#fellow poets

[the-stranger-on-a-train]

My doors no longer open

Pounding feet don't echo in my belly

I decompose

for smoking teens

and amateur graffiti artists

I’ve been gutted

My pipes are dry and i reek of mold and

stale cushions

But sometimes

When she’s feeling nostalgic and

Inexpressible

She ripples through my stillness

A tender wisp that tells me who I was

Suspending my senescence;

She swells until she fills my skin

And transudes my walls to shake the world.

A.G.

[lvsthopes-blog]

If you will

If you will for a moment

Sit back and think

Do you remember a time in your life

When you were on the brink

Of something truly beautiful

Of something staring back into the pit of your desires

Raising you from the ashes and starting a fire

Was there ever a time it was truly too late to know who you are

Dancing with death itself the flames take you higher

Life itself is a metaphor

Your truth is your reality

If you will sink with me in serendipity

And leave our broken souls on the floor

[the-stranger-on-a-train]

Open mouth but no song, Only barbwire and dirt. Broken strings and cracked keys Mallets pound rubble. Silence isn’t empty, It’s oppressively full.

A.G.

[lvsthopes-blog]

Victims

You'll never know despair Not the way that some do You see we're all victims of circumstances Doped up just enough just to get through And hope for second chances It's even harder to pick my soul off of the floor After it too has been damaged by you But I the victim will be shamed evermore If I try to tell everybody the truth You stripped me of my dignity And declothed me with your rage The knife in my back was trusting you And your wove became my cage And I pick my body off of the floor A twisted mess I was in my tears And then I watched you leave And felt ringing in my ears

[the-stranger-on-a-train]

You held my hand awhile when we stood, The doorframe divided our two worlds. The wind blew your hair and it must’ve blown something into your eyes because you were crying, too.

I felt like I was melting all over but stood like I was frozen stiff. It wasn’t bravery or stoicism, but helpless passivity.

Chin up, chest out, stand tall on my pride And say the opposite of everything I mean; I’m broken down and disorganized.

I swell with lasciviousness restrained, You whisper and ask me what I want But you didn’t hear me when I said “I want to feel everything.”

Sandstone brick walls become less about keeping the world out and more about keeping me in, You took protection with you and confinement filled the vacuum.

I gasp and taste salty tears, Cough and taste something coppery sweet, Spit out blood and turn back inside, Close the door to life behind me.

A scrap of paper directed to me rocks back and forth on the table from the draft, I don’t want to look but the wind opens it up. Unwillingly I read “That question you were afraid to ask me… the answer is no”

A.G.

[the-stranger-on-a-train]

I'm staring into outer space, Past the sun and all the stars, Into a hole in the universe where light is expunged. I breathe invisible tendrils That unfurl into the atmosphere -It is rich And crisp- The scent alone rips apart my eyelids. My heart clenches and Then smashes itself against my ribs, Pounding its desire into my bones. It is swelling heat Rolling away; Lingering To tuck my hair behind my ear Slowing only to dust my forehead with a kiss. My fingers grip cold clinking porcelain. A.G.

[the-stranger-on-a-train]

A single moment Hung lovingly once but now Dusty and neglected

Exuberant pink petals Ambrosial Surrounded -but not intimidated by- Dense lush emeralds And cool silvery droplets like weights

Boundlessly steadfast Constant The opulence of color and Life and scent and Buoyancy

Unrestrained perfection growing Patiently anticipating Reaching for blue ink An immortal reverie once doted on

But now Disremembered

A.G.

[the-stranger-on-a-train]

I’ve watched you through your seasons, I’ve seen you flourish, treelike, giving shade to dust-choked trav'lers, providing moistened fruit for parched lips. I’ve seen you spread yourself over ones you know nothing about. You sometimes bent under the weight of the many burdens that you bore for them. They only used you, cutting off the best parts of you to twist you into something they wanted, still you were gracious. I’ve seen hard times come, the earth cold and dry around you. I’ve seen you become a skeleton, broken bones sticking out like bared branches. I’ve seen you starving and blackened and neglected. You’ve been inundated with the tears of others for so long, you forget that you flower.

A.G.