"unstitch" poems
Stretch me out and count me like clouds
Say she is vapour
Venom, velvet and vermouth
With hair of hazelnut rapture
Clutch the moments, clutch the moonbeams
Clutch the stretched out skies of cloud and mustard gas sunset
Sing she is a child of trauma
Supressed in the name of breathing
Violence in the name of skin
And she is venom, velvet and vermouth
She was born to pink salt lakes in the low country
With ruby pomegranate eyes
And hair of hazelnut rapture
Girl with the soul of a thousand pilgrim journeys
Girl with the soul of a blackberry bush
Girl with the soul of olive trees and sheep meat and oven bread in the fire country
Human smiles
And other dark things of value
She lies like velvet
She lies in the name of supressing traumas
In the name of breathing
She bleeds like a billion stars bleed vapour
She is venom and vermouth
With hair of hazelnut rapture
She is the sum of a thousand pilgrim journeys
The prayer of holy rivers in the canyon country
The smoke of incense burned by sages
The scars of bodies burned by crusaders in mustard gas chambers
Goddess of Nuclear energies
Red-eyed like ruby pomegranates
Like the dewy cauldron of morning
When tenuous steps lead bodies down the path of executionary revolution
To boarders, frontiers, walls of white-skin scar tissue
Sing songs of Babylon in the free country
Clutch the moments
Clutch your breaths and hold them in broken palms
Clutch the tides and teach them
Breach your rib-cage, unstitch and return the borrowed bones
Melt the metaphoric thrones
Breathe backwards in the name of unsupressing traumas
In the name of truth
Stretch me out and count me like clouds
Girl of angel-breath ambition
Soul of blackberry bush and smile of splintered terracotta tile
Sing your songs
Say she is vapour
Jan 26, 2017
Jan 26, 2017 at 1:32 PM UTC
A glimpse which drags me toward—that frothing moment
Gasp; We’re almost dead—so nearly, nearly:
WE ARE!
Trite symbiloque and habadashed sorrows
thread between devising motives for that handshake in the
wash.
Take me there, that empty shelter covering fears
re-move sheaves
one by one. Twisting
back, a wave
goodbye—glowering redemption and preempted desire
trailer, hitch—inclined
sleeves unstitch
our spinning translucent halos
and a magazine.
Feb 12, 2011
Feb 12, 2011 at 7:51 PM UTC
Maybe if I unsheathed the buttons so lovingly,
slipped them from their beds like children doting under the breath of my fingers,
I could be free
unwrap these tendril sleeves
unknot and untie like braided shoe laces
child smile booming on my lips
maybe I could slither out and under this jacket of rigid strait edge,
maybe I could lick the clouds with my unclaimed hands
bathe in unrestraint,
Tug upon the chains of God’s grace
Burn these walls
and cut down the servants of white gowns and latex gloves
those thieves and miscreants,
Demons of pill born needles,
Strip down my skin and carcass
relinquish all of human trait
to bore over them as the demon they boldly create,
the ********* of razor bladed teeth,
Leather based restraint,
They so dutifully attempt to restrain me,
I’ll finger paint with their brain splatter,
just unstitch this jacket,
rouse the children from their sleeping,
unbutton them so verily gently,
Please mother unbind my wings,
coddle my wound,
Mother dearest might I finally go to you
Oct 4, 2011
Oct 4, 2011 at 12:07 AM UTC
The machine's coldness seethed my hair
as the world sat on my shoulder
that made it surrender
like curtains on a steaming afternoon
sighing questions
and endless uncertainty.
I punched the buttom
wrecked number 3
that bled Espresso
which in this another night
of your absence
would keep me awake
as I intensively unstitch the truth
about your pathetically sewn inventions
and attack the facts
about the abnormality of your society
and irrationality of your culture.
I swear I ******* hate you.
And someday you will die,
*******
Mar 25, 2013
Mar 25, 2013 at 5:51 PM UTC
i. on our first date, you ask if i want to learn how to fly. guiding my trembling fingers over the yoke, you introduce me to an old friend, a mechanical anatomy you’ve had memorized since you were sixteen. the first time your hands leave the two of us alone, you watch my terrified eyes and laugh. flying is the easy part, you say.
ii. there was a time when explorers would name new lands after people they loved instead of themselves. somehow i’ve never found that idea comforting. it worries me that places out there exist that can wear my name better than i do. on nights when you’re gone, i spend hours trying to picture what an island looks like when it smiles.
iii. even as she was bathed in the icy blood of a dying vessel, rose sang a love song to the stars. when i think of romance, i think of hands that dissolve into air so that hearts have to sprout wings just to find each other on the way down. i think of ships of dreams and flying machines.
iv. these days, i have stopped waiting for the silhouettes of planes to paint demolition across the sunset. when i’m lonely, i play fleetwood mac records and spin around the apartment until i exorcize all the ghosts. i try to convince myself that when loving rhiannon, no one gets to win.
v. on our last night, i ask you what the hardest part of being a pilot is. you unstitch your eyes from the cerulean-sewn skyline and look at me. landing, you say. your hand feels warm in mine.
Oct 29, 2013
Oct 29, 2013 at 9:19 PM UTC
Close every door
to the waist of space that I am,
Push my plight from you mind
And take all that you can
I won't miss you
But I'm certain you'll see
That once I am gone
You will really miss me.
Drill out the poisons
And shave of the trees
Smoother the meadows
and empty the seas.
I'm not sticking around
For the next act of man
My ecosystems are bust
I've done all that I can.
I'll take the birds
and the bats and the bees,
I'll keep the bugs
the shrubs and the trees,
I'll unravel the wind
from the rustling leaves
It may seem worthless to you
But it's priceless to me.
I'll unstitch the patchwork
off the rolling hillsides,
the grass can be folded
and the tree roots untied.
You can pull out the flowers
and plants crops in rows
But don't come crying to me
When nothing good grows.
I'll pick out all the fish
The flies and the frog
I'll unpeeled the rivers
and collect up the logs.
The atmospheres filthy
I'll just chuck it away
There's no fixing that
No matter how much you pay.
I've salvaged what i can
Of the soil and peat,
Some has been scorched
by the increasing heat,
I'm taking the Beavers
The wolves and the Bears
I've pack up their lodges,
their dens and their lairs.
I've had enough
of been trampled and torn
My airs all populated
And my earth is all worn.
You can keep all your money
Good look on your own
Let's see how you get on
without your ozone.
Nov 11, 2015
Nov 11, 2015 at 8:38 AM UTC
We sat at the end of the stairway
Outside your house past your garden’s gate
Our lips moved whilst exchanging words
Our gaze was vast beyond what ears are heard
My outlines remained shivering and unstill
We talked and talked draining our hearts once filled
Our lips ran dry, craving for water’s bliss
You then took my empty heart and leaned in for a kiss
You parted, leaving me immensely wanting for more
I held your hand and it pricked me like a thousand thorns
Blood started pumping through and past my veins
Into your chest, into your heart infected with pain
I didn’t let go to you holding on
Your lips stopped moving, your words drifted, it was done
I touched you once more, pressing mouth against mouth
Severing heart, this hurt more than our lips filling in the drought
You pulled closer; it struck harder, slashing past before my skin
I took hold of you, trying to stay stronger, mouth deeper than sin
Hand in hand, it was sinking in; I’m falling down the rabbit hole again
The stairway was gone, the gate, the roses, you were still there but I’ve lost a friend
The garden gnome, he held the clock, time was slowly ticking away
Bodies side by side, our hearts then stopped, it had almost seemed like it’s been days
She and I, once innocent, now bare, with no more dignity to hide
She whispered “come on Alice, don’t give up, we’re got our hearts to find”
Scourged skin, torn dresses, unpredictably she smiled
She said “I haven’t been this scared in a long time; it’s been quite a while”
Our footsteps grew distant yet the clock continued to tick
She lifted two roses obliviously, her eyes followed to the one I picked
She held it close to her lips, sliding the stem past before her skin
Blood started streaming down, there’s more than there has ever been
Wounds started to unstitch, scars started reopening
And with the greyest of eyes and the rose between her mouth, it slowly started unfurling
She gave me the slightest smirk and approached me with an embrace
I felt her warm touch draining inside me, the rose pricking me through
And the was the last time, I ever saw her face
n.j.
Apr 26, 2014
Apr 26, 2014 at 11:40 PM UTC
skip me, shun me
never touch me,
don't give in to my rushed lusting
bend me, break me
just forsake me,
leave me to my wild chasings
lose me, leave me
don't believe me,
when I say you'd get me screaming
haunt me, flaunt me
mock and taunt me,
tell the world you'll never want me
grab me, stab me
never have me,
tell me how you cannot stand me
fry me, tie me
crucify me,
leave me cuffed up; hang and dry me
beat me, bruise me
over-use me,
***** abuse and tear into me
throw me, blow me
get below me,
show me how you'll never stroke me
rip me, **** me
tongue and take me,
come inside and rearrange me
cut me, gut me
shame and **** me,
rip my heart out while you **** me
kick me, ditch me
pull-unstitch me,
spread my limbs and leave me twitching
tie me, lye-formaldehyde me,
out of sight and out of mind me,
live your life while I am dying,
pray no one will ever find me.
Aug 27, 2013
Aug 27, 2013 at 8:08 PM UTC
Wash me with snow, hail and water
maybe then, I'd feel pure
maybe then, my cravings would crawl away
maybe then, my sins would sway away
and perhaps then I could unstitch my lips
and let out the years held of silence
Oct 9, 2021
Oct 9, 2021 at 10:07 PM UTC
Loosen the wire, your time has expired,
the only word left is “goodbye.”
In my new dream the light's shining on me,
little needles of sodium unstitch the seams of the sky.
Hold your head higher, the heavenly choir
is settling in for the night.
And where I had friends I am left with loose ends;
four hours of vision exchanged for four hours of fright.
Feb 9, 2016
Feb 9, 2016 at 2:03 PM UTC
"If you love someome, let them go."
Easier said than done. How am I supposed to let you go? How do I unclench my fists, how do I unhook my hands, how do I unstitch my heart? I was never good at taking things apart; I only ever knew how to keep them together.
"If they come back, they're yours..."
Coming back. This quote fails to acknowledge all the lost time in between leaving and returning. All the days that run together like a mess you don't know how to clean up, the weeks that pass agonizingly slow, the months that go by without ever hearing from you.
I know how the quote goes, I know how it ends. Saying it out loud tends to turn my stomach and squeeze my heart until it hurts. I can't handle that possibility - the possibility of you never really being mine to begin with. It's a thought I won't let my mind try to rationalize. It's a theory I refuse to accept.
You were mine. We shared four amazing years of laughter, of adventure, of love. The days went by quickly and the weeks passed with ease, each month came and went without any attention from us. Time didn't matter.
It hardly existed at all.
You were mine. I loved you beyond a reason why, beyond pride, beyond fault or mistake. I loved you regardless of circumstance and without obligation. I loved you so much it consumed me. I loved you, and you were mine to love.
You were mine,
but maybe I was never yours.
"if they don't, they never were."
Dec 3, 2015
Dec 3, 2015 at 1:27 PM UTC
Ask me about my past
I'll unstitch every seam
Tear everything out and lay it all on the table
A scrapbook pulled from a house fire
I'll romanticize every bruise
I'm interesting
Ask me how I've made it this far
I'll show you every "I'm fine"
How I've welded it into an armor I can't take off
I'll turn every "I wish you were never born" into the reason you fall in love with me
I'm a liar
Don't ask me who I am
I'll try to tell you something from the heart, I will
But if you close the scrapbook and look up
You'll see that there's nothing left
I'll try to be something I'm not for you
But I'm nothing
Feb 15, 2018
Feb 15, 2018 at 1:21 AM UTC
*Smile, hold that ever-smile.
Tonight, you will witness a brave star
Unstitch the shadows off his feet.
He will high dive and unload
The weight off his chest
Then burn himself gladly
Towards the law of gravity,
Just to break the icy walls
Of the heart you once thought
Impenetrable, and you will smile,
Sweetly, the smile of smiles.
But someday I will circle you,
One in six, seven on seventh,
Forevermore, and you'll hear me
Say I love you, then you will fall.*
© 2017 J.S.P.
Jan 26, 2017
Jan 26, 2017 at 2:33 PM UTC
She stood next to me in knickers and a t-shirt,
Needle and thread in hand with a grin between her legs.
"I will unstitch your heart" she said,
"And wear it on my sleeve so you never feel hurt again".
Jan 17, 2015
Jan 17, 2015 at 6:32 AM UTC
To be shaped by love, know first
How it destroys.
To know how it destroys,
Recognize love as a physical act.
To recognize love as a physical act,
Consider the body's limits and transgressions.
To consider the body's limits and transgressions,
Probe it for signs of anomaly. Of creatureness.
To probe, start by using your fingers to poke
Regions where illusions are cooked, like the groin.
To locate the groin, slither your hand from mouth
all the way down until you feel dirt.
Once there, dig. The mush will feel soft and wet and grisly
And delicious. Like exile. Feel around for a thin chord.
Once you get your hand on this chord, pull. Pull very hard.
Like you're born to unstitch. Or turn off a light. Or flush.
Your body will split open like a thick *** of paper bills
fresh off a rubber band hug. And your remains
Will flutter like a flag. Notice the bone marrow in bloodspeck
jangling in wind chime language to announce an arrival.
Your arrival, maybe. But what is left other than your body splayed
open? Notice your meatshop bargain delicacy. Limbs as vivid
As a freehand sketch artist's depiction of alive. It sounds so beautiful,
Love. Especially in Springtime.
Jul 15, 2019
Jul 15, 2019 at 5:55 AM UTC
At night,
When all my walls fall down
And I start to strip my shields
Layer by layer
Tear by tear
I unstitch my wounds
And I find you there
Under my skin
You and my misery
Misery that's caused by the fact that I denied myself the pleasure of loving you
So many times
That now I can only live with that fact
That I can't act
That I wonder
If I stare at the phone long enough
If I pray hard enough
If I wish on the right stars
at the right moments of time
Will you recognize my existence
Will I hear your voice
And every atom of me jump when I hear you say you miss me
What are the chances
Of finding something you lost once again
I wonder till my tears run out
Till the sun rises
And my walls are rebuilt
And you no longer exist
Till night.
Mar 2, 2015
Mar 2, 2015 at 2:29 PM UTC
Two moons rise and one moon sets.
Spotlight captures the one who frets.
Caught unawares in pursuit of wonders.
Tears drops stain the gloves of blunders.
Slipped off to forget what we have done.
The gloves decay under rising sun.
One moon sets and another rises,
while the sun departs with myriad disguises.
If two moons were wed in sunlit dreams,
would we forego our plans for all good things...
Would pleasures unstitch our tidy strings
and delay our minds for fallacies to sing.
I admit I'm unsure.
Nevertheless I will try,
to wed the moons, to brighten the sky,
but beyond the celestial weapons of love,
an infinite yearning awaits our passion.
For there are many moons in need of another.
There are many suns that must shine on the two.
For at the end of the day you and I do not matter.
Wherever there is one, there must be two.
So I say to her, I must be with you.
Mar 3, 2019
Mar 3, 2019 at 1:21 AM UTC
you know just how to drive me wild
requesting my favorite foreign gin
at a frequented bar;
running those fingertips over a label of dry red
the same way you traced road maps
on my hips last night.
i put some love into the poems you gave me,
can you tell by the creases in the corner?
10 a.m. tequila tastes like you
and those crystal eyes that unstitch me;
you unspool me
into an amaranthine ravel
of black thread --
exploring dusty corners,
searching for what i've missed
Feb 24, 2017
Feb 24, 2017 at 4:21 PM UTC
I was wont to do
What you want to do
Won’t you want me,
To be as wanton as you?
I awaited your touch, but it did not caress,
It sought instead a frightening abyss.
Uncleaved was I, and sheathed were you,
And yet, I felt plundered by you.
You sank in deeper than beauty or bone
your heart a loan, your heart alone
Come, come, come till you dissolve
Your sediments, grainy sentiments —
Swirling within my own.
But once you have settled, and I’m transparent
The change in us is intimately apparent
You bear in mind, my bare mind,
And mine bears witness to your soul errant.
Undress me, undo me and you will find
Just another skin, of another kind
A kiss, a touch, and a repetitive sin
Memorable, forgettable, like all akin.
So take me clothed, fabricated, and layered,
Take me in suede, in laid, textured and tailored,
Find me in seams, in pleats, in folds.
Unstitch me, unthread me, and
wrap me around your soul.
Weave me a tale, tie me a knot.
In yarns of hope, I yearn for naught
But you left me undressed
And you left me distressed,
Shrouded in the unknown
Of my threadbare unrest.
May 17, 2016
May 17, 2016 at 2:20 PM UTC
It'd be that day,
no other, to wait
a mistake, she'd
not change, Johnny
knew that, known
her for years now,
temper like a stepped
on rattlesnake, her eyes
fixing like dagger darts.
He smokes; lets the
smoke settle in his
throat, his lungs, stares
at the bed, unmade,
used, the pillows
soiled by head and hair,
the smell of her still there.
To leave, to depart,
unstitch the years, months,
days, unstitch the mind
and heart. He'd not tell her,
just go, have no scene,
or bellows or threatened
suicide, best to go, leave
her there, pretend you'll
be back, see her soon,
like night comes, like new
or old moon. Johnny knows
her all too well; a fresh
horizon comes into view,
new pastures to walk or
seek, the old ,the past,
the tried and tested, set
aside, he exhales the smoke,
watches dust settle, her
voice downstairs raised,
the radio pop tunes piping
new and old rising up
the stairs, he rises, stubs
out the cigarette, time to go,
to set off, with no regret.
Aug 21, 2015
Aug 21, 2015 at 3:09 PM UTC
Heavy foot steps imprinted wooden boards
though impressed by an absent soul
an isolated mind, formed of intricate cords
I am aching, bleeding through a lonesome hole
My trembling legs stand before hollow eyes
encircling me on dull rickety chairs
I unstitch the fictitious smile of my disguise
bare oppressive scares, all despairs
To mirrors of indistinguishable faces
tears seaping into the floor, for they understand
the gripping pains and benumbing embraces
the destructive limitations at hand
For our dispirited faction of slumped backs
anxiously awaiting for when the sun appears
to fade our scares, dry the floors dampened cracks
absorbing our souls of abounding tears.
By, Melissa June
Jan 18, 2017
Jan 18, 2017 at 7:23 PM UTC
I undress and see nothing of me
in the clothes neatly laid out
next to each other to put back on
underwear is underwear, trousers trousers
if there is anything special about it
it is just that
there are no marks on it, I don't advertise
I unstitch myself free
pick the lint from my clothes
out of my navel, the belly is cool, I feel
myself, breast is breast, cheek cheek
but my belly, that's me
my hands know it
better than my eyes
that do recognise my face
as mine, everywhere
where I am, nowhere for sale
but it is veiled now
I am tired, I want rest
having nothing to do with anyone
and still
love myself
Aug 1, 2025
Aug 1, 2025 at 2:39 AM UTC