Submissions by forever-for_real (Tess Stoops)
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
I write. Always.
Said Aloud
Do not
say it.
Words are our enemy on this battlefield.
Words craft reality.
To say it
would be to start a war, consequences beyond
what we could endure,
Well,
what I could.
Let this nameless, shameless secret
stay ethereal and unspoken
between us.
Please,
just let us sleep.
say it.
Words are our enemy on this battlefield.
Words craft reality.
To say it
would be to start a war, consequences beyond
what we could endure,
Well,
what I could.
Let this nameless, shameless secret
stay ethereal and unspoken
between us.
Please,
just let us sleep.
653 reads
November, for Miles
I'm driving westward,
trying to outrun the sunrise.
Frost forming galaxies on my window,
warm breath and cigarette smoke
clouding the air.
I can't see, but speed on.
Tires screaming quietly in the cold
like water-birds.
I remember, someone told me that
death smelled like pennies.
Coppery, warm-cold, almost worthless.
How could they have known?
Blue-black pieces of sky have fallen into the road.
A corner tips my car on it's axis,
the world stops spinning and slides,
cold metal, hot stars.
I can't be...
trying to outrun the sunrise.
Frost forming galaxies on my window,
warm breath and cigarette smoke
clouding the air.
I can't see, but speed on.
Tires screaming quietly in the cold
like water-birds.
I remember, someone told me that
death smelled like pennies.
Coppery, warm-cold, almost worthless.
How could they have known?
Blue-black pieces of sky have fallen into the road.
A corner tips my car on it's axis,
the world stops spinning and slides,
cold metal, hot stars.
I can't be...
768 reads
3 Comments
The Leaves Will Take Me With Them (SAD)
This is what fall does to me.
The leaves are turning, and I feel the slipping in my chest,
I'll soon fall inside.
Winter will bring a numbness to my heart,
but it will be warm.
So I'm slipping, free-falling,
colors swirling, cold wind and
a smile on my lips,
knowing I am guaranteed a soft landing.
Because when I reach the bottom,
and the shadows swallow my frozen bones,
there will be nothing able
to shatter me.
The leaves are turning, and I feel the slipping in my chest,
I'll soon fall inside.
Winter will bring a numbness to my heart,
but it will be warm.
So I'm slipping, free-falling,
colors swirling, cold wind and
a smile on my lips,
knowing I am guaranteed a soft landing.
Because when I reach the bottom,
and the shadows swallow my frozen bones,
there will be nothing able
to shatter me.
603 reads
0 Comments
I am a Child
I'm a child, but no one knows.
I dress myself in my grown up clothes
and off to college, off to work I go.
Sometimes I cry out, but they don't hear.
I cry for a grown up to soothe my fears.
I cry for a mother, but she is no where near.
So, off to silence, off to solitude I go.
I thought someone would notice, see through my disguise.
See the child-like dread in my eyes.
See under my costume, realize my lies.
I am a child, but nobody knows.
So I dress myself in my grown up clothes
and off into fear, into life I go.
I dress myself in my grown up clothes
and off to college, off to work I go.
Sometimes I cry out, but they don't hear.
I cry for a grown up to soothe my fears.
I cry for a mother, but she is no where near.
So, off to silence, off to solitude I go.
I thought someone would notice, see through my disguise.
See the child-like dread in my eyes.
See under my costume, realize my lies.
I am a child, but nobody knows.
So I dress myself in my grown up clothes
and off into fear, into life I go.
1021 reads
6 Comments
Because College Kids Love Entitlement
And tell me it was worth it.
How many nights I wept and tore at
endless pages of information, searching
for the word, the phrase
that would pass the test for me, something to cling to,
something strong enough to base a paper,
a career upon.
Tell me this hell will make me successful.
I'll pay any amount, you know that, you've already taken all the money I'll ever have and I'll
stay up late every night
stuffing my eyes with words and ears with lectures and stomach with coffee just to know I will not lose.
I tried my whole life to get here because...
How many nights I wept and tore at
endless pages of information, searching
for the word, the phrase
that would pass the test for me, something to cling to,
something strong enough to base a paper,
a career upon.
Tell me this hell will make me successful.
I'll pay any amount, you know that, you've already taken all the money I'll ever have and I'll
stay up late every night
stuffing my eyes with words and ears with lectures and stomach with coffee just to know I will not lose.
I tried my whole life to get here because...
768 reads
1 Comment
Inside
I thought I could hear her screaming.
Until the night swallowed her howls and spit them into my eyes,
forcing me to see, I denied it.
I see, I have to,
her outstretched arms,
reaching,
empty.
I do not sacrifice myself by grabbing hold.
I am not cruel, only learned.
I've tried to save her, pull her in,
so many times.
Her fear is too great,
she beats wildly against my hands then
pulls me under as well.
When I think I'll drown, she kicks away
and I float slowly back to the surface.
Yet still,
she screams, voice
sharp and...
Until the night swallowed her howls and spit them into my eyes,
forcing me to see, I denied it.
I see, I have to,
her outstretched arms,
reaching,
empty.
I do not sacrifice myself by grabbing hold.
I am not cruel, only learned.
I've tried to save her, pull her in,
so many times.
Her fear is too great,
she beats wildly against my hands then
pulls me under as well.
When I think I'll drown, she kicks away
and I float slowly back to the surface.
Yet still,
she screams, voice
sharp and...
799 reads
2 Comments
November Approaches
To let it all go is
to take it all in.
And I don't think I can do that again.
Not now, not with so much on the line.
I lie. I whisper. I say,
"I'm fine."
I've been battling those thoughts again.
It seems my will is caving in.
My dreams, what mysteries to me.
Do they speak lies or prophecy?
Because either way, I pay no mind.
It all blurs into the answers
I can't find.
I've been battling those thoughts again.
It seems my will is caving in.
I no longer beg for winter.
For that is when my will
will splinter....
to take it all in.
And I don't think I can do that again.
Not now, not with so much on the line.
I lie. I whisper. I say,
"I'm fine."
I've been battling those thoughts again.
It seems my will is caving in.
My dreams, what mysteries to me.
Do they speak lies or prophecy?
Because either way, I pay no mind.
It all blurs into the answers
I can't find.
I've been battling those thoughts again.
It seems my will is caving in.
I no longer beg for winter.
For that is when my will
will splinter....
904 reads
2 Comments
One Year
Waiting.
Watching my feet
boil into the asphalt,
squinting as the sun glints
off me shining
bare legs.
The garbage nearby ripens
in the heat.
I wave the stench away
and wait.
Minutes, days pass.
This damsel.
I watch for you,
my knight in shining oldsmobile,
to sail down the flowing street.
Rescue me.
Eternity passes and
I see your car a few minutes later.
A year goes by, you pull into the drive,
once more.
I love you,
for coming home.
Watching my feet
boil into the asphalt,
squinting as the sun glints
off me shining
bare legs.
The garbage nearby ripens
in the heat.
I wave the stench away
and wait.
Minutes, days pass.
This damsel.
I watch for you,
my knight in shining oldsmobile,
to sail down the flowing street.
Rescue me.
Eternity passes and
I see your car a few minutes later.
A year goes by, you pull into the drive,
once more.
I love you,
for coming home.
862 reads
2 Comments
The Track Marks
Purple bruises
like smudged lines
of rejected poetry
just below the skin.
A far cry,
a brand.
"She smells like corruption."
The money missing,
shifty eyes,
they can't release this venom.
The collapsing veins reveal it all.
They can't be denied.
Unseen.
Liquid lies injected
straight to the heart.
like smudged lines
of rejected poetry
just below the skin.
A far cry,
a brand.
"She smells like corruption."
The money missing,
shifty eyes,
they can't release this venom.
The collapsing veins reveal it all.
They can't be denied.
Unseen.
Liquid lies injected
straight to the heart.
1484 reads
3 Comments
You're Right
I don't think about it
Long, it leaves me too
overwhelmed, battling
violent demons refusing to rest.
Every breath, a song.
You'd never rake me
over the coals
unless I deserved it.
and it's entirely possible,
largely because I
was wrong, I thought I would be
always alone, that
you do. You always
speak the truth.
Always,
never, does it matter,
anymore?
Long, it leaves me too
overwhelmed, battling
violent demons refusing to rest.
Every breath, a song.
You'd never rake me
over the coals
unless I deserved it.
and it's entirely possible,
largely because I
was wrong, I thought I would be
always alone, that
you do. You always
speak the truth.
Always,
never, does it matter,
anymore?
730 reads
0 Comments
Storyteller
It's easier in the dark,
when the words,
they shine like stars,
or silver coins
beneath the ripples
of a shallow puddle.
I can reach for their shimmering
silhouettes
and pull them to me.
I clean them up and put them in order.
Fashion them into stories.
Swallow them and spit out
their sounds.
As the fire crackles,
they sing.
when the words,
they shine like stars,
or silver coins
beneath the ripples
of a shallow puddle.
I can reach for their shimmering
silhouettes
and pull them to me.
I clean them up and put them in order.
Fashion them into stories.
Swallow them and spit out
their sounds.
As the fire crackles,
they sing.
706 reads
0 Comments
She Loves To Hunt Me
Sometimes she's quiet.
A soft whisper or
a tap on the window
easily ignored and brushed aside.
She can be a lacy curtain fluttering in a slight breeze,
going unheeded as
the storm blows in.
She can be violent.
Thrashing against the walls,
tearing down everything I thought I knew.
Screaming till shes white-blue in the face,
all I cannot have nor want.
She's my doubting, angry companion.
Never leaving my side,
her eyes wide, wet and yellow,
like a lion
watching for signs of weakness,
ready to pick me out of the herd,...
A soft whisper or
a tap on the window
easily ignored and brushed aside.
She can be a lacy curtain fluttering in a slight breeze,
going unheeded as
the storm blows in.
She can be violent.
Thrashing against the walls,
tearing down everything I thought I knew.
Screaming till shes white-blue in the face,
all I cannot have nor want.
She's my doubting, angry companion.
Never leaving my side,
her eyes wide, wet and yellow,
like a lion
watching for signs of weakness,
ready to pick me out of the herd,...
661 reads
1 Comment
DU Poetry : Submissions by forever-for_real (Tess Stoops)