[x]

WailJerked awake by dreams,
I lie in the dark and listen
to the long, deep wail
of a passing train, its
mourning disappearing
into tomorrow.

I turn back into my blankets
and wonder where it’s going,
rushing through the cold,
black night, its voice so
frantic and needful.

Its call echoes through
the silence and beckons
me to chase it as I
realize the frantic need
is mine.

fealtywith weariness
you turn to the
coming tempest

your face etched
with enduring, your shoulders
tense with accepting

I watch you
ready yourself for the
menacing pain

and I weep

I cannot stop
the baying winds that
threaten, the

shrieking fury
that nears, my impotence
total, complete

but I will not
run; if you must meet
this unbending

tomorrow,

you will not welcome it

alone

WordlessI’ve learned to
protect myself
from everyone
but you.

They throw words
like whetted knives,

guilt like balanced
circus axes,

tears like drops
of acid.

From these, I’ve
learned to retreat
behind walls of stone; eyes
as cold as glacial ice
hide the bleeding.

Yet from you, I find
no escape, your silence
a weapon I cannot
deflect.

No matter how deeply
I burrow into myself,
your muteness follows me,
wraps around me
like a shroud

until I find myself
without defense,
naked and helpless
before lips long
dead of words.

Wear MeSlide into me like an
old pair of slippers, warm
and welcoming, and I
will comfort you.

Put me on like a well-worn coat;
let me slide up your arms
and wrap myself
around you.

Pour yourself into me like
a tight pair of jeans, and
I will cling to you in
all my fullness.

Slip me on like a red silk
robe, and I will whisper
perfumed promises to your
screaming skin.

Enfold yourself in me
like cool sheets, and I
will make you forget
the world.

trust you’re afraid to
believe in me

but I’m not
like the others

I’m not a promise
tied to a tumbleweed

but a weighted word
that will stay

where it’s
dropped

meant to bewhen I went out
to find my fate

I never expected
its face

to be yours

I Made My BedIt's time to accept
my lot,

to let go of my
self-delusions,

rose-colored
pipe dreams.

I must let go.

Let my dreams
go their way

as I go mine.

a sensible womanhe remembers
her unhappiness
and is grateful she stayed

he thanks her, still loves her,
and promises that
tomorrow will be better

but for her,
there are no more tomorrows,
just an unending now

as she suffocates the last
of her bastard dreams,
lays her strong hands
to their throats and
chokes off their cries
one by one like
unwanted girl children
left to the elements
or kittens bagged and
fed to hungry rivers

and she lays her darlings
gently in their graves
to wait for her

Good FriendsYou leave me a message
to come over, concerned,
time with a friend
will do me good.

I give you all the
reasons I can’t –
too much work,
fatigue, car trouble -

all the reasons
except the real one.

I’m weak right now.

Beaten down, discouraged,
I want more than a friend.

I need chills down my spine
and smooth, scented skin,
the taste of hard kisses and
overheated breath,
a deep voice in the dark
and long, slow sex,
a man’s warm length at my back
as I slide into sleep.

This is what I want,
and you would give it to me.

Wouldn’t you?

So (though you don't know it)
I can’t see you
u

bury the deadby the time we’re done,
there will be nothing left
but our bones,

worn and fragile with
the weight of each
other’s feelings,

not enough left for
even the crows
to pick over

why do we continue
to mourn, to reduce each
other to dust with
love long deceased?

let us bury our dead
and go on

good intentionsforgive me

I never meant to
    complicate your life

I couldn’t know,
    didn’t realize,

that when your eyes
    settled on mine

I should
    have looked
           away

aromaticyour fragrance lingers
in the room though you’ve
been gone for hours

I should get up, shower,
start my day, but I’m loathe
to wash you from my skin

so I turn back into warm blankets
and drift in night-scented
dreams of you

rawtake back
your pretty love
words

tuck them
under your
tongue

kiss me
until my lips bloom
with bruises

scrape me raw
with your
blistering skin

and scratch
this itch until
it bleeds

crashonce, happiness
was as simple
as silver dangles
on french wires
and frosted pink
lipstick

then he came

with dark hair
and darker smiles,
his bright blue eyes
lit up when
I walked in
a room

and happiness
became complicated

the nights...

oh, the things
we did in the
dark

(the light of
day would have blushed
had it seen)

we swallowed each
other whole like
bottles of bad
medicine, the kind
that makes fools
jump off buildings
trying to fly

but we were greedy,
gorging on each
other until we
could hold
no more

happiness
left with him

now I dream
again

of happiness as simple
as silver dangles
on french wires

heroesthey lived long lives
filled with hard work,
fried chicken, and
heart attacks

he gambled
every day of his life
and never missed
a house payment

she crocheted
and wallpapered
and never missed
The Price Is Right

they survived
the depression
Minnesota winters
a lost baby

and for decades
still smiled when
the other entered
the room

no one told them
that people don’t
love forever
anymore

Browse More Like This

Download File
HTML, 901 bytes more ▶

More from ~Blueskye27

InsurrectionI hide you away in
my deep places,
pulling you out
on bad days like
crumbling love letters
tied in age-stained
ribbon.

Just for a moment,
I can feel the warmth
of your skin, your breath
on the side of my throat.

But just for a moment
before the cold treason
of your leaving
chills my very bones
and I must bury you
in dark places
again.

fooled.because
I smile when
he lies
to me

he believes
me unaware
of the
deception

keepsakeI roll down the
windows and turn
up the radio

sliding down
the highway like
grass green days

blue sky breezes
sifting through
my hair

until something
reminds me

an old song
a beaten-up silver sedan
a passing train

and the emptiness
unfolds in my stomach,
a tall man in
a small automobile

stretching his legs
until there’s nothing
left but gray

dead smileswatching the news

a lady’s body exhumed
for further investigation

a live shot of the retrieval

her white coffin
craned out of the
ground onto a
flatbed truck

the reporter talks
about the scientific
whys and wherefores,
the details of her
suspicious death,
the autopsy re-hashed

all the while, her picture
smiles from the
bottom right hand corner
of the screen, unnoticed

she had sad eyes, eyes
unmatching her
upturned lips

they think now that
perhaps her husband
killed her after all; her
sister told them so, but
they didn’t believe
her until another of
his wives disappeared

why wouldn’t they listen?

the tablethe table was sturdy
like the man himself

a solid presence
his hands molded
of hardwood, maple
turned on his lathe
until the legs curved
in graceful arcs at
the corners,
the straight edges
carefully squared
and leveled, a piece
of which he was proud
that sat in front of
a green velvet couch
beneath an ecru doily
for twenty-odd years

but the man was
not immortal, and
his widow moved to
a smaller house with
less room for tables, so
a granddaughter took it home
and used it until its drawers
loosened and its straight edges
became ragged knocking
her shins, its finish pocked
with white rings from
the bottoms of wet gla

freezemy tears no
longer flow hot with
the passion of
grief

they run cold
as frigid rivers as
they try to wash
you from my
ruined
heart

View Gallery

Featured in Groups:

Not currently featured in any groups.

Details

Submitted: March 16, 2009
File Size: 901 bytes

Thumb

Statistics

Comments: 71
Favourites: 24 [who?]
Views: 338 (0 today)
Downloads: 10 (0 today)

[x]

Sightless

by ~Blueskye27, Mar 16, 2009, 8:16:50 PM
Literature / Poetry / Human Nature / Free Verse

I looked for you
for a long time.

In crowds, on
buses, at bustling
football games,
I sought.

I combed
the personals,
scoured the
internet,
turned over
some rocks.

I crawled through
dingy bars, sat alone
on mall benches,
and even pretended
to find religion.

My heart leapt
when I thought
I’d found you
(but I was wrong)
and then again
and again.

But I didn’t
find you,

and, finally, my
aging heart
began to contract
into stone,
the cooling lava
of wild, futile
hopes unmet.

I sit now
in a quiet place
and weep amid
my dead dreams
from eyes gone
blind with
searching.

Sightlessby ~Blueskye27

Literature / Poetry / Human Nature / Free Verse

©2009-2013 ~Blueskye27

C.

~PrettyCrazy May 28, 2009 Hobbyist Writer

Such a sad beauty in the last verse...

Reply

~Blueskye27 May 28, 2009 Hobbyist Writer

That was a painful stanza for me...

Reply

~PrettyCrazy May 28, 2009 Hobbyist Writer

I can imagine - it's a painful stanza to read.

Reply

~sylvanheart Apr 13, 2009

Owwwwwww.
That is pain.

Reply

~Blueskye27 Apr 13, 2009 Hobbyist Writer

Yeah...

Reply

~ColonelFitz Apr 12, 2009

I like that you always present these achingly familiar emotions, but not in a cloyingly archaic way. The internet was a great touch.

Reply

~Blueskye27 Apr 13, 2009 Hobbyist Writer

Thanks, Joan. What a lovely compliment.

Reply

~frazzled-mage Apr 5, 2009

My heart still leaps and the molten core is a thousand years from cooling....

Reply

~Blueskye27 Apr 8, 2009 Hobbyist Writer

Never let it cool, my friend. Burn brightly forever.

Reply

~WolfenFire Mar 31, 2009

Very deep.

Reply