Submissions by GreaterPeril (Jared from the Backwoods)
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
i pissed away my scholarships and chose the hard way in life, but i make up for squandered potential by reading like words are the antidote to a fire that has been burning on my scalp itself for a decade or two (but who's counting?)
jealous no. 1
i'm junkyard familiar
with the concept of wasted potential
you've touched stars
from a sky beyond
the same dark pools
i stare up at in thought
but pools are for swimming
and i never learned
still we tread together
in the same water
have you ever been
so poor it burned your insides?
tore holes right through your gut
and sloughed off chunks of wild dreams?
have you ever tasted nothing so long,
that hunger eats back at you
like a mouth in your stomach
or a giant, gaping hole
somewhere it is expected ...
with the concept of wasted potential
you've touched stars
from a sky beyond
the same dark pools
i stare up at in thought
but pools are for swimming
and i never learned
still we tread together
in the same water
have you ever been
so poor it burned your insides?
tore holes right through your gut
and sloughed off chunks of wild dreams?
have you ever tasted nothing so long,
that hunger eats back at you
like a mouth in your stomach
or a giant, gaping hole
somewhere it is expected ...
#sadness
#anger
#jealousy
#frustration
#poverty
355 reads
0 Comments
remember no. 1
i still remember
chocolate milk in little cartons
jumping rope
and kindergarten
i also remember
skin pulled by rubber tie-offs
nodding out into the gravy
and waking up in county
i still remember
cowboys and indians
riding ponies made of sticks
lassos, six-shooters, rodeos
now i pay taxes
and hide in plain site
and it's a good day
when there's no sobbing
but i still remember clark kent
fishsticks and power rangers
and believing i could be anything
before i found out who i am
chocolate milk in little cartons
jumping rope
and kindergarten
i also remember
skin pulled by rubber tie-offs
nodding out into the gravy
and waking up in county
i still remember
cowboys and indians
riding ponies made of sticks
lassos, six-shooters, rodeos
now i pay taxes
and hide in plain site
and it's a good day
when there's no sobbing
but i still remember clark kent
fishsticks and power rangers
and believing i could be anything
before i found out who i am
#sadness
#identity
#SelfReflection
251 reads
1 Comment
Farang, or a Love Song for Bangkok
They call me Farang, or Muay Farang. Foreign boxer, it means. It is not a title of honor. I’ve been here for a month now. Coach expects by the time I come back I’ll be a top prospect for the fancy TV fights, considering my kickboxing experience in the states. Everything depends on how my record turns out over here. This’ll be my third fight now. Kaewsamrit Boxing Gym puts all new inductees straight to work, and that’s slow to the boys over here. They do it every week and sometimes twice. I wonder how they do it, but then I see seven year olds literally living in the gym and I guess that’s...
#violence
#money
#travel
#sports
#greed
214 reads
0 Comments
me no. 2
oh the things you could have been
but most of all, you were scared
and every time a door would swing open
you'd flinch with the memory
of a door to the face and keep on wandering
down the hall
whistling against the thought of all alone
you will tell a lot of jokes
but take yourself entirely too seriously
in too-big ofxords,
and a badly butchered windsor knot
while people ignore the wild
scream of nature
emitting from your head
and the smell of carrion
forming in your presence
but most of all, you were scared
and every time a door would swing open
you'd flinch with the memory
of a door to the face and keep on wandering
down the hall
whistling against the thought of all alone
you will tell a lot of jokes
but take yourself entirely too seriously
in too-big ofxords,
and a badly butchered windsor knot
while people ignore the wild
scream of nature
emitting from your head
and the smell of carrion
forming in your presence
#sadness
#dark
#identity
258 reads
1 Comment
line no. 1
will this be forever?
i stare down at phones,
books, feet
anything in the floor really
while another in a rather long line
tells me all about
how dangerous, how deadly,
how destructive my choices tend to be
my mouth opens, moves, closes again
i'm sorry tattooed across my tongue
for the ease of repetition
they shove off, exit stage right
and another steps forward
to tell me again
how dangerous, how deadly,
how destructive my choices tend to be
i stare down at phones,
books, feet
anything in the floor really
while another in a rather long line
tells me all about
how dangerous, how deadly,
how destructive my choices tend to be
my mouth opens, moves, closes again
i'm sorry tattooed across my tongue
for the ease of repetition
they shove off, exit stage right
and another steps forward
to tell me again
how dangerous, how deadly,
how destructive my choices tend to be
#sadness
#regret
#SelfReflection
275 reads
2 Comments
junkie no. 1
the reaper cometh
for me and all the other
little junkie boys
still going to bed with nightlights
and lullabies
watching monstrous shadows
dance across the wall
eyes closed, prayers said
rolling in the cold
lonely of the night
hoping against all odds
for a storybook ending
don't forget, when you leave
please turn out the light
for me and all the other
little junkie boys
still going to bed with nightlights
and lullabies
watching monstrous shadows
dance across the wall
eyes closed, prayers said
rolling in the cold
lonely of the night
hoping against all odds
for a storybook ending
don't forget, when you leave
please turn out the light
#night
#addiction
#sleep
411 reads
1 Comment
tennessee no. 2
ambulance fire
red and white
burning up the trees
just one call
left to make
i think it might be me
a tube inserted
in my nose
will force my corpse to breathe
night time ferry
from far away
they wouldn't let me sleep
i circle slowly round the drain
someplace in between
i wonder what became
of all my wildest dreams?
and all the places i would go?
and all the things that i would be?
red and white
burning up the trees
just one call
left to make
i think it might be me
a tube inserted
in my nose
will force my corpse to breathe
night time ferry
from far away
they wouldn't let me sleep
i circle slowly round the drain
someplace in between
i wonder what became
of all my wildest dreams?
and all the places i would go?
and all the things that i would be?
#death
#drugs
#addiction
374 reads
1 Comment
flowers no. 1
i traded in my lunch
for flowers one day
daisies
i walked the long way
around the city
for a flowershop
where i stopped
for my love,
to purchase something pretty
i am not a man of means,
you know this to be true
but this is what you mean to me
i let flowers speak
in colored hues
like they are known
to do
anyway, here they are
i hope you have a vase
take my daisies and wait
there are other,
better flowers
on the way.
for flowers one day
daisies
i walked the long way
around the city
for a flowershop
where i stopped
for my love,
to purchase something pretty
i am not a man of means,
you know this to be true
but this is what you mean to me
i let flowers speak
in colored hues
like they are known
to do
anyway, here they are
i hope you have a vase
take my daisies and wait
there are other,
better flowers
on the way.
#love
#wife
#marriage #flowers
#marriage #flowers
308 reads
5 Comments
opium no. 4
how many days
has it been i reach in
somewhere deep
way within
under skin
but it is made of the air
hung between us that night
and all the fights
that we had
while we were friends
more sad music plays
i ride another hobby horse
from my desert of decay
until the hooves that i love
that have carried me away
crumple up like burning paper
turning black and then to gray
i will pull
every arrow from my skin
hand them over
and let you put them right back in
one by one, sin by sin ...
has it been i reach in
somewhere deep
way within
under skin
but it is made of the air
hung between us that night
and all the fights
that we had
while we were friends
more sad music plays
i ride another hobby horse
from my desert of decay
until the hooves that i love
that have carried me away
crumple up like burning paper
turning black and then to gray
i will pull
every arrow from my skin
hand them over
and let you put them right back in
one by one, sin by sin ...
#drugs
373 reads
1 Comment
face no. 1
my face has cancer
i mean literally
this hole in my jaw
that just bleeds
and bleeds
it looks like
i shot myself
and fucked that up
too
but i don't have the guts
for that
i want to pretend
like that's a thumbprint
from god
where he made me
with loving hands
a unique and tender soul
worthy of love
but who stops in a museum
to study defects
and what kind of sculptor
leaves a thumbprint
on the face?
i mean literally
this hole in my jaw
that just bleeds
and bleeds
it looks like
i shot myself
and fucked that up
too
but i don't have the guts
for that
i want to pretend
like that's a thumbprint
from god
where he made me
with loving hands
a unique and tender soul
worthy of love
but who stops in a museum
to study defects
and what kind of sculptor
leaves a thumbprint
on the face?
#myself
#cancer
#SelfWorth
353 reads
6 Comments
work no. 1
i can't sit still
as i feel
the inside of my hollow skin
fill with fire ants
wasps
pins and needles
my hair stands on end
and a cold sweat breaks
across my forehead
i flip over pages
in an abandoned
manuscript
you can actually see
the exact moment
that the life left my eyes
while i was writing it
i pick up the phone
and the exact tired words
i eat every day
get regurgitated back at me
as a question without form
i come back every day
and still
if i tell one person
in this...
as i feel
the inside of my hollow skin
fill with fire ants
wasps
pins and needles
my hair stands on end
and a cold sweat breaks
across my forehead
i flip over pages
in an abandoned
manuscript
you can actually see
the exact moment
that the life left my eyes
while i was writing it
i pick up the phone
and the exact tired words
i eat every day
get regurgitated back at me
as a question without form
i come back every day
and still
if i tell one person
in this...
#depression
#job
316 reads
2 Comments
opium no. 3
madness, manic, malice
wait
that's just the sense of wonder
wandering through withered
veins
what little piece of myself
can i take off to trade
today?
what pound of flesh
will the pawn shop take
for pay?
how spun can i get for a
tongue
or distant memories of
love
and the happiness it
makes?
it has begun
to eat me alive
inside
every pill
every time
i die
i must grit teeth
yet permit to pass
just one more
or i'll spend
another day
somehow...
wait
that's just the sense of wonder
wandering through withered
veins
what little piece of myself
can i take off to trade
today?
what pound of flesh
will the pawn shop take
for pay?
how spun can i get for a
tongue
or distant memories of
love
and the happiness it
makes?
it has begun
to eat me alive
inside
every pill
every time
i die
i must grit teeth
yet permit to pass
just one more
or i'll spend
another day
somehow...
#sadness
#drugs
#addiction
417 reads
3 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by GreaterPeril (Jared from the Backwoods)