striking matches

Poetry, Prose & Lyrics

[robertjw4688]

Hey all! Just a reminder that my new poetry collection, Coffee Ring Lies, is available for purchase!

[vanesadawn]

Epitaph

summer was killing us

everything we were

the beautiful pulse

was editing an ending

and I was still in love with the

beginning

[vanesadawn]

Dead Elephants

I’m gonna break all your matchsticks

unearth all the elephants in this room

wipe off your whiskey kisses

I don’t like the sound your betrayal groans

dead elephants aren’t beautiful

neither are impatient interludes

of reckless people on the move

I am a stranger behind rusty walls

where sugar melted

now I don’t recall the music our love

once made

I think it went on vacation

when you dragged our Christmas tree

down the hall

and its echo disappeared

when you left it on the curb

to be buried

a silver flash of its temporary glory

fluttering in the wind

I waited too long…

for words you would never say

you are too weak

to be home to anyone’s heart

you only know the recipe for

heartache

8-21-2017

[drearydaffodil]

What would make me feel better?

A forest, a sea, a hand-written letter

A wide road to wander, a ride on a train

Bright blue galoshes to splash in the rain

A picnic, a swing, a bottle of beer

Eight billion stars on a night that is clear

A kiss from a puppy, a roll down a hill

To run in a meadow just for the thrill

A day in museums awestruck by the glow

A trip to a place where wildflowers grow

Somewhere to make my clenched jaw release

A place in the sun that feels much like peace

[lebuc]

the stream ( participate, reciprocate )

* you got or get to participate,

toe or full immersion in the stream

more aptly - the river, the ocean, hell - tsunami of thisness

since the Bang.

if we could only grasp the thread, the lifeline

by our best efforts but once & not let go

then, the stream reciprocates,

& you get to wade forever* * 3/24 - lebuc - the stream ( participate, reciprocate ) *...so i've been told

[somewordsarebiggerthanothers]

[tonka-bean]

Coiled bracelet by the side of my bed Still-open lipstick, red like nothing I've really ever touched

Come down here

With me, let me Unwind you, against the soft old sheets More sun in them than I've washed away.

Come here and let me tell you Nothing, nothing but

The ice is melting in the glass,

And scattering the light

[warxpunkxmonk]

Pharos

Captive under her glamor Free to roam voluntarily However every trajectory Leads me right on point Bordering sea and stars Where she valiantly stays Alongside my lasting heart

wpm

[vanesadawn]

The Empty

I'll leave you my books

karma is script

let me hide in the darkness

such a loving warmth

my heart is yours

please don't forsake it

fail me perfect the way you say my name

shout it louder so they hear you

but you'll never take the blame

use you body for my poetry

you've taken more than possible to need

now I sit alone in the empty

but you kissed me like Judas

you thought I'd never know this

we were just a crimson carnival

my eyes cast away

from secrets, lovers and lies

so carefully spaced

were we just a dream

a summer fantasy ?

oh, we were beautiful once

or just a dream behind the lens

too many shadows blur the beginning from

our unperfect ending

[vanesadawn]

Fool's Leap

shall I read just the lens

before the crooked path begins

I don't know where we are going my friend

just a sweet distraction

was it fake, a love contraption

a fool's leap

a silent keep

where all the secrets sleep

Karma tied a knot

not happy with your lot ?

I trip, I fall over

nothing, nothing at all

all the tears salting our food

the leap I took was just a fool's

I loved you but you detached

and I forgive you

but does that make me your fool ?

[megiddo]

we’re packing our bags and leaving the planet

look again infinitely we met on the internet no time for nights I left the moon turn off the lights in december it’s already may thought you were a spy one of us already wrote hamlet I steal each skinny poet’s weight like a pillow my name is the end are you going to now cavernous to when I am I am no longer battery low the woods are woods deep ready with all that light ready with all that darkness in circles my head is the moon the sky is the sun crown of thorn no shadow on the sun don’t sing along I paid for these tickets this has happy birthday I was ancient now I am old on the road by the sea the thread of life of every mortal and immortal from birth until please sun let me write until dark slept in strange beds until mt fuji the fun no end hold me tight push harder now we will we will cassandra speed dreamer the source of reality is fairy tales the language of colours I’m not in the business I am the business sometimes we stick our arms out of the ground once more beset by erebus it couldn’t be a kiss in a vivid some one told me he wants to be him she shines the sun days catch up not seen anywhere once and all time is there no year what is inside of a battery stop warfare dream basis of film notes the farthest stars hear us we hear the far stars of the it is dark it happens so fast

m

[poetlegit]

A window within

Somehow I thought that leaves would fall in Autumn, with the Hudson flowing.

They fall instead on my mind, in October, memories almost gone.

And my lemon tree begins  to flower.

Oct 2023

[vanesadawn]

our mouths full of

August angst

lovers on exile street

we were complicated

pushing against the light

returning to sanity of quietness

we were awakened after the rain

and the beasts' that came to destroy

the roses

we were no one until we breathed

the same romantic nuances that knew

we'd never settle for anything other

than all our crazy chaotic midnight notions

everything you ever made me feel

no one else ever stood a chance to do that

[quaintobsessions]

Lucent

Watching yourself in the mirror, your eyes are larger than your face. The sun crowns, then

bursts into your mind because of the sheer silence

you are breaking. Hands to stomach to vocal cords, your breath travels and deepens.

Faster. Slow.

Even death could not shut you up, even bare sheets could not make you sleep. Your old life

fingers the edge of the oil painting leaned at an angle.

Each upstroke spreads hours spent brooding and glancing, each downstroke anchors you to brief ecstasies in slow motion.

Picture it all going up in flames, in benign fire of your survival: all objects shifted from sight, your vision blurred

with explosions too wild for rest,

coronets of sharp edges spark from the mirror, right through the dark sun of your iris.

[vanesadawn]

Night

in a hell of a midnight

matches all burnt out

the good of days behind us

quicksand real or imagined

offers little or no mercy

sunshine splatters

the wall

once gold of afternoons were spun

into quickened blood in our veins

breath, a moment of madness

radio static

sleepy romance of dreams succeeding

like waves to shore

as tiny wonderful lights glimmered

in our eyes

once our bodies were warm and intwined

wanting nothing but the electricity

of the night

[vanesadawn]

Bird

when was the last time

you thought of me ?

did you want to see me

one more time ?

were the airplanes

we pretended to be

still somewhere in your daydreams

trying to fly free from your mind ?

our breath combining as one

when we fell asleep

all our wishes wouldn't change one

future thing

'cause wishes one by one

was a speedy bird that flew away

[vanesadawn]

Wounded Butterfly

I lie in the grass and watch the sky float by

I miss the airplanes and the tunnels

that were ours once upon a time

I'm sorry I never told you about

the summer you were five

I'm just a wounded butterfly

I'm just a sad mess all the time

I never meant to make you cry

wasting time and summer nights

could you forgive me just this one time

I'm just a wounded butterfly

caught up in this web

wrong place, wrong time

can't tell you goodbye

the silence would swallow my lie