Submissions by TomShields (Evilhappy)
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
I don't feel like a poet. I empty a burden on my mind in one sitting most of the time and I just call it poetry because that is the label that fits it best.
I Am Not
Fingernails crusted with rusted, coagulated red
paralyzed this phantom limb clenches a fist of ash
determined to release only when the host is dead
all balled up it is pain detached from a youth of rash
and circumstantial life crashing down around the head.
Worn red string frayed at the edges tied around the ring
leading to a love turned to contagious and pandemic pain
cutting off the flow to the blackened finger as it suffocates in the grips of this thing
sister come back and say goodbye so that this will all feel right as rain
abandonment,...
paralyzed this phantom limb clenches a fist of ash
determined to release only when the host is dead
all balled up it is pain detached from a youth of rash
and circumstantial life crashing down around the head.
Worn red string frayed at the edges tied around the ring
leading to a love turned to contagious and pandemic pain
cutting off the flow to the blackened finger as it suffocates in the grips of this thing
sister come back and say goodbye so that this will all feel right as rain
abandonment,...
#honesty
419 reads
3 Comments
I Am
I am not your brave man
no hero resides in my intentions
I am not your sound mind
no assured safety can be found in my actions
I am my history until I am overwritten
no words can heal the fractures
no bridge can reconnect the missing
I am only defined generously as a bad person
trying to be better by living honestly, being open, writing and sharing freely
I am no good for more than this right now,
neither is a typewriter in pristine condition
sitting and gathering dust.
no hero resides in my intentions
I am not your sound mind
no assured safety can be found in my actions
I am my history until I am overwritten
no words can heal the fractures
no bridge can reconnect the missing
I am only defined generously as a bad person
trying to be better by living honestly, being open, writing and sharing freely
I am no good for more than this right now,
neither is a typewriter in pristine condition
sitting and gathering dust.
#forgiveness
#redemption
#MovingOn
#meditation
#healing
367 reads
0 Comments
Hynotized
Snow blankets are a strange surprise
stranger still watching them melt always satisfies
dusk to dawn, eyelids shut at sundown and open at sunrise
why have they gone out tonight chasing fireflies?
Others observe oddity though no trouble they surmise
murmurs, whispers, gathered questions of authorities they might apprise
empty streets in an empty city close in as a jar on her people, jumped to cries
good morning sunshine, where is the static in your eyes?
No one comes by to lay a claim, days go by as dull goes the bright and grey turn the skies ...
stranger still watching them melt always satisfies
dusk to dawn, eyelids shut at sundown and open at sunrise
why have they gone out tonight chasing fireflies?
Others observe oddity though no trouble they surmise
murmurs, whispers, gathered questions of authorities they might apprise
empty streets in an empty city close in as a jar on her people, jumped to cries
good morning sunshine, where is the static in your eyes?
No one comes by to lay a claim, days go by as dull goes the bright and grey turn the skies ...
#rhyming
#fiction
422 reads
0 Comments
Jungle of Men
Jungle trees dare shyly to part
the tiger, the lion, the kid with a gun
paradox of predatory-prey, setback from the start
white teeth slyly sheen, time crunch; run
thick in the thick of the thicket
cross paths, suddenly a pin drops on a croaking cricket
sweat or condensation? Condescending to cons, born on the humid floor
tears and blood, the work to climb towards the cleaner air
professionals preferred, detainees deterred, opportunity hard knocks out the door
one in one out, two ears and all the life to fill them if they care
trees drip...
the tiger, the lion, the kid with a gun
paradox of predatory-prey, setback from the start
white teeth slyly sheen, time crunch; run
thick in the thick of the thicket
cross paths, suddenly a pin drops on a croaking cricket
sweat or condensation? Condescending to cons, born on the humid floor
tears and blood, the work to climb towards the cleaner air
professionals preferred, detainees deterred, opportunity hard knocks out the door
one in one out, two ears and all the life to fill them if they care
trees drip...
#HumanRights
#culture
416 reads
0 Comments
Hold This Void
How dark does it need to be?
Enticing as ever to dive blindly
fall forever into nothingness
embracing the peaceful disintegration of the abyss
hold it steadily, hold it still
give in to falling away from choice and will
slip through time as grains through an hourglass pill
empty as always, open for all days
fall inside and be gone from the irksome shine of those sun rays.
Enticing as ever to dive blindly
fall forever into nothingness
embracing the peaceful disintegration of the abyss
hold it steadily, hold it still
give in to falling away from choice and will
slip through time as grains through an hourglass pill
empty as always, open for all days
fall inside and be gone from the irksome shine of those sun rays.
#alcohol
#illness
#MentalHealth
400 reads
2 Comments
Just This, Just Us, Justice
Just This
We've discussed at length the lengthy cost
the powerful sway of owing to others to right your wrongs
been over the crimes, the pain; the time you've lost
to bandage the out of place wounds of words where silence belongs
and Justice is deaf, her ears bleed
she can no longer hear us crying for retribution
she chooses not to see us in our time of need
her sword is absent, blindfold soaked by tears from this unwilling union
we were the scales and the balance all along,
the sword meant to cut to the truth and right the wrong
but we...
We've discussed at length the lengthy cost
the powerful sway of owing to others to right your wrongs
been over the crimes, the pain; the time you've lost
to bandage the out of place wounds of words where silence belongs
and Justice is deaf, her ears bleed
she can no longer hear us crying for retribution
she chooses not to see us in our time of need
her sword is absent, blindfold soaked by tears from this unwilling union
we were the scales and the balance all along,
the sword meant to cut to the truth and right the wrong
but we...
#money
#greed
#philosophical #morality
#philosophical #morality
439 reads
0 Comments
Kick Harder Next Time
Down on all fours!
They're stomping on my ribs, I don't understand!
Hold 'em, yeah he's all yours
leader barks and followers listen to leader's command
they're beating me to death!
Mother! Don't you hear me?
Father? No, it's this soaked, raspy breath
I'm choking on the fear the
I said, they're kicking me in the head!
They want their dog in the streets to crawl
hacking up a lung until he's at the doorstep, dead!
The noise is pounding! It never stops! They watch for me to fall!
It never stops! To this day I hear them, they're kicking...
They're stomping on my ribs, I don't understand!
Hold 'em, yeah he's all yours
leader barks and followers listen to leader's command
they're beating me to death!
Mother! Don't you hear me?
Father? No, it's this soaked, raspy breath
I'm choking on the fear the
I said, they're kicking me in the head!
They want their dog in the streets to crawl
hacking up a lung until he's at the doorstep, dead!
The noise is pounding! It never stops! They watch for me to fall!
It never stops! To this day I hear them, they're kicking...
#anger
#hate
#dark
#confusion
#bullying
420 reads
5 Comments
Inherited Mindset of the Leeched
Sharpen your teeth at the iron scent
heir to the great many sins
inherited by will, the cutting crescent
air thick with the stench of countless denizens
piercing pain is hammered through your skull
senses heighten at the sound of a beating heart
their pulsating, sensuous blood, a lustful hunger glowing dull
flow from them Euphrates, paradise à la carte.
Divided by the claws of the tigress they will come apart
a feast at every turn you take
all too easy, all too fake
forlorn, bygone, for innocent life you forsake
and you seek the...
heir to the great many sins
inherited by will, the cutting crescent
air thick with the stench of countless denizens
piercing pain is hammered through your skull
senses heighten at the sound of a beating heart
their pulsating, sensuous blood, a lustful hunger glowing dull
flow from them Euphrates, paradise à la carte.
Divided by the claws of the tigress they will come apart
a feast at every turn you take
all too easy, all too fake
forlorn, bygone, for innocent life you forsake
and you seek the...
#frustration
332 reads
0 Comments
The Price of a Hot Meal
Hollow as a pauper's pockets
rotten as a potter's field
empty as a gypsy's locket;
defenseless behind a tin shield
bone thin as a starving orphan
dire as a beggar's need
roving as a mongrel or worse than:
a patron saint of Whitechapel's seed.
Haunted, sunken and sullen eyes
ravens caws, and raw meats bleed
wash the stones and scrutinize
silver shines under the red of greed
mean as much as tin can until hunger recants
live high on the hog when life decants.
rotten as a potter's field
empty as a gypsy's locket;
defenseless behind a tin shield
bone thin as a starving orphan
dire as a beggar's need
roving as a mongrel or worse than:
a patron saint of Whitechapel's seed.
Haunted, sunken and sullen eyes
ravens caws, and raw meats bleed
wash the stones and scrutinize
silver shines under the red of greed
mean as much as tin can until hunger recants
live high on the hog when life decants.
#murder
#death
#greed
#morality
#poverty
420 reads
3 Comments
Insight Out
Lady, give me your blindfold
let me balance my heart on your scales
I carry a cancerous pain years old
eating my body, my spirit, the flesh pales
cold as a ghost I dig my way from the grave of the past
I must see myself as I am, blindly objective to my crimes
no more a pallbearer, a buried corpse at last
succumbed to the suffering ten-folded a thousand times
Lady, give me your sword, let me strike this slight from living!
No! Do not take my borrowed time away!
I need the borrowed courage, the filtered view to be unforgiving! ...
let me balance my heart on your scales
I carry a cancerous pain years old
eating my body, my spirit, the flesh pales
cold as a ghost I dig my way from the grave of the past
I must see myself as I am, blindly objective to my crimes
no more a pallbearer, a buried corpse at last
succumbed to the suffering ten-folded a thousand times
Lady, give me your sword, let me strike this slight from living!
No! Do not take my borrowed time away!
I need the borrowed courage, the filtered view to be unforgiving! ...
#anger
#regret
#hate
#frustration
#emptiness
432 reads
0 Comments
Branching Out
Sprout with your arms out in peace
gather good karma, gather favors, hold on to these
gripping tighter, brown and green blood when you release
I come to take another arm, and you cry, you beg "Please, please!"
My eyes must seem hard as stones with this fixated lock
I feel your pain and I come again and again to rip and tear
my tree, you cower at me as I am stolen away to become the rock
I must be, I need the last olive branch you have, damn the cost I cannot care.
gather good karma, gather favors, hold on to these
gripping tighter, brown and green blood when you release
I come to take another arm, and you cry, you beg "Please, please!"
My eyes must seem hard as stones with this fixated lock
I feel your pain and I come again and again to rip and tear
my tree, you cower at me as I am stolen away to become the rock
I must be, I need the last olive branch you have, damn the cost I cannot care.
#despair
346 reads
0 Comments
Radiant Brilliance
Where upon the starlight swims abreast
there comes anon a grim portent
all mankind is peaceful now in their rest
shriek and begone for none are innocent
know the brilliance of radiant fire
shudder the fog of spirit's breath
the world flash-frozen to brittle kindling for the pyre,
though ashes now is she, her people never knew their death.
there comes anon a grim portent
all mankind is peaceful now in their rest
shriek and begone for none are innocent
know the brilliance of radiant fire
shudder the fog of spirit's breath
the world flash-frozen to brittle kindling for the pyre,
though ashes now is she, her people never knew their death.
#FreeVerse
420 reads
0 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by TomShields (Evilhappy)