"understatements" poems
Somewhere between the ruthless January and the grey Springs,
I realized that my feet had begun to sink
way too under the ocean bed
and that I could no longer swim;
and to call it suffocating would be an understatement.
I never could justify to myself
the need I held of listening to your voice.
Sometimes, I would listen
to the dial tone for hours
and fall asleep to it;
and to call it crippling would be an understatement.
I spent Saturday night without you,
flipping through old photographs and listening to blues.
I can tell from what it felt like inside,
that I have never been more neglected.
And to call myself abandoned would be an understatement.
I would watch the short shadows elongate
and the rising sun, set
and yet,
I thought that if I waited a little more,
I could figure out why I wasn’t just scarred but,
scarred to death.
And to call myself numb would be an understatement.
And with each time you hung up on me,
each time you made me cry,
each time you left me alone,
left me to here to die,
I put on a broken smile.
And to call it love would be an understatement.
Sep 13, 2014
Sep 13, 2014 at 2:52 PM UTC
To the princess trapped in the glass bottle.
Take a few steps back, I'm going to bust the glass and catch you before you fall.
If all else fails, at least we'll have this memory to stand above all else.
I've walked passed you once before,
I never thought to stop.
Reason,
Your lips turned up right, eyes quick to roll.
The silent treatment of turned backs. Ill gotten tempers.
I never once thought through all the complications that the glass was actually dingy.
That you actually could have been tired of being passed up because of how high up you were, the trouble of broken glass.
Jagged grooves. Smooth binges, blind understatements.
I applogize on my behalf,
The labels aren't anywhere as good as they use to be. but I promise.
If you make that silly face one more time.
That one face that equates to "duh"
I'm throwing this rock right at your head.
If you were anymore transparent, I could swear you just rolled your eyes again
Nov 30, 2016
Nov 30, 2016 at 6:45 PM UTC
I plan to have a lazy day.
I start by waking up and stretching.
I push my body into my comfy mattress and smile.
It feels good to lay around and feel the sun from my small window on my face.
It's a lovely day out. I smile again.
Then my feet hit the floor and the day begins.
So, right after I:
Shower-------get dressed
Wash the Dishes
Clean my bedroom
Clean my bathroom
Vacuum
Mop the Kitchen floor
Do 4 loads of laundry
Pick up some groceries
Put them away
Take out the trash
Then prepare a weeks worth of lunches to take to work...........
I plan to have a lazy day.
Sep 17, 2012
Sep 17, 2012 at 9:18 PM UTC
What else can I cover my mouth with
Other than clear, cherry-flavored lip balm?
It stains, otherwise
Goes where I ask it not to go
Its' gradients are as spread and varying as strands on a feather
I prefer, to be different, to taste better than I look
After all, it's my story that always wins
It was never Red Riding Hood
But the enigma beneath the cloak
I am one of those girls
Hairy and imperfectly coiffed
Veiled in nudes, beiges, and understatements
When men look at me, I wonder what their gazes snag on
There's no snare of life about me except the berry on my fingers and toes
These chipped, bright nails are my calling card
Through the cracks in the polished veneer you can see
**** me filtering through
I hide my hands , tuck the berry away
This is not what I want you to see
Sep 14, 2015
Sep 14, 2015 at 9:24 PM UTC
My father would read between the lines
To find a comfortable place to exist
His words were veiled by a velvet cloak
Understatements wrapped neatly in their over-thinking
He would wince in pain as sharp gravel
Would impale his cold calloused feet
The road was unenviable in its condition
Yet he never left the discomfort of the ground
He had no proclivity to shepherd my path
He would let me stumble and crash over my own roots
So I took my time and I kept my distance
For his battered body was foreign to my eyes
He would drift out of sight, out of mind
But out of heart was a different story
As all the shoal and sand settled down around him
He remained governed by a far different wave
Jul 8, 2016
Jul 8, 2016 at 9:10 PM UTC
What else can I cover my lips with
Other than clear, cherry-flavored lip balm?
It stains, otherwise
Goes where I ask it not to go,
It's' gradients as spread and fine as strands on a feather.
I prefer, to be different, to taste better than I look.
After all, it's mystery that always wins.
It was never Red Riding Hood
But always the darkness beneath the cloak.
I am one of THOSE girls
Hairy and imperfectly coiffed
Wrapped in nudes, beiges, and an ocean of understatements
When men look at me, I wonder what their gazes hinge on
There's no snare of life about me
Except the berry on my fingers and toes.
These chipped, bright nails are my calling card
Through the cracks in the polished veneer you can see
**** me filtering through.
I hide my hands, tuck the berry away
This is not the me I want you to see.
Aug 4, 2015
Aug 4, 2015 at 8:34 AM UTC
my mind encircles thoughts
of our entangled hearts
and juxtaposed lives
who you were
what I tried to be
when we began
where it stopped
why it started
and o, how we came
but an autopsy
of my words
couldn’t even reveal
the cause
of this one
so it’s just another night
lost
to understatements
and repression
I need to write a poem.
Aug 17, 2012
Aug 17, 2012 at 9:02 PM UTC
[To Mary C.]
I've met again a violin and a piano in a cooperative anguish of a story.
To reminisce
(Or is it "recall"? "Reminisce" is only laced with joy)
Your love for that black and white ministry of music that I believe there is
And taste it together with notes of those honey strings before which I shiver delightfully instead
Make and made a prompt haste and nostalgic astrae longed to be left by a human's bed.
Just to let you know and sense,
I'm having and feeling you too on my thoughts and oh so unspoken words of laced understatements,
Right on that Rainy Song dúo.
I'm sure you're sleeping tight.
But no harm done.
It's better this way. Not binding you to your face, calling you without name or reason.
Really, hope my act doesn't creep or leave out, it's form and prolonging chaotic and loud
It is that "God-like" state who makes me a mute lovesick fool, a wannabe paramour to any of your kin, who wants to pepper kisses on each tear and stare in each other's eyes for hours with no matter bespoken.
I'll leave simply my note at the table,
Like one leaving the other in the bed before dawn.
No "I'll stay" nor "I'm leaving",
Tinted with tenerezza cazza.
No explaining, the void necessary for the sense of reason and authenticity bigger than the material the literal.
Don't get up, don't bother, sleep tight, don't rise.
Just be aware you were on my mind, may that make you rise.
Experience ya later, not see ya later,
In salty waters our stars I now fight to see in the dark at that signs of the clock without glasses on.
I wish to finally dispose of needs of my vessel for at least those few holy moments clad in ombré.
Have the dearest night,
Goodbye.
~
PS Don't look for sense, don't name it or trap it, just let it experience you, kiss you and have it. Dismantle, dismantle the logic together before it becomes a sicario forever.
Eyelids closing and ending
Jun 14, 2020
Jun 14, 2020 at 5:26 PM UTC
Try being a writer who loves to express with words, however driven by deep emotions and most times words can not quite explain to your reader the depths of how you feel. Example phrases like "I love you" are understatements.
Oct 17, 2016
Oct 17, 2016 at 1:54 PM UTC
Contempt this freedom,
Need enslavery for security;
Feel apathy, regret, hopelessness;
Path of continuity - too easy, too often.
Provoke temptress's scorn
Mislead the misadventure
Furtive undermining conscious
Tripped out and over-bored
Neglectfully narcissistic, never satiated.
---------
I don't want to be a poet,
Intellectually engaged with conceptuality;
I want to be popular,
Adored for simplistic, concise axioms -
Connective understatements stated plainly.
On second thoughts...now I realise...
I don't want to be popular - I want to be an advertiser!
---------
Comrade, yours is the sweetest victory:
Ruled the collection, dispersed, then died.
Never to know the scorn foreshadowed;
Realising no fulfilment, save vengeance
Of victims truncated and tortured raw;
Hollowed abomination, human condemnation.
---------
What am I saying?
To whom?
Of whom?
Since when?
Why now?
For what?
How come?
Where from?
[Who's who, who knows whom!?]
Mar 9, 2014
Mar 9, 2014 at 1:44 PM UTC
Bow your sweet heads and pray for us
When I said I never loved another like I do you
I meant it
A soul mate and partner in one
The fright overwhelms me
To thoughts of not having you
For I know what losing feels like
For eternity is what I hope for us
Together and in fright for forever scares me but with you I have only hope
A simple disposition based on infinite love
A graceful way to live
Love
The only thing to live for
Together
But the fear may be
One day without you near
May we be 90 and grey
Cold and stolen away
I hope to never see that day
But a morbid mind sometimes needs rest
I pray for that
I pray for us
Enjoy the moments we have
For no one knows what's after this
All I can pray is my love
My family
Joins me with this next sequence of minded matters
I love you into the light
Into the night
And the darkness I hold in my heart
You shine it out
Flying with you
You are the part of this dream that I never want to end
You have become the most feared
You have become the most loved
I miss you the second I don't see that smile
There is no understatements
There is no comparisons
There are no questions
This is life
And it's Ours together
May 9, 2015
May 9, 2015 at 8:24 PM UTC
you said you would never
hurt me
but you did
but i know now
what happened
and i cried
but i won't tell you.
just laugh jokingly when i declare
"i thought you were mad!"
"i thought i did something wrong!"
both understatements
i looked into worse case scenarios
harvesting ideas in my thoughts
and let it plague me.
you responded of course not
and you put your arm around me
and held me close
and indeed
i felt safe.
just like you
want me to be.
Feb 5, 2014
Feb 5, 2014 at 7:32 PM UTC
Man, whoever said 'long distance is hard'
Has to be on the royal court of understatements.
It's not hard, it's sitting on the ledge of possible,
Looking out onto the abyss of impossibility.
It's being the one left behind,
Hoping their heart doesn't set up roots where their feet have.
It's being the one who left,
Learning to balance the old life with your new one.
Long distance is paranoia at war with trust.
It's hearing your partner's fingers tap tap tap
On the phone screen,
And wondering what messages this 'nobody' is receiving.
It's having unbalanced days stretched out over hundreds of miles
And hoping they miss you, too.
Long distance is making your dog sleep in their spot
Because that's your version of a warm body.
Long distance is sending them off with love
And hoping it's enough to bring them home safe.
Or bring them home at all.
It's as old as war, adventure, itchy feet,
And I will cling to its age like a prayer
Whispering to it at night in my dog-warmed bed
Asking for the power to not starve off of
10 minute phone calls and 'thank you's.
Because he will always be worth it
May 28, 2017
May 28, 2017 at 10:43 PM UTC
Must “speaking”
be only referred to
in the terms
of the humane apparatus of speech?
Isn’t it not only verbal?
Is it also feelings,
murmur of understatements fleeting,
trees and leaves
in a sage’s patience swaying,
child’s wailing,
Heart’s blazing?
Isn’t silence speaking too?
Jun 14, 2020
Jun 14, 2020 at 8:31 PM UTC
i want to scramble your words and turn them into paraphrases
that way
i can reciprocate every understatement that clings in your tongue
May 7, 2018
May 7, 2018 at 4:15 AM UTC