Tag: Poetry

Poem: Swimming pools

distantcaveLeave a comment

Butterflies
In your swimming pool
I’m writing in my notebook
About feathers and freedom
What we used to think being an American meant
About global dreams
Obscure visions
Broken televisions
Why don't you ever compliment me?

I smile when you smile
You,
On the diving board
Laying there like a dead squid
Makes me giggle
Just a little
I’m playful in your arms
No entanglements
We are one of a kind
We talk about it
Like we’re in middle school
Like we’re too cool to be cool

It’s cold, but we pretend it’s summer
Spend Tuesdays by the swimming pool
Catching the sun’s rays
Wondering when we’ll be saying goodbye

Steel trains

distantcaveLeave a comment

I am bored and companionless
I come home, shut the steel door
Lock it 4, 5, 14 times
Grace my palm across the slate kitchen counter
Indulge in the cleanliness of no longer having someone occupy my chateau
My alcazar
Mine

The train runs by
Fifty times an hour
And I suck in the fumes like a child enjoys putting their hands on a hot stove
Ice

There’s a moody sky above
So I prepare for my favorite part of existence,
Standing on my balcony smoking menthol cigarettes alone
Careful where I ash
Watching the city skyline in the distance
Men in grey and black suits
Serving their role
They inspire me with their daily perseverance
Don’t mock it till you try it

I used to be afraid of the dark
Now the dark to me is Pittsburgh grey
I empty my handbag’s contents and find
1 pigeon feather
I feel like I have it all together
Even the birds want to be me

I am bored and companionless
The city skyline says it’s time
The felted wool of my grandmother’s blanket comforts me these minutes, now
Preoccupied
With wondering
About the Industrial Revolution and how to identify a black widow
I’m on edge, can’t you tell
I’m searching for something

I’m on edge, can’t you tell
I’m always searching for something

At my expense

distantcaveLeave a comment

My imagination takes me to dark places in the world
I’m too stubborn to run away
And I know nobody will come with me
I rid of all my expectations

You said love and beauty cannot coexist with analysis
But you don’t know the things I think of you
When you swim laps and I admire you
Luxury like a dripping rose
God can’t help me

I put your Cubs cap back on
And search for defects in you
Because it cannot be true
I’m banging my head, I’m so sick of you
I like you

Secrecy and solitude
Come kiss me in the closet
Try on your best white button-down
You teach me how to tie a tie
I keep getting it wrong because I’m weak

Saturdays with you
Watching how much your cat adores you
She’s practically floored by you
There must be something about you
I look away

I know it’s irrational
For me to open myself up to love again

So I keep practicing how to tie a tie
So one day I can kiss you goodbye

Passenger seat

distantcaveLeave a comment

I’m a small girl with a matchbox
A ticket to heaven
Leaving at eleven
Behind the curtains the children hide
I ask them what’s so fancy behind there

I walk home from the library
Hardcovers feel like survivorship
I’m dividing my eyes into pentagons
I still hear your song on the radio
Switch the television up to max vol

I’m by the lake, bow in my hair
The deer come closer like they love me
On my notepad I scratch his name out
Over and over again
I thought we could at least be friends

I’m passenger seat and you’re in the back
Glimmer in your eye thinking of paradise
You knew where you were going that night
You swore to me we’d be all right
It hurt like you threw the softest bricks

I’m passenger seat and you’re in the back
It hurt like you threw the softest bricks
Your book still lays untouched on my bed
Untouched as can be
Untouched as desolate me

The loudest silence when I found out
When I found out

Like death, adore him

distantcaveLeave a comment

Gentle
Lilacs growing in the garden
Saying “I’ll see you tomorrow”
A boy who doesn’t leave me with sorrow
And I still mess it up
I find a way
To misbehave
Get my own way
Impatience every day
I go to the beach and pray
For grey skies and soliloquy’s
For you and me, breakfast with tea
For me to provide all your fantasies

It’s rich
It’s gold
Maybe I should have done what I was told
Be a good girl
No temptations
Enforce restrictions
Monitor yourself
Equate honesty with wealth
Maintain your good health
Never run out of breath
Get yourself out of this mess

And when you get a boy that laughs like death
Adore him to the edges of the earth
Make sure he never gets hurt
Not by the ground, not by your lying teeth
More manipulative the further we drive East
This isn’t the place I wanted to be
Come home to me, baby
Softness
Hardship
Making love with passion and greed
Try to do one good deed
Don’t keep your bad habits
Driving fast, avoiding running over rabbits
I’m a little crazy, just a tad bit

Come back to me
I’m fragile
Come home to me
Come home to me
Come home to me
Come home