A Little Life

Australian writer of poetry + fiction. Reader of almost anything. Instagram: @origamihouses

[origami-houses]

Is it okay

if I just sit with you?

Words will only confuse us

in a way that

silence never would.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

I can kill the part of me

that loves you.

There are holes all over me

where I have burned your name

from my system.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

It surprises me

that my own brain,

my own captain,

could despise the very vessel

that houses it so freely.

Ready and waiting

to destroy

my own existence.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

I wasn’t afraid to admit that I felt alone.

I was afraid to admit that I believed

I would be alone

forever.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

I often cursed the world

for my consciousness.

How sweet it would be

to exist

without the doubts

in my mind

that I am

existing correctly.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

To tell you the truth,

what I really craved

was to be loved so much

that I didn't need to be perfect.

I just didn't know

that love

had to come from within.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

I despised how jealous

I often caught myself feeling.

I could not accept

the achievements of others

without first holding them

side by side to my own.

I was a creature of comparison.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

Laying still on my bed,

I liked to imagine myself on a beach.

The sun warming my cold skin;

thawing out the gloom

and replacing it with sunshine.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

I want the world

to swallow me up whole already.

The process of taking me

atom by atom

is too much for me to bear.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

Tears welled in my eyes

but always stopped short of falling.

The dams I had built within myself

were fortified and tall.

The water never broke,

and neither did I.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

What does a person do

with all the love

they cannot pour into someone else?

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

The wrinkles in my skin,

etched deeper and deeper.

Spider webs building

as months became years,

and present became past.

Every thought and fear,

scribbled across my face.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

I force my messy thoughts

into short,

pretty sentences

and call it poetry.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

I never left anything

willingly.

I always waited

until I was ready

to burn every bridge

before I told myself

it’s okay to set yourself free.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

When I said

I think you were acting weird,

what I meant was:

I love you,

and everything you do

has meaning to me.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

To be honest,

I had forgotten what it felt like:

to be utterly consumed

by another human being.

- G.L. Angelone

[origami-houses]

I am terrified of starting.

Everything I do,

I do with one foot out the door;

always making sure

I have an exit strategy,

always looking for a reason

not to give it my all.

So if I fail,

I can safely say

but I was only standing

on one foot.

- G.L. Angelone