"stormclouds" poems
i. arachnophobia; fear of spiders. more common in females than males, why at night you choke on the idea of her fingers on him, long and thin.
ii. ophidiophobia; fear of snakes, fear of being crushed alive by commitment, why in the mornings you never left your number, why you don’t call her back, why you regretted it later.
iii. acrophobia; fear of heights. why she stays out of circuses and away from people like you who would make her fall in love.
iv. agoraphobia; fear of situations where escape is difficult, fear of the plane that takes her away, fear of the open crowded space of your ribcage where paintings of her still constantly hang.
v. cynophobia; fear of dogs, fear of the graves where good noses could dig up the mistakes you have made, fear of a girl who made you want to get a puppy and settle down somewhere finally.
vi. astraphobia; fear of thunder and lightning, fear of being alone in a house that always sounded like both, the stormclouds of your histories always brewing behind flimsy doors. fear of finding her there and having her kiss you in the rain. fear she’d never come back to you again.
vii. trypanophobia; fear of injections, fear of drugs, fear of the doctor who looked into your heart and told you that your shaky hands and bad dreams were a sign that she’s crept into your sleep.
viii. social phobias; fear of social situations, fear of your father’s white knuckles on the wheel while he says, “no son of mine is a ***** like this,” fear of her mother’s judgement, fear of not being enough.
ix. pteromerhanophobia; fear of flying, fear of remembering how long it’s been since you actually felt alive, why you trembled whenever you held her tight, why one day she frightened you so bad that you left in the middle of the lonely night.
x. mysophobia; fear of germs. why you knew you’d only get her covered in dirt. why looking at yourself in the mirror always seems to hurt. why you will never be happy without being hers. out of this whole messed up world, she was the only thing pure.
Feb 15, 2015
Feb 15, 2015 at 7:58 PM UTC
Stormclouds move across my amber evening sky
Painting it shades of grey and pink and orange
As the wind blows through our window
It whistles a lonely, homesick call
As you walk through the room
Your voice is bittersweet to hear
Confusing to my heart
Tearing it apart
Chasing its tail
Because it doesn’t know what else to do
Oct 3, 2012
Oct 3, 2012 at 2:06 AM UTC
Help me take on this world of woe
I know I can't do it on my own
While people are fading and changing
I'm a permanent fixture, watching, waiting
Run your fingers down my back to keep me fixed
Eradicate my distractions with every kiss
And I'll put my hands to your face
I won't waste this precious space
I think we can do this if we are strong.
Standing in the middle of this surging throng.
Mar 12, 2013
Mar 12, 2013 at 10:22 AM UTC
the overcast window haze casts shadows over farmlands at distance, past ferns and cottage solemnities out on plains cold and alive; meanwhile, concrete and preservative-laden once-trees cage in the zoo-horde of humanity this lovely city is built upon, through the steep divides between the walls of foreign strangers, still neighbours, calling telephone lines to the lover that makes their heart shrink in the cool sheets at a distance of eight thousand leagues under kitchen sink designs where drips escape onto a blue-grey dishtowel, strategically placed to avoid having to address the issue over farmland holidays when stormclouds gather and sleep 'til the grand show, back over the alps, as the fallabout planes drift under blue over grey with distorted fantasies sandwiched three abreast internally, whispering "you'll be here, I'll be here, seventeen minutes" as the black gown of evening bids its farewells to the long-worn ball of flame we call upon for life's little affirmations, the skin and bone we call home, the constructed caves we wish we didn't, and, letting frost's call begin, the last of the seasons hauls its bulky frame over the horizon and clusters on the fingertips of tree limbs, coercing: "let go, it's late, it's so very late" and so the sidewalks choke with debris under the wearing off of summer feet, and the declination of that peach-pit feeling of sanguinity as the blankets pile up and the distance consumes once again, long after delusion gave up the chase; we all want to be left alone and want someone to pursue us at the same time, we all dream of the grandeur of timeless monuments: the desert road, the glint of illuminated heavens, the mist's rise and fall, the electricity in her eyes.
Mar 12, 2013
Mar 12, 2013 at 5:22 PM UTC
Shooting stars fell in a line and danced across my eyes in quick succession
though the sun outshone them all
and who ever worshiped the stars anyway?
Then like fireflies flew north before broke,
and from the south I saw the great Diamond City
reach out above a jungle of metal concrete plastic plastic with lights
Oh! lights
Pinprick window TV stream style smiles selling streets projecting the moon for
advertising space; the population rises
Factory stormclouds only irritate umbrella stand footsteps who pretend
to hate the rain
and outshines dim sunlight baptizing all in electric glory
Candleflame prisons of light that honk through haze through
rainy Monday 6:30AM’s
choke on each others breath until we have nothing left but CO2;
dandelions inherit the earth.
Jul 22, 2014
Jul 22, 2014 at 11:51 PM UTC
the demons leak out of my mind sometimes and i swear
the people around me can see them
theyre holding up signs
telling my friends STAY AWAY FROM THIS ONE
telling strangers to beware
cant get close to anyone now
connections just dont come very easily to me
can anyone see beneath the shrouds of fog around my mind
clouding up the person i am, presenting the world with something darker
thats not me
im pleading im pleading
someone someone PLEASE see underneath
no one ever does
im waiting for someone to find the spark thats being blown out
protect it from the wind and the rain that the stormclouds produce
its going to be too late soon
Aug 14, 2015
Aug 14, 2015 at 9:34 PM UTC
Worry
Pounds like rain;
I force myself
To remember
That stormclouds
Are thick with rage
Just before they break
And calm returns to the earth
As the storm recedes,
As it will in me
Jan 13, 2019
Jan 13, 2019 at 12:39 PM UTC
Driving down the highway
Stormclouds
have turned to rain.
Droplets
splatter
against the paine.
Streams of possibility
Gliding over the horizon
I stick my hand out.
It returns dry.
The feeling,
I’m perplexed.
No rain, graces
my palm. I was taken
back to when my
old man failed to show up
or would slide
away just as suddenly
as he appeared.
The sense that something.
was off started to rise
then disappeared in a flash.
A big wet one
hit my palm.
Aug 16, 2025
Aug 16, 2025 at 8:07 PM UTC
Autumn in the city makes me feel lost-
Raise your voice. Shoulders back.
I bury myself, because I cannot flee-
Curve your lips. Fill your lungs.
Threads of geese passing by-
I can. I can.
Over the road, across the sky
One year ago in a public park, wooded and frosted
with ice and the gold crunch of sleeping grass
I saw a wolf. It held my gaze. Drew near, waited.
Just the huff of our breath, little stormclouds of silver reason.
Premonition. The wolf was I. One year later,
come to tell me that I would be alright.
I can blow down even brickwork now.
Nov 15, 2012
Nov 15, 2012 at 12:47 PM UTC
Now, there's no reason these nights can't
dissemble our daytime woes.
With bottles uncorked, we'll paint
friendly faces on daylight foes.
The ground's not shaking.
Your breath's just ragged.
Faces shine and cities glow...
but, come sunrise, we're flying blind,
while keeping our heads low.
Still I remember the time that
we chucked that radio
from that rooftop sinking to
street level, speakers played Manilow
Transistors scattered
Our footsteps clattered
Down the fire escape we'd go
laughing hard, police up in arms
alleyways lead us home
We wanted
to up and ******* leave
But we're tethered
to this place by our heartstrings
So we're always
celebrating our defeats
We wanted
to up and ******* leave
I'm off and running in circles
around my own lasting fears
You're off the wagon and just
rolling dice hung on rearview mirrors
We're contemplating
on relocating
back to those familiar years
but sunrise comes, we're twiddling thumbs
and hoping stormclouds clear.
Aug 20, 2013
Aug 20, 2013 at 3:01 PM UTC
Our love was another lifetime.
I do not know how to describe it,
except to say
that it wasn’t so much the sky glowed bluer
or the earth grew greener
or that I’d found God
or music.
(because aren’t they the same thing anyway?)
No,
it wasn’t like that at all.
It was more that
it didn’t matter
if the stars bled violet kryptonite
or the grass quit knowing why.
Because you would be right there with me
watching the heavens divide, a passion of
stormclouds and curtained twilights, and
the rain -a thousand soldiers
straining to free the light
and all I wanted to listen to was the way your body holds mine.
Dec 24, 2011
Dec 24, 2011 at 1:38 AM UTC
Baby, don’t you love the way the storm clouds grin?
When the dark rolls in with the ocean night?
And our Mama built those sandcastles that we lived in
Every summer ‘til they washed out with the tide
Oh baby, don’t you love the way the red leaves fall?
All along the streets in those quiet towns
And they spiral down the same no matter where you are
Whipping wild in the wind onto the ground
Dear baby, did they tell you that when you were small
The place that you live now wasn’t where you called home?
Did they tell you ‘bout our Mama and the quiet hall
Where she cried after they left her all alone?
Oh babe, I hope they found a place for you somewhere
In a cottage or a castle on a hill
I hope there’s princesses and pages and a china set
And a little dress with lace and beads and frills
But baby, if you come out in the world someday
Full of so much good and still so much sin
Baby, look up as the dark rolls in with ocean tides
And we can both laugh while the storm clouds grin
Mar 3, 2014
Mar 3, 2014 at 11:10 PM UTC
i threw them away
even though they
were supposed
to help
because i wanted to be
lovely
and they were stopping
me
from
aching
and they made me sick
and
yes
i act like a child
but children
see more than you
think
and
i started
far too late
and
i fell
into the
stormclouds
and
i haven't slept
and
i got myself
a gym
membership
and
i am a
sick
fat
liar
except that
i really am not
unless i have
to be
and
it's raining
and the sky
is getting darker
and darker
but it's almost
10 am
and
i
am
so
alone
Mar 31, 2017
Mar 31, 2017 at 9:53 AM UTC
I feel as if my face is always red,
windblasted by words formed like icy crystals in the mirror
permeating my bones and leaving me so weary that I can barely stand.
They don't let me fly.
I keep asking why.
They block out the sun
and I just want to run.
I am trying to keep my feet but twisters are discreetly forming in my mind and
I am kneeling in this frozen tornado watching life swirl around me out of focus by the speeding snow of my own insecurities; screams raging behind my eyes, watching those in homes sit by the fire, finding ways I have not yet discovered to block out the chill eating at our bones.
Those I reach through the swirling haze can grasp a freezing hand attached to a shivering man who falls and falls and falls again but always manages to fight the wind.
There is still fire within these frozen bones, it just hasn't found a way to melt the cold and grey.
As sure as stars blink when I close my eyes, the sun will chase stormclouds in frozen skies.
In this mental blizzard I catch my breath and hear echos murmuring in the darkness.
"Winter doesn't last forever dear child, and neither will this."
Nov 20, 2014
Nov 20, 2014 at 7:51 PM UTC
you feel like
soft autumn rain
underneath
amber streetlights,
while stormclouds
dance above
bringing the promise
of m a g i c.
Sep 6, 2020
Sep 6, 2020 at 10:36 AM UTC
Sometimes
I'm fireproof
Sometimes
My kisses light up the sky
And I sing with the voice of a god
And my fingers stir up lightning
In the stormclouds above
Sometimes
I can silence the sun with a touch
And those solar roars sing to me
And me alone
Nov 13, 2015
Nov 13, 2015 at 1:46 AM UTC
i wasn't tired until you
fell into my arms
and i wasn't tired until
i threw a thousand
weightless snowdrops
to the ground
and i didn't hurt until
the first word
and now
my home is a loud
roar of reverberations
that pass through me
(like a million spoken knives)
and i didn't understand
pain. Until your somebody
stumbled into me
and i couldn't let go
(because they were made of ash)
and i felt the weight
of so many somebodies
(suddenly)
and i began
to think
that - my existence
(the sea
the sky
and the nothing between)
manifested to
pulverize
the
planet
with
each
further
strained
breath
until
it
can
feel
each
pinprick
loss
of
life
it
enforces.
And maybe my rage
forged bellowing
stormclouds over deserts
or made rivers flow backwards
from storm surge (tear driven)
but the somebody i'm not
and the somebodies i carry
will never
be more threatening
than a fadeaway
wind that cries with the lone
wolf.
Apr 29, 2018
Apr 29, 2018 at 1:00 AM UTC
come to me now out of darkness
don't hide your eyes behind that halo of stormclouds
leave your rain and your tears behind
you won't need them in my arms
Apr 25, 2010
Apr 25, 2010 at 5:41 PM UTC
The meanings of words like "truth" and "friends"
can become so loose and frayed at the ends
the truth is, that 'friends' is a word that depends
on the day and the time, and the bar on weekends
the meaning of truth is a meaning that bends
it will reshape, reform and get lost in the end
truth has a cost, and so do your friends
sometimes, they're not worth the time that we spend
they'll always be offered, again and again
but higher in price, and with costly amends
the truth can discomfort, console, and offend
we don't know it's power, although we pretend
but,
when life becomes gray, and the stormclouds ascend,
truth will be there for you, and so will your friends.
May 11, 2014
May 11, 2014 at 2:39 PM UTC
Hate is one emotion I am not capable of
For you
Though you are stormclouds dropping rain on my rundown brain until I am drenched and shivering
No downpour hard enough to drown the love filling my heart
(Only for you)
Apr 17, 2021
Apr 17, 2021 at 4:25 AM UTC
I am like all other fools;
Nothing broke my heart.
My spine of brittle woven sticks
Cracked under nothing.
My lungs gave out under
Years of whistling
"Shu-Shu, Xu-Xu,
Xu-ni-de."
They had breathed in too many daydreams
And real air calcified them with the shock
Of finding it all had been delusion.
A life of smiling at babies and dogs and buttercups
Left me unprepared for their destruction
And my own ruin.
It was my own fault that I was abandoned
In the face of a tsunami of stormclouds
Barreling out of the Western sky:
The last sigh of a sun that goes there
Each day
To die.
Jul 1, 2016
Jul 1, 2016 at 7:13 AM UTC
My fingers are numb
from the cold
from the rain
pounding against the window
I press my forehead
against the cool
smooth surface
of the glass
I watch the rain drop
dripping, slipping
down the window pane
as I watch the time fly by
fascinated I stare
at the stormclouds overhead
as the thudner rolls in
and lightning lights the sky
But yet I smile
because it's been awhile
since my favorite weather
has come out to play
The sky is dark
almost as black as night
as I sit and watch
outside the window
Waiting for it to end
sad, but it can't last
I hear the thunder's silence
before the clouds clear away
I get up to go
where? I don't know
but my favorite weather has gone
And it will be back before long
Sep 22, 2017
Sep 22, 2017 at 2:33 PM UTC
Today the magpie cried 'salvation'
As I woke to tangled sheets
Binding bare, shaking legs.
My bed released me hesitantly,
Reluctant to entrust me to the day's devices.
Stormclouds buzz behind grey eyes
That vacantly watch steam rise in wisps
From a cup clutched in trembling hands.
Marshal the troupes,
Pen, paper, caffeine fix in hand,
An orderly retreat into the inner sanctum.
Today the magpie cried in dawn light.
I rolled over and went back to sleep.
h.f.m.
Apr 20, 2019
Apr 20, 2019 at 11:35 AM UTC
If only I could banish all
the big dark clouds
Trust me, I would
Drown all the voices
that scream so loud
So that the whisper that
matters would be heard
clear and proud
If only I could exchange everything
with a little bit of moonlight
Believe me, I will
For that wee ray of light
I'm willing to fight
those wild stormclouds
that would arrive
Until the moon
would come back to stay
And once again
everything will be okay
Feb 10, 2016
Feb 10, 2016 at 9:55 PM UTC