Submissions by WhatIUsedToBe
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
angst and awe. abstract. It may not always make sense. It may not "flow" like you think it should. But how did it make you feel?
LOVE POEM
Published
20th Sep 2013 1:57pm
20th Sep 2013 1:57pm
dearest departed
once is too much and eternally not enough.
once you held my shaved head -
that time I died first
and THAT is why
I did it then
All - Those - Reasons
and this is the starlight
that we parted under.
I think I was in star shock
those leafy brown eyes
the scratch and silk words
pressing denim and fragile heartache.
do you remember making love
next to the whistling, boiling pot?
the fight over the book
breathless tears, so many years.
condensed sunsets are the color of your hair.
I wanted to curl up inside of you...
once you held my shaved head -
that time I died first
and THAT is why
I did it then
All - Those - Reasons
and this is the starlight
that we parted under.
I think I was in star shock
those leafy brown eyes
the scratch and silk words
pressing denim and fragile heartache.
do you remember making love
next to the whistling, boiling pot?
the fight over the book
breathless tears, so many years.
condensed sunsets are the color of your hair.
I wanted to curl up inside of you...
851 reads
11 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
20th Sep 2013 1:46pm
20th Sep 2013 1:46pm
synchrony
the prophet and the archangel
I
The prophet, host of brown lockram eyes
and a lined paper mask of youth
but still a man, a still man of diseased trembling sleuth
a master who hides in the secret of me
begging and dancing with kindred ideologies
don't dare a question he won't answer
Silence is his verbosity
hording visions in your light voided shelter
your princess has escaped and you rot in her prison
with your make believe promise
and stained, cracked slipper
smoke and absinthe comforting your derision.
...
I
The prophet, host of brown lockram eyes
and a lined paper mask of youth
but still a man, a still man of diseased trembling sleuth
a master who hides in the secret of me
begging and dancing with kindred ideologies
don't dare a question he won't answer
Silence is his verbosity
hording visions in your light voided shelter
your princess has escaped and you rot in her prison
with your make believe promise
and stained, cracked slipper
smoke and absinthe comforting your derision.
...
941 reads
4 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
19th Sep 2013 11:47pm
19th Sep 2013 11:47pm
what we expect
promise you will find me
in the hanging corners that I hide
peel me from my shadow
show me your words so I'll know.
wear all black and eat white frozen petals
smell like the desert
but take me to the water
tell me a story of star crossed lovers
no, start with the book
a wild heart can stop on a bus
reading it felt like making love to you.
I'm never expecting you.
cold reaching feet on tender back
in our moving universe we'll wait
I'll trust your breath on my neck
I'll know your skin as my own
on the other side...
in the hanging corners that I hide
peel me from my shadow
show me your words so I'll know.
wear all black and eat white frozen petals
smell like the desert
but take me to the water
tell me a story of star crossed lovers
no, start with the book
a wild heart can stop on a bus
reading it felt like making love to you.
I'm never expecting you.
cold reaching feet on tender back
in our moving universe we'll wait
I'll trust your breath on my neck
I'll know your skin as my own
on the other side...
715 reads
5 Comments
STORY POEM
Published
19th Sep 2013 11:41pm
19th Sep 2013 11:41pm
The Scar
A tribute to Aragorn
My reflection screams from the blade I hold,
The image of a man I hardly know
Who do they think that I will be?
I cannot escape the doubts within me.
Troubled by treasons,
Can I stand on my own?
Accept the challenge,
To deny my soul?
My blood betrays me,
I feel its call
To drink of the power,
To rule them all
Lingering light, a song too sweet
I curse the hope that moves my feet
Broken shards of humility;
Lasting legends haunting me
Starving for the strength, ...
My reflection screams from the blade I hold,
The image of a man I hardly know
Who do they think that I will be?
I cannot escape the doubts within me.
Troubled by treasons,
Can I stand on my own?
Accept the challenge,
To deny my soul?
My blood betrays me,
I feel its call
To drink of the power,
To rule them all
Lingering light, a song too sweet
I curse the hope that moves my feet
Broken shards of humility;
Lasting legends haunting me
Starving for the strength, ...
722 reads
4 Comments
SELF POEM
Published
19th Sep 2013 1:06pm
19th Sep 2013 1:06pm
animus
I'm looking myself in the eyes
for the first time in 700 nights
and an ash burned cigarette circle appears
in the middle of my forehead;
I can't think about your arms anymore
the fire is out, the ash is warm with worms
finding their way back and forth to my brain.
I'm going to stay clean until
I take the final quantum leap
or join my animus
on the slider's escape
and come out a new man.
I don't know who to tell;
I was never meant to make it.
The commute then office chatter
It's dinner on a table you...
for the first time in 700 nights
and an ash burned cigarette circle appears
in the middle of my forehead;
I can't think about your arms anymore
the fire is out, the ash is warm with worms
finding their way back and forth to my brain.
I'm going to stay clean until
I take the final quantum leap
or join my animus
on the slider's escape
and come out a new man.
I don't know who to tell;
I was never meant to make it.
The commute then office chatter
It's dinner on a table you...
908 reads
11 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
19th Sep 2013 12:57pm
19th Sep 2013 12:57pm
The Rest
We are our worlds
Wrapped in skin and cellophane
Decorated cakes rising and falling,
Smoking candy cigarettes
In the crematorium.
But the words we choose
Are like surgical instruments
Picking, placing and replacing
Images and memories.
We hide because we see and misunderstand.
You are only who you are to me.
I am only what you’ve seen.
Not even shared memories
Are congruent painted concrete.
Yet your arm touched mine
And we both remained
No look exchanged
No expected disdain
No uncomfortable refrain...
Wrapped in skin and cellophane
Decorated cakes rising and falling,
Smoking candy cigarettes
In the crematorium.
But the words we choose
Are like surgical instruments
Picking, placing and replacing
Images and memories.
We hide because we see and misunderstand.
You are only who you are to me.
I am only what you’ve seen.
Not even shared memories
Are congruent painted concrete.
Yet your arm touched mine
And we both remained
No look exchanged
No expected disdain
No uncomfortable refrain...
867 reads
14 Comments
ANGER POEM
Published
18th Sep 2013 10:25pm
18th Sep 2013 10:25pm
idaho
Potato farmers are ready to kill again
The sun sets in blacks and blues and a pale pink moon
Repentance can’t exist in a police state
because we make no mistakes.
A lethal cocktail to swish and swim
But which comes first? better hold him
delivery by the prison guard
'cause the AMA won’t get involved
Alive and paralyzed and burning inside
this mineral to make a vegetable guilty
shameless, tasteless human jerky
hanging on a pain free string theory
swinging from city hall
with a sign and shopping bag from Kohl's
I’m not...
The sun sets in blacks and blues and a pale pink moon
Repentance can’t exist in a police state
because we make no mistakes.
A lethal cocktail to swish and swim
But which comes first? better hold him
delivery by the prison guard
'cause the AMA won’t get involved
Alive and paralyzed and burning inside
this mineral to make a vegetable guilty
shameless, tasteless human jerky
hanging on a pain free string theory
swinging from city hall
with a sign and shopping bag from Kohl's
I’m not...
738 reads
5 Comments
ANGER POEM
Published
18th Sep 2013 10:12pm
18th Sep 2013 10:12pm
zodiac bedchamber (dirt, fire and feathers)
these birds must die
oh predictable pattern
"flocking and flogging"
on sunday afternoon
The phoenix charred, frozen in form
I am Bennu, in an unlikely Eve suit.
born, not in water
or fire
but from fire
hearing the whispers of
oviparous house sparrows
her poor chicks
her sad mate
this bitch won't quit
on my back on the battlefield
a white leaf covers each eye
electric green veins attach
to blood shot through vessels
variegate, become one
transporting venom.
opaque film shrinks and sticks...
oh predictable pattern
"flocking and flogging"
on sunday afternoon
The phoenix charred, frozen in form
I am Bennu, in an unlikely Eve suit.
born, not in water
or fire
but from fire
hearing the whispers of
oviparous house sparrows
her poor chicks
her sad mate
this bitch won't quit
on my back on the battlefield
a white leaf covers each eye
electric green veins attach
to blood shot through vessels
variegate, become one
transporting venom.
opaque film shrinks and sticks...
634 reads
8 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
18th Sep 2013 2:11pm
18th Sep 2013 2:11pm
lemon drops
There is a hand that fits
when it is the first thing your heart reaches for
An open palm
fleshy and virginal
more intimate than the deepest kiss.
Your tears taste more like lemon than salt.
but your voice, your Voice!
like sand birthing pearls
causing a reaction in the depths
that pries the jewel of myself from the waters.
touch remembers
where you end and I begin
your caress is not so terse
I've loved the lost in you I've felt,
slipping in and out of your soul
only seeking to be sincere.
I woke up crying by the lake...
when it is the first thing your heart reaches for
An open palm
fleshy and virginal
more intimate than the deepest kiss.
Your tears taste more like lemon than salt.
but your voice, your Voice!
like sand birthing pearls
causing a reaction in the depths
that pries the jewel of myself from the waters.
touch remembers
where you end and I begin
your caress is not so terse
I've loved the lost in you I've felt,
slipping in and out of your soul
only seeking to be sincere.
I woke up crying by the lake...
885 reads
10 Comments
DARK POEM
Published
18th Sep 2013 2:06pm
18th Sep 2013 2:06pm
the divide
morning is compassion
a raindrop makes me lie.
I offer embraces
I bathe the sores
of anyone listening.
night comes with cyclical perfection
like a dog at its dinner dish
I feel nothing
numb as a hotel corridor
and all I can do is think.
killing to feel a memory
again I awake
shards of songs at the door
once again I am loving and laughter,
face stretched tighter
I can feel , but is it real?
I touch the window
no questions
no questions
do not look too deep.
I will destroy your story...
a raindrop makes me lie.
I offer embraces
I bathe the sores
of anyone listening.
night comes with cyclical perfection
like a dog at its dinner dish
I feel nothing
numb as a hotel corridor
and all I can do is think.
killing to feel a memory
again I awake
shards of songs at the door
once again I am loving and laughter,
face stretched tighter
I can feel , but is it real?
I touch the window
no questions
no questions
do not look too deep.
I will destroy your story...
792 reads
4 Comments
LOVE POEM
Published
18th Sep 2013 5:05am
18th Sep 2013 5:05am
The Scarf
An opportunity missed
tied tight around my mouth
breathing fibers of regret
An Angel blew you a kiss
and the sweet fresh air
blew through your hair
brushing your bare neck
and landed on my shoulders
The combined fragrance highlighted your fragility
I wanted to give you something of myself
to wrap around your life like a promise.
An embrace not so uncomfortably long and ripe
but an old song you know every silence to
Protection even in a warm December sanctuary
But the Sacred moment slipped ...
tied tight around my mouth
breathing fibers of regret
An Angel blew you a kiss
and the sweet fresh air
blew through your hair
brushing your bare neck
and landed on my shoulders
The combined fragrance highlighted your fragility
I wanted to give you something of myself
to wrap around your life like a promise.
An embrace not so uncomfortably long and ripe
but an old song you know every silence to
Protection even in a warm December sanctuary
But the Sacred moment slipped ...
872 reads
2 Comments
DRUGS POEM
Published
18th Sep 2013 4:47am
18th Sep 2013 4:47am
missing
to paste a life in pieces
plastered fentanyl patches
over empty spaces of you
and sour orange stripes
- chewing my way to a place where I never saw your face.
bitter numbness not me at all
over my clothes
I look at my arm
- foreign to me
a tomb for the lies
gonna push for the plunge
but it pools on the side
so I swallow the rest
holding my breath until I come true.
I kick and dream
I gave up food
and visions of Achilles; writhing you
...
plastered fentanyl patches
over empty spaces of you
and sour orange stripes
- chewing my way to a place where I never saw your face.
bitter numbness not me at all
over my clothes
I look at my arm
- foreign to me
a tomb for the lies
gonna push for the plunge
but it pools on the side
so I swallow the rest
holding my breath until I come true.
I kick and dream
I gave up food
and visions of Achilles; writhing you
...
696 reads
3 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by WhatIUsedToBe
