bright lights, loud noises @brightlightsloudnoises - Tumblr Blog

the night life

I felt like I should go out so I did

I drove around

I pulled into the parking lots, glancing into the bars

and felt no desire to go in

people walked freely in the streets

into gas stations and fast food restaurants

it was better than new york

it was better than LA

there was no electricity in the air

there was no urgency

it was a kind of purgatory

decent

#poetry

we live elastic lives

we live elastic lives but we treat them like glass and in all our care

we never stretch into the shapes we were meant

to hold

#poetry

whole

we are magnets finally snapped back together, unbalanced atoms sorting themselves out at 4AM

currents recharging worn-out souls as we sleep—

two halves and one

whole

#poetry

what's behind you

you can stand in front of slot machines and liquor counters

you can stand in front of stiletto heels and empty beds

you can stand up and stand down

you can stand forever in front of the sadness

#poetry

nyc

we slept in the milford by port authority and when you woke up you piled your hair on your head in front of the wooden water towers and we checked out and took a taxi to central park where you grabbed my arm right above the wrist and said you needed to take a picture of the carousel, of the horses with their mouths open, and frozen with their legs stretched out and I stood next to you looking at the people and birds while you bent and stretched, getting the right angles and you clicked it and I said ok and you said ok and we walked down a very famous street

#poetry

madness in december

there is madness in december, it has white knuckles and hears pindrops

it howls and breaks windows

and it uses the birds to sing its soulful songs

#poetry

the weeknight

I can't get my head clear

I daydream about picking up and heading to new orleans

I have visions of lifting a drink off the bar and it taking me away like a balloon above the bored faces,

I think about these goddamn useless things and stay here like this stool nailed to the floor

#poetry

I will love you even in spaces and in breaths

I thought it was stupid when I wrote it and looking around at what's out now, it's probably fine

in spaces and in breaths that's tough, meaning no relief

that's tough, hard to do but have done it a few times personally you too I bet

love, people are quick to think or say others have never had it

really

everyone no one

the universe the country

plans won lost

insects born like robots

insane in their sex and death

winning nothing

all sensation desperation seasons

and silence

#poetry

here we are

I found a cigarette by the side of the road even though I'd quit, I picked it up and put it in my shirt pocket and then instead of walking down my street, I decided to go down to the next one to the bar

it was only 3:30 PM so hardly anyone was in there and it was beautifully empty, I mean the place was shit, but empty like that it could have been an opera house I picked a stool in the middle and the fat guy came up and I told him and he gave me the drink and I said, "hey, do you have a light?" and he said, "you can't smoke in here." and so I stared at the tv, past the tv, past the pretty news anchor and waited, I guess, for a sign or a girl with a heart heavy with the books on her bedside table

#poetry

get over it

I don't think I've ever gotten over anything and I don't mind,

it gives me plenty to think about

#poetry

aren't you with me

aren't you with me on the pale mornings when the sun does not explode behind picket fences

aren't you with me when the birds are too sick to get up and do it again

aren't you with me when the night is cold

hard

stale

with what didn't happen

aren't you there

your figure carved between the seconds

#poetry

vacation

I dreamt I was on the titanic drinking a martini looking at an iceberg

and then I was on a horse with some indians or something

I woke up, turned on the TV— someone was bitching about face cream,

outside, someone was watching their dog piss

there was a text on my phone telling me I was an asshole

I turned everything off and went back to bed

#poetry

the stranger

I’ve walked for miles in the wrong direction.

when it comes down to two choices, this way or that way, I usually pick the wrong one and as I walk the buildings become stranger, the shadows become taller, the people become colder

and I feel at home.

#poetry

the watchman

I was driving home and I saw this old guy about 50 yards in front of me on the sidewalk and as I approached him, he began waving his arms crazily

“look at this crazy motherfucker,” I thought and then I saw what he was doing, there was a pigeon in the middle of the road, he was trying to scare the pigeon away so I wouldn’t hit it

now, either he wasn’t giving the pigeon enough credit or he wasn’t giving me enough credit,

but shit, either way, I guess every little bit helps

#poetry

small empty rooms

“every morning I get up I die a little” the radio plays as I get up and light my first cigarette on the cold porch and the grey light hangs out over the same street I’ve looked at for years

there is nothing out there, I’m certain of it, there has to be nothing because there was a time when I had beat my knuckles against the closed doors until they were raw and the ones that opened opened to nothing,

just small empty rooms with more lonely people

#poetry

for the birds

I gave her a quarter and she pulled the lever and the food came out, she fed it to the ducks and as I stretched out on the bench I felt my soul sink down towards the mud, under that even, full and heavy from the way she was

#poetry

on a mattress

on a mattress, floating on violent waves as the sun bends into strange colors through the blinds,

and I remember you stretching, under a few minutes of the moon

#poetry

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

bright lights, loud noises