suddenly
Thrice you have even found something resembling absolute love
At a bad time, with the wrong person, in a broken place
And it's never yours to keep and it never remains
So you teeter along this edge where everyone's love
Depends on what you do for them or who you aren't
Slowly but surely you find a way to accept that maybe
No one has ever really, truly, possibly, loved you.
Maybe they can't.
Maybe you are unlovable.
Or maybe love itself is impossible -
An idea created and packaged by capitalism
To sell media and cosmetics and insecurity
You find a way to make peace with the idea of a world
Devoid of unconditional or true love
Where the constance of love and loss are tied
One cannot seem to exist without the other because love itself
Does not exist without barriers or stipulations
The happily ever afters are a likely delusion
One that has poisoned your mind for too long
Love is always conditional, selfish, and possessive
Everyone loved, leaves because love cannot stretch to infinity
Movies and music and literature have lied to us
At some point you learn to give up on others, because it's easier
You learn to stop loving anyone else, either
Because one sided affection is emotionally draining
Giving 100% to anyone but yourself, impossible
And in that moment maybe
You find a way to love yourself like no one else can
Because that's the only thing you have left in this world
While you make peace with the idea
That you, too, will someday leave
May 7, 2019
May 7, 2019 at 7:50 PM UTC
He told me he loved me yesterday
blurted it out while we walked through the trees
the love came with a but, though, of course,
can you expect anything less?
Does love ever come without stipulations?
He said he'll love me only if I'd tattoo his name on my arm for all to see
that makes sense, doesn't it?
Why wouldn't I show the world that this amazing man loves me...
but it bothers me a little bit
a lot
I wish he'd just believe me, forget the rest and concentrate on what
I'm telling him
showing him--
because my words and actions should be enough to know I love you,
a tattoo would do none of that,
except cause me pain and scar my skin,
he's so beautiful and pure-hearted
it makes me sick--
it makes me want to be a better person,
I wish I was a better person,
he's been through such little heart-break so few challenges
only those that he's presented himself for sport
he's such a good person
I feel ***** tainted--
full of wisdom and thoughtfulness--
wishing less has happened in my life
knowing that this is how I'm meant to be
but also wishing he'd understand that I am beyond our years
I see the future so clearly
and I see him in it. But he doesn't seem to realize what an honor that is
and the only reason why I know doubtlessly that it's an honor
is because of all my wisdom.
It's a double-edged sword that I'm proud to wear,
not like a tattoo.
Dec 27, 2015
Dec 27, 2015 at 11:51 AM UTC
The world is full of misery with all our failed relations
Mixed feelings and emotions in my mind's hallucinations
The love of a derailed heart in clouded stipulations
When two lover's are forced apart, alone in different station's
Don't succumb to the seven year itch or feelings of flirtatious
Illicit thoughts invade your mind with paranoid creations
Loving seems to turn to hate with harsh eliminations
There is a sense of numbness without any good sensations
The depths of beauty are denied without any realisations
lover's heart's are always lost in hopeless situations
The misery of loneliness gets worse with desperations
Maybe it's because we have too many expectations
Life's to short for broken heart's waiting to be mended
Especially when your lover's gone and your heart is blended
It doesn't have to be this way or completely ended
Stop wasting time for love that's lost this can be amended
A limbo living state of mind is not really recommended
Being with the one you love should always be defended
Soul mate's that are separated can never be contented
Because their heart's are aching and love is not attended
A heart sent gift with feelings there's no need to be offended
It's the way I've always been a characteristic I have tended
Everything can work out fine our life and love extended
If you really want them too then this will be commended
There is no need to be unhappy all you need are chances
A lover's dream can come true not just distant glances
All you need is faith of the heart within your own expanses
Don't lose the love that you once had in falling avalanches
Losing a friend and lover, your feelings are in trances
The bleeding of a broken heart seeping through snapped branches
If your lover's left you, there is no more advances
The grass is not that greener it's only different dances
Maybe your the loser, lost looks are not young stances
True love's supposed to conquer all I'm not sure if it enhances
Kindness is forgotten and the good time's fled in prances
And people will always suffer from all life's failed romances
Oct 4, 2017
Oct 4, 2017 at 7:47 AM UTC
Poverty is the shadow we can't discern
From the ash tree in harshest winter
It begs a nickel and we give it a side turn
And structure it with bells and tax dollars
And stipulations whilst buying shiny
Organic apples with fancy paper
Sustenance is hard to come by, and shelter
But ignorance is cheap and in great supply
To be freely traded for scraps of humanity
It is surely written to gift but those leftovers
Grow moldy in the fridge instead of calming
The stomach of one who doesn't mind
Devouring your bite marks & saliva
Better from your hand than a dumpster
Crummy lots and crazy brains and foul teeth
Indicate a need or two unmet but persisting
Through change we can't bare to spare
And there's no time to sit down for a chat
Because you know you can't throw all
The starfish or rescue every kitten either
So I refuse the personal, and feel only
A second of guilt, and then annoyance:
I'll reflect now, and write him dignity but...
Next time I'll remember my headphones.
Jul 27, 2015
Jul 27, 2015 at 1:35 PM UTC
Little do they know
Love is not something expressed under the covers
But it is patience, tolerance and most of all
Loyalty.
You can carve a million holes into this bark
But nothing will subside my spark
For you
I'm coping with the void
Hoping to avoid
All the issues everyone else had
You make me more than glad
To be alive
Everyone is so quick to drop the baskets
I'm ready to put these stipulations in the casket
Vulnerability within me is apparent and I'm not going to mask it
I want something that's porcelain, not plastic
That thrill of seeing your beautiful eyes twinkle is fantastic.
When they tell me to let you go, I'll shake my head and continue.
Nothing worth having in life is easy.
I want to earn your courtship.
That's something I'll take pride in forever.
Sep 16, 2017
Sep 16, 2017 at 8:51 AM UTC
Sole my soul
The shoe didn’t fit
Lifetimes of negotiations
Powerful how’d I get...
Anxious for a glimpse
These grounds
Consecrated
Weary of the next step
To be taken
Looking back
path of the created
Unadulterated or stipulations?
Plundering through books
Slumbering as it looks
Calm under palms
Psalms poems or songs?
Metaphoric
in that it sits
In all Beauty
amidst
Eye of the storm
Surrounded by chaos
sim·i·lar·ly
a simile
As me
under this tree
Devastation all about
All While reading aloud
Destruct
as the world Plummets
from skyward
To ground
Hell on earth
Satin saying
I’ve cursed
To Jehovah he’s raging
It didn’t work
he’s complaining
I control his soul
Yet now
he reads a verse
Demanding a refund
Nuh Uh neither wants
Sole my soul
Now I’m the Soul
That nobody wants
Oct 13, 2017
Oct 13, 2017 at 11:51 AM UTC
Daily digression helps my digestion
I travel farther down this crazed obscurity I'm a madman dressed in pink
I preferred structure,
sadly it didn't like me
I color outside the lines oh so eloquently
My invitation is divine
Stipulations, no touching
I apologize
I'm not sharing my wine,
only my insecurities
Mar 15, 2018
Mar 15, 2018 at 3:31 AM UTC
Long time - no sea
and feelings of the ocean-pull
have gained the upper hand,
There is nothing here
in writing,
just pigeon- breasted
righteousness,
increasing stipulations
All that meadowsweet
and moonshine ran,
to desert sand androgony
sank lower
than the daily dip
of fire's head in middle distance
Dizzy social densities
imported inner-city syndromes
proffer only impotence
of temporary reprieve
seems hard to bed
the disenchanted,
sickening for cigarettes
for solitary epithets
-ennui-
So, hide away
demands that breed
the need to know the answers
Been peeking
round the prism bars
empowered sense of self defeat
For sugared-melon hedonism
far too many lines have soured
Long,
Long time - no sea...
Sep 22, 2023
Sep 22, 2023 at 12:55 AM UTC
No stipulations
threats or intimidation
end of all nations
Kelly McManus
Oct 7, 2021
Oct 7, 2021 at 2:05 PM UTC