Submissions by Northern_Soul
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
There is a trick to get out of your skin 🖤
ANGER POEM
Published
22nd Jul 2024 9:32pm
22nd Jul 2024 9:32pm
There’s power in the f**k off
not just the casual f-grenade
but the atomic fuck-all-the-way-off
until you reach the furthest point,
dream the impossible dream
and fuck off a bit further
like when my Mother called tonight
as she reeled off a bonfire of anxiety
about my Aunt and all her endless shit,
how they’re staying with her this weekend
and I wonder if all the victims
of Jeffrey Dahmer
would happily sit down
with the frantically chipped china...
but the atomic fuck-all-the-way-off
until you reach the furthest point,
dream the impossible dream
and fuck off a bit further
like when my Mother called tonight
as she reeled off a bonfire of anxiety
about my Aunt and all her endless shit,
how they’re staying with her this weekend
and I wonder if all the victims
of Jeffrey Dahmer
would happily sit down
with the frantically chipped china...
#conflict
#family
#frustration
180 reads
5 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
21st Jul 2024 7:22pm
21st Jul 2024 7:22pm
Scabs
I.
in the late 18th century
the term scab was used
to describe anybody
that wouldn’t join a union
or refused to strike
wounds walking around
like regular people
a dichotomy of living
and need
II.
the worst scab I’ve ever tended
was a cigarette I put out on my arm
aged twenty, full of fear
burnt skin doesn’t heal like slices
little red halos turn white
the world buzzes for a moment
nothing but silence
and weak knees
III. ...
in the late 18th century
the term scab was used
to describe anybody
that wouldn’t join a union
or refused to strike
wounds walking around
like regular people
a dichotomy of living
and need
II.
the worst scab I’ve ever tended
was a cigarette I put out on my arm
aged twenty, full of fear
burnt skin doesn’t heal like slices
little red halos turn white
the world buzzes for a moment
nothing but silence
and weak knees
III. ...
#confessional
#hurt
#myself
#vulnerability
#weakness
150 reads
6 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
17th Jul 2024 10:34am
17th Jul 2024 10:34am
Real Talk
I watch her perch on a seventies chair
hair draped across her face
skirt meeting skin at the knees.
I look at her there
crushed
somewhere between woe
and the wandering world
as she talks of how time
eats her alive
how love fucks her up
as she fidgets with a silver ring,
chews her bottom lip.
I can’t help but think
how beautiful women are
in their fury
how they arrive
crowning grief at the base
birthing hope into lives and rooms
that hold no place for them ...
hair draped across her face
skirt meeting skin at the knees.
I look at her there
crushed
somewhere between woe
and the wandering world
as she talks of how time
eats her alive
how love fucks her up
as she fidgets with a silver ring,
chews her bottom lip.
I can’t help but think
how beautiful women are
in their fury
how they arrive
crowning grief at the base
birthing hope into lives and rooms
that hold no place for them ...
#MyInspiration
#strength
#vulnerability
#weakness
#women
126 reads
2 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
15th Jul 2024 9:31am
15th Jul 2024 9:31am
Dedicated to the grind
I could have pushed out a sprog or three
got myself a nice council house
with a brown fence and a yard
settled back in a chair
and watched dandelions grow
from crevices in a party wall
noting the sun silhouetted
by chimneys
but I didn’t.
I could have maybe got a good job
with a salary and a pension scheme
got myself a desk
and an anglepoise lamp
and stared at people
who looked like ants
from the tenth floor
but I didn't.
I didn't just roll over...
got myself a nice council house
with a brown fence and a yard
settled back in a chair
and watched dandelions grow
from crevices in a party wall
noting the sun silhouetted
by chimneys
but I didn’t.
I could have maybe got a good job
with a salary and a pension scheme
got myself a desk
and an anglepoise lamp
and stared at people
who looked like ants
from the tenth floor
but I didn't.
I didn't just roll over...
#LifeStruggles
135 reads
6 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
12th Jul 2024 7:44pm
12th Jul 2024 7:44pm
Friday, 19:44
My phone has 17 tabs open. I look at an encyclopaedia of craft patterns and recipes and weird facts I’ve shared with weirder friends. I don’t want to get frustrated by it, but I do, because that’s my mind so we discovered in therapy - my phone is my mind. The tabs are open, constantly refreshing, constantly flickering in the background.
I spent the whole morning talking about stress. How I deal with it. How it chews me up, spits me out. How much I’ve inherited the neurotic shoes of my Mother as they slide neatly under the desk at night. And I hate that I’m like that. I hate that...
I spent the whole morning talking about stress. How I deal with it. How it chews me up, spits me out. How much I’ve inherited the neurotic shoes of my Mother as they slide neatly under the desk at night. And I hate that I’m like that. I hate that...
#anxiety
#DomesticViolence
#LifeStruggles
#MentalHealth
#StreamOfConsciousness
177 reads
1 Comment
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
11th Jul 2024 11:15am
11th Jul 2024 11:15am
Animal
the fucking legs on that, she says
her mind somewhere else
as she stares down the lifeguard
a set of perfectly chiselled quads
walking down the side of the pool
might be worth drowning,
she continues
as he fiddles with his phone
her eyes branding themselves
on his yeah-I-work-out ass
you not into it? she asks
dude… I’m really fucking not
don’t get me wrong, I’m hotter
than I’ve been in years,
but I’ve a drawer full...
her mind somewhere else
as she stares down the lifeguard
a set of perfectly chiselled quads
walking down the side of the pool
might be worth drowning,
she continues
as he fiddles with his phone
her eyes branding themselves
on his yeah-I-work-out ass
you not into it? she asks
dude… I’m really fucking not
don’t get me wrong, I’m hotter
than I’ve been in years,
but I’ve a drawer full...
#lust
#women
#men #aging
#men #aging
168 reads
0 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
9th Jul 2024 11:43am
9th Jul 2024 11:43am
The f**k that blues
Nobody can live your life for you.
Nobody else can stop eating
the shit that is killing you,
nobody can replace your liver
full of booze with potpourri
so you can crap out roses
to keep your grave warm
nobody else can shake it
that victim label you wear
to remind yourself you once
felt pain to feel alive
or pack those sins away
in a box you won't burn
you are not the world
your life is an explosion
not a piss-weak candle ...
Nobody else can stop eating
the shit that is killing you,
nobody can replace your liver
full of booze with potpourri
so you can crap out roses
to keep your grave warm
nobody else can shake it
that victim label you wear
to remind yourself you once
felt pain to feel alive
or pack those sins away
in a box you won't burn
you are not the world
your life is an explosion
not a piss-weak candle ...
#SelfReflection
158 reads
2 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
7th Jul 2024 8:52am
7th Jul 2024 8:52am
To my daughter that never was
I sit in a passenger seat
watching night’s wheels
drive towards the car
noise
and colour
softly blurring
I wonder
if that too was what
you were, my dear
passing light
kaleidoscopic
nothingness
a journey we once took
together in the deathly
December
dark
watching night’s wheels
drive towards the car
noise
and colour
softly blurring
I wonder
if that too was what
you were, my dear
passing light
kaleidoscopic
nothingness
a journey we once took
together in the deathly
December
dark
#daughter
#grief
#memorial
#motherhood
#historical
192 reads
5 Comments
OBSERVATIONAL POEM
Published
3rd Jul 2024 7:22pm
3rd Jul 2024 7:22pm
Idles
I think God is all of man”
he said out loud
as he tumbled out of himself
perched amongst pillows
rocks, avalanches
God wrapped his hands
around his knees
filled with ache and miracles
sighing out a silent divinity
deserving of adoration
total
and utter
surrender
he said out loud
as he tumbled out of himself
perched amongst pillows
rocks, avalanches
God wrapped his hands
around his knees
filled with ache and miracles
sighing out a silent divinity
deserving of adoration
total
and utter
surrender
#God
#men
190 reads
1 Comment
SELF POEM
Published
29th Jun 2024 9:36am
29th Jun 2024 9:36am
How Precious
My entire life
I’ve been told
to protect my pussy
as if it’s made of gold
build an electric fence around it
have crocodiles swim around
the moat of my stomach.
I think of England over centuries
how she’s been ravished, pillaged,
raided by Pagans unfamiliar
with pleasantries
how rubies are embedded in my folds
strands of pearls stretching from hip
to hole, how my treasures
desire to be hoarded
discovered
put on display.
...
I’ve been told
to protect my pussy
as if it’s made of gold
build an electric fence around it
have crocodiles swim around
the moat of my stomach.
I think of England over centuries
how she’s been ravished, pillaged,
raided by Pagans unfamiliar
with pleasantries
how rubies are embedded in my folds
strands of pearls stretching from hip
to hole, how my treasures
desire to be hoarded
discovered
put on display.
...
#confessional
#identity
#SelfDiscovery
#women
#pagan
224 reads
6 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
28th Jun 2024 11:14am
28th Jun 2024 11:14am
Visiting Hours
sometimes when you ask
I fall through clouds of empty sheets
close blue eyes against falling stars
hold your hymns close to my cheek
tilt as if the world defies gravity
hair tangling at the root
while a body writhes punctuated
against the open invite of your hand
sometimes when you ask
I gift skin in noon’s crumpled piles
give myself over and over
to the crash of merciless waves
against desolate English shores ...
I fall through clouds of empty sheets
close blue eyes against falling stars
hold your hymns close to my cheek
tilt as if the world defies gravity
hair tangling at the root
while a body writhes punctuated
against the open invite of your hand
sometimes when you ask
I gift skin in noon’s crumpled piles
give myself over and over
to the crash of merciless waves
against desolate English shores ...
#confessional
214 reads
12 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
27th Jun 2024 11:11am
27th Jun 2024 11:11am
It was the year I stayed in bed
#confessional
#DomesticViolence
#healing
#MentalHealth
#myself
214 reads
10 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by Northern_Soul
