"unglue" poems
Barnacles begin their lives as free-swimming larvae, ebbing and flowing with the tide.
Most are eaten, some wash ashore, a few survive long enough to attach
with freakishly strong glue their minute larvae heads to a final rock- strewn home.
There they spend the rest of their lives with feathery feet poking out of a hardened shell, filtering the sea for whatever happens to come within reach.
Why the barnacle starts out free
and ends up bonded to some god-forsaken rock
to alternately dry out and be fed at the whim of the tide
is just one of life's many small mysteries.
While barnacles are meant to lead a primarily static life
human beings are not.
We are meant to flow
to settle and ground, uproot and travel
to seek
to speak well and listen better
to find meaningful answers.
We always have the choice to let go
of whatever safe, high ground we're frantically clinging to
though it will mean not knowing where we'll ultimately wash ashore.
Letting go can feel like being caught in a rip current.
What I know about rip currents:
They pluck hapless beachgoers from shore and pull them out to the ocean deep.
If you're caught in one and try swimming back to blessed land
you won't make any headway.
Eventually you'll grow tired and drown.
The only way to survive is to stroke like mad
in a totally counterintuitive direction
parallel to the solid ground you desperately want to reach
until you're out of the narrow river ******* you out to sea.
I've decided to unglue my little larvae head
from its rocky, self-imposed, falsely-safe perch.
Let the current carry me where my feet no longer touch the known.
It's up to me to swim in the right direction until I'm free.
Oct 29, 2015
Oct 29, 2015 at 9:47 AM UTC
I was born to a woman who smoked cigarettes
and since I was a child, I tried to inhale blueberries until they
stalled my windpipe.
My mother taught me that word –
windpipe – after she coughed for hours upon hours. I
was so happy that day, imagining how I must have swallowed
windchimes for the doctors who helped birth me
in December’s final snow –
how I hoped they believed I sounded pretty, although
covered in that sop adults call life juice. Life juice sounds nice
but I had known babies who
came just as sticky as me and never got to breathe.
Windchimes, you know, the things
beautiful ladies in ankle-length dresses hang outside,
my daddy lived thirteen hours down the interstate and I knew
somehow that he owned one.
In my dreams, I touched it
and pulled on it. I twisted the copper-ends up like my
momma’s hair and pretended we were with my dad by some
lake where the breezes are heavy enough and I
am small enough for them to carry me up, up, and away.
Everyone insisted that windpipes are inside
while windchimes stay out –
I fixed that problem, too. I tried three times to plant chimes in
my ears, unglue parts of the skin there from myself
to make room for dangly jewelry. A tiny
slit was all I needed, but it would not stay open for long
and I never got to swing my head
pretend I possessed the ability to create music like how God
let my momma grow smoke. I never got to exhale.
Sep 15, 2013
Sep 15, 2013 at 3:34 PM UTC
Shyly curious you smile at me.
Tender, delicate I lightly stroke you,
friction ridges of long index finger
brushing fine hairs to attention.
A sensory meeting, pupils contracted,
I impress upon your pale skin
from the glenohumeral joint to your elbow,
Then our mouths align, entwined,
Soft lips parted, eyes closed and tasting;
Your worldly generous thighs slightly ajar
pressed apart by a firm hand, the sensitive
multifingered extremity searches out,
Reaching for where you’ve been waiting for years.
Beautiful, wide-spread in close proximity,
Touching and sizzled by that sweet odour
from your neck, pleasing the soul,
I do not ask for more delight
Upon slipping into your wet and woven silk.
But you suddenly unglue our lips and ease me
back with a firm hand,
Your voice articulates a silent pause.
There’s a fierce and undeniable attraction here,
Tempered as I sit back for a moment,
Excited, quiet and praying for nightfall.
Apr 13, 2015
Apr 13, 2015 at 7:42 PM UTC
I never thought it would be you.
You tossed crumpled maps over your shoulder
waiting for me to unglue my
eyes from the steady
compass.
You leapt from stone to stone and branch
to branch while I tiptoed across
the rocks careful not to
slip.
You filled every hour with chance and opened
your arms to uncertainty while I held
mine close in case the breath ran
out.
You thought it could be me.
You helped me play in the morning
light without looking over my
shoulder for the darkening
sky.
You gently led me to mountainous cliffs
with views that almost made
me forget I could
fall.
You drank my worry like fresh water
instead of the bitter poison
I thought was my
burden.
You tossed the map and I can't find the compass
and it couldn't be you but there
in the middle of your
palm lies my
north.
Mar 11, 2014
Mar 11, 2014 at 5:44 PM UTC
Calculated or spontaneous movements, both quiet and loud
We are who we're becoming, we were born to be proud
But pride has this level, pride has this curse
Pride has this tendency of making matters worse
Pride is crucial and necessary, but pride causes pain
Pride is fear of losing one's edge and in turn losing potential for gain
But do we really have an edge, or just a lackluster illusion?
What's this feeling that keeps us inside this self-securing dellusion?
Sometimes I wonder if just for a day, I took all my pride and threw it away?
If I said all the words I've ever thought to say, would I see things start to go my way?
If I stopped telling myself the world can't see me without a mask
Creating a vision of openness, while leaving vulnerability all in the past
While I'm strong, and strongly convicted to my honesty
I'd rather lie wholeheartedly, than admit I feel weak
Because remember that word, that strange hovering boulder
That tells you to take your welcoming heart, and make it turn colder
But what can we say when pride keeps us safe? Really what can we do?
Whenever I've tried to push it aside, I've felt things that felt together unglue
If the stakes don't matter than prides not a factor, we know what to bring
Yet we'll sit where we are, afraid to move for anything worth anything
I'm hoping one day, I find a new way to keep my soul safe
That I'll stay proud of who I am but not too proud to try
That I’ll look back to how I used to hold back and I'll be laughing
I'm starting to have faith, stranger things have happened
Apr 9, 2018
Apr 9, 2018 at 1:12 AM UTC
There were times when I dont know who I am because I love to pretend
There were times when I am down but I stayed up so you can mend
There were times when I want to talk drama but I masked my pain
For you not to worry, in your reality you'll remain
There were times when I'm breaking in two
but stayed whole for you
There were times when tears will rip me apart
But smile and pleasantries I'll impart
There were times when I feel I have to have you
But told myself from you I will unglue
I don't want to pretend anymore,
Talk to me and hide no more
Let me hear the final word
Even if it will pierce like a double-edged sword.
Jul 23, 2014
Jul 23, 2014 at 3:36 PM UTC
8/11/2016
i want something electric, so vivid and blinding that it leaves an imprint in my vision like walking into a dark room after being in the sun
i want passion so rare it leaves me foraging for whatever's left of me by the time you're gone
i want to speed down the coastline [evolved yet unchanged]
i don't know how to unglue myself from what you are
maybe i'll keep giving into the callousness in my heart that's been growing like a cancer since the first betrayal
you've used those lines before
they're carved in me with lingering pains that things are an illusion and i'm here to boost your ego
i've played this game long enough to know who the bad guys are
but what if i'm the bad guy for escaping something stable and unwavering
for a toxic replacement
[albeit you're pretty easy on the eyes]
teeter-tottering between saying something and actually doing it
my soul on a string like a tether ball where the players are you versus everyone else
and you say one thing
one tiny, insincere affirmation
my mind goes around the pole in circles until it's completely wrapped around the edges the way you have me singled around your rough fingers
creating knots out of my insides
yet all of your red flags fly violently
so i swing the other direction
loosening at the peak before you come back around and hold me like a child again
a vicious cycle
dangling a dangerous scenario in front of me like an animal eyeing food until it's clawing at your leg to rip it from your hands with their bare teeth
even in my fair share of evenings i was better off not having, you're miles ahead
pretending to be big kids an adult's world
and my mind goes miles a minute at the thoughts
you're not helping slow it down
you are no more an animal than i
Jun 7, 2017
Jun 7, 2017 at 3:34 PM UTC
My Love does not come from you
It is given in spite
I will love you always
no matter what our plight
You have no control over me
no actions can undo you
I must Love you forever
Even if your feelings unglue
I must forgive
I must give my whole
I cannot stop
I understand my role
Nov 3, 2013
Nov 3, 2013 at 9:10 PM UTC
Nothing beats the moment when you discover that someone you love
Doesn’t love you back
Felt by anyone who has ever been angry with the sky
Or any man that gets attached to hired ***
Any snot-nose whose parent or puppy never looks back
Any loser who can’t unglue his gaze from a return to sender stamp
Reading an old poem can be like
Calling up an ancient girlfriend
I can’t
Believe
I wrote you
No more affection; at least the feeling is mutual
I tend to throw myself fully into things, making commitments
Passion, they call it
I feel more like a drunken hockey player bruising himself against the boards
Any love I harbor dries in silhouette of unread poetry
My words will one day hollow
As my body spirit follows
But sometimes
Ink sinks
And paper lives longer than bones
I remember everything anyone ever said to me
Apr 3, 2011
Apr 3, 2011 at 3:32 PM UTC
You linger in my minds forest like the smell of night Jasmine,
The smoking embers of our passion are there entombed,
Lumpy Charcoal feelings choking like a smokers last breath,
Winding up my wild cerebrum as if a trebuchet.
I wish my aim to be true,
To exhale Cupid as all my stupid, arrowed words unglue,
They fade to watermarks on cue.
Passing through the tapestry of our dyed dying friendship,
Before the emotionproof ark of my heart comes to rescue?
This trip is in vein, my pulse the reins of a galloping aorta
They abdicate their royal virtues my eyes
I lay marooned by your smiles and sighs and thighs
My pride preserved,
Pimentoed by the luminous unfoiling of your hips.
The bite of your ripened lips, recoil my courage like bungie cord
And your words are like spring
Apr 5, 2016
Apr 5, 2016 at 6:30 AM UTC
***sandpaper reflects our damages
radio stations weave eternity into sound bytes
yet one bite is enough to give you rabies
so back the F@$! up
and listen to your luck
allow for music to flow effortlessly
unglue yourself
from the tragic and stuck energy
i am logic forging itself
in a fire of shiny metals
petals of diamonds
remind us of collapsing realities
undiscovered colors
and passages out of this dimension
into etheric waters
surface temperatures
are rising like lightning
from the ground up
find trees to hug
jumping from knees to feet
and hands to mouth
round them up and get out fast
sound is music
infinite tunes
dancing fumes of vaporous intent
sent from heaven
let me at them
remind me of the sediment
and the contract we signed before dying
high as a waterlily
proud as a wasp
rested and assured of our death
your sentence is fragrant like a vagrant
stamped with burning jettison
turning reticent
hesitant to accept this love
as gifts from above
rub our souls and polish our hearts
i am tired of these games
training wheels may save lives
but a hundred miles later
she ate her last waiter
sore as a dancer
with a heart of a champion
our uncles were dandelions
sired in springtime’s basement
i choose medicine
not this heady nonsense
resume your poetry
and abuse yourself not me***
Oct 24, 2017
Oct 24, 2017 at 12:59 PM UTC
tired of looking at you
and feeling my heart leave my chest as it grew
tired of looking at you
and wondering if you look at me too
tired of looking at you
and seeing a future that will never be true
tired of looking at you
and not being able to power through
tired of looking at you
and feeling myself unglue
tired of looking at you
because i never get
tired of looking at you
Mar 19, 2016
Mar 19, 2016 at 1:45 AM UTC
My Love does not come from you
It is given in spite
I will love you always
no matter what our plight
You have no control over me
no actions can undo you
I must Love you forever
Even if your feelings unglue
I must forgive
I must give my whole
I cannot stop
I understand my role
Dec 18, 2011
Dec 18, 2011 at 8:50 PM UTC
In my dream, I saw you in the eye of my stormy mind.
You heard my music but its reality made you blind,
Like justice holding my heart and happiness in your hands.
I held out mine but felt it slip away like the sand.
Sands of time, its fleeting grasp left me floating
like a wasp with a bite but no sting.
You were so kind to treat me like a king.
Wrapping me in a cocoon of your love and honesty.
Honestly I'm giving you wings.
Because your my angel playing my taut heart strings.
Nightingales song serenading me back through the dream warp.
Your touch is too warm as you pull me back to you.
Your fire making me unglue, undo into pieces
Dec 16, 2014
Dec 16, 2014 at 10:15 PM UTC
You and I wear the same shoe
Can't you get the clue
I want to unglue
My shoe
Cause you're nothing
But a crushing dream
I can see mu dreams
But something is coverin' my screams
What does that mean
You don't want me
To be
Somebody
So, that's why lately
We've been partying
Cuz that's what you're doing
But fooling
And everyone knows
How this goes
You put your toes
On my episodes
Cuz you're a distraction
In that's how everything happens
Cuz you practice
Distraction
Though that you were suppose
To help me keep my toes
To reach my dreams
But it seems
That you keep me
Anyways
Jan 9, 2016
Jan 9, 2016 at 3:42 PM UTC
If I could not think,
Then I cannot be,
Yet I'm past the brink
Of reality.
I wander on plains
That somehow sustain,
But what I perceive,
You'd never believe
To ever be true
Or part of this world.
Your mind would unglue
And become unfurled
To the realms most eyes never see
Or accept as reality.
Mar 2, 2016
Mar 2, 2016 at 11:11 PM UTC
snow has to
unglue her face,
to uplift from a
blanket.
as she's coming
around...I regret
I forgot to check
in on her.
though temporary
whiteness has come
to be measurable.
Jan 7, 2022
Jan 7, 2022 at 5:58 AM UTC
HP is stuck again.
I am stuck.
I await her to
unglue
with baited breath
for what I can do
what I might say
**** I am just dumb
lonely in love
with a poetry site
I'd like to have her
one night all of her
love her
like a lion
but
she keeps amissing
goes off on forays
to where I don't know
I am the lion
awaiting her return
feed me Hp
my lioness
May 12, 2017
May 12, 2017 at 1:04 AM UTC
knock knock knock
oh come in
for a nibble
for a drink
there’s so much i have to tell you
do you remember me?
i saw your old car the other day
it will always belong to you
i couldn’t unglue my eyes from the number plate
almost as if i saw a ghost
it pained me to look away
almost worth crashing for
let’s have a cup of cocoa
and a piece of dark chocolate
and finally catch up
you can’t hear me
can you?
here, let me hold your hand
maybe you will understand
oh, just like that
you’ve disappeared into ash
i don’t think you were real
just a fond yet painful
memory
Dec 28, 2019
Dec 28, 2019 at 2:44 AM UTC
Finally,
my eyes unglue from the night
and the light seeps through like a sad song.
and it was not so long ago when I knew it all,
but even angels fall and I've never been
one of them,
so
unglued I fuse, replaced to face a Sunday which
plays a background symphony,
Mahler's number five and that Summer composition
makes me glad to be alive.
watching geese flying
in formation,
to a southern destination
nature's perfect way of saying,
have a perfect day
Sep 24, 2017
Sep 24, 2017 at 1:29 AM UTC
Go Away Love
Love, oh love, where do I start
You mislead me, you abused me
You trick me into your devilish lies
You give me a false sense of hope
Because every time I talk I feel I am getting closer
But I am actually drifting farther apart
Driving a deep wedge from our love
Why do I bother trying
Why do I ever love
A plastic heart that contributes nothing
More manipulative than the best lawyer
Because when my hopes are high
They go sinking down the drain
I can’t give up the fight
When I need to give up the fight
Fight or flight, I just wanna fly away
This game is too insane
Everyday your obsessed with the same person
Your eyes glued when you want to unglue them
Go away love
Go away every lonely night
Crying into my pillow
Thinking obsessively about them
But they won’t answer
Every moment cherish
To make an impression
But impressions won’t be enough
You know they don’t care
Despite how hard you try to forget
But you are too determined
But you just need to forget about it all
Forget about them
But love attracts to you like a magnet
Every suction sticks
When I want it to unstick
What is it so attracting?
Why do I want to come back for more?
When I know I will fail
Fall head first with no cushion
I try to go with the flow
Try to be myself
But nothing will work
Nothing will fit
The puzzle pieces won’t match
Go away love
Your worth nothing to me
You lied you cheated you played me
You used me as your punching bag
You use me as your test object
Too see how we will react
To the rejection
To the thought of failure
I am onto your ***** tricks
I know what you want to see is failure
Why do you want to see me fall
Why am I test subject
I am human too
I need love too
I don’t wanna dable and go
I desire the same affection
Yet my heart is the greatest liar
My heart is the greatest sinner
Everyday it tries to pull me in the wrong direction
Why do I have to suffer this force
I just need to let go
But I can’t let go
Everything falls down like a broken cliff
Thinking and shaking
Staring into your eyes
Awedropped
But knowing
That my goal is impossible
My standards set
And knowing I can’t meet those
When my heart tricks me I can
Is why I spend my nights
Looking at sad comics
Thinking I will be lonely forever
Mind manipulates me
Guess my mind is a sinner too
My whole body becomes Pinocchio
Lying that I can do this
That I can receive love
From someone that my heart connects too
But they don’t connect back
So I just wanna let go
“No don’t let go”
“There is always a chance”
“The odds may work out”
But they never work out
They always come back to haunt me
So let’s face reality
My love won’t love me back
So all I have to say is
Go away love
Dec 16, 2018
Dec 16, 2018 at 4:14 PM UTC