(Parenthesis)
{Dream-logic rarely succeeds.}Archive for poetry
Don’t Tell Me
baby, don’t tell me that you lost your soul
I’ve been carrying mine ’round in a bowl
so at least you don’t have to look at yours
dirty thing that it is I’m kind of surprised
that I haven’t gotten rid of it yet
(thrown it out with all that emotional baggage
and the entire contents of my filing cabinets)
I’m drowning under a sea of my childhood
kicking and screaming as hundreds of years
of fallible ways and infantile curses
press down upon me and I heave
HEAVE and up comes the soul
like so much poisoned shellfish.
I had a valid excuse for living before the universe exploded.
There’s a good reason for
memories to be trigged by things
besides touch
(all she’s done is hurt you)
besides words
(none of them you understand).
Because when the night is over
and you’re safe in your bed
all that you’ll have is the
lingering scent of lavender shampoo.
Stranger Things
Stranger things have happened than
coming to terms with the fact that
you’ve lost someone twice
and the third time’s the charm.
(to harm and to hold, to set free for a day)
Stranger loves have prospered than
that of stupid Helen and vainer Paris,
despite the words that’ve been traded
instead of blows, up until the mind slows.
(I promise to love you, but only if you never speak)
So which continues, which one dies?
The laws of physics do not apply
any more than faulty logic
based on misfiring synapses and
hatred fueled hormones.
Knowing and Going
I’ve know love before
(if that’s what you want to call it)
leaking through lacerations
on an all too smooth (too cool) facade
made of lies and misinterpretations.
The association was not a healthy one,
there isn’t much getting around that.
But what’s health
when the only thing keeping you
tied to the ground is a string
of the precariously nonsensical,
the slightest blank waiting to
cut you free to
the unbidding sky?
So I knew love of a sort,
if you will,
and cherished it well above all,
despite the scalpel looming
above my head.
Je Veux Manger tes Ovaires.
“I hate you for what you represent”
is all he needed to (should) have said.
So nothing happened, no words said,
his lover would gladly have stabbed
him well and dead
(yet I’m not the one who kissed him).
It was either that, or. . .
something.
Someday when things are more
concrete, I think perhaps I’ll love again.
(under a grayer sky of eyes)
If and only then,
because I know the words to be said.
“Hush, my darling. Tou dree lieltva, tou dree dratzva.”
“Please die.”
– – – – – – – –
I sat in the library during 4th period today and spewed nonsense. This is the result.
If only Donne had known. . .
It seems that my somewhat encyclopedic knowledge of sexual innuendo is classic British poetry will finally come in handy come mid-May when I take the AP English Exam. One of the questions on the practice test I took on Monday was regarding just that, so of course I knew the answer. There is a lot of sex in Donne’s poetry, the pervy bastard.
I’m almost tempted to compose on the subject myself, however, given recent events which have come to my attention.
It seems Zagreus has been dreaming again, and this time about Aylin. This is the second time this has happened that I can remember. The first time they kissed. This time. . . this time they went rather further. Zagreus appears to be quite traumatized by the situation, since he refuses to give Aylin any information besides the fact that the dream occurred without her having to drag it out of him. Hazael and I are fairly certain that he’s probably worried that Aylin will take offense in some way, possibly because of a possible extrapolation of the pocket-incident involving reenacting that dream in a more concrete setting.
I can’t say I think Aylin would much mind.
She’s grown distant of late, a result of constant pining after Zagreus. But I can’t blame her. It’s hard to be alone again after knowing human touch.
Personal God
There’s something about being his own personal god,
stuck up on a pedestal that for once in your life
isn’t of your own devising,
that disturbs you more than it has any right to.
Some days you wonder if perhaps it’s worth it
to demand tribute of the silly love-sick loon.
And perhaps it would be, if he hadn’t already
given you everything he had and more.
Right down to the soul.
Some days you wonder which is more shameful,
that you’ve let him get this far in stripping
himself of his dignity,
or that you’ve so thoroughly enjoyed it.
There’s something about that pedestal,
something that’s gone to your head and isn’t
much likely to be letting go before one or
both of is disturbed from this reverie.
Memories
It’s hot as hell outside,
and yet you’re still shivering in the caustic embrace
of a woolen scarf you knitted yourself all those years ago,
back when aqua green and neon pink seemed like
decent colors to be seen wearing in public.
And yet, you aren’t wearing it for the warmth,
despite your shivering, so much as for what it represents.
The days gone past are caught up in that scarf
with the stench of soured ambitions and new-found love.
Perhaps those days were better,
you aren’t really qualified to tell.
And besides, the contents of the memories
are nearly as important as the reminiscense.
The Rock
You think for a while that’s he’s the rock
keeping you grounded, keeping you sane,
while your mind makes grand sweeping gestures across the universe
to lands unknown and not always worth knowing.
But it becomes clear when he’s clutching you arm
in the middle of the night, when there’s
no one else around, that any thoughts you may have had
before, regarding who the rock is, were wrong.
It’s you who’s keeping him grounded, keeping him sane,
though his mind isn’t making nearly the gestures your’s is.
Why? I imagine it’s because he’s frigtened that, the second
he let’s go, his anchor will just float away.
Musical Confusion
Music isn’t all that important
when your fingers are fumbling for purchase
on keys that–after all of this time–really
ought to be more familiar than that.
Emotions lose meaning
when the only one’s that you’re feeling
are resentment at the writer
(for targeting you, of all people)
and maybe a little confusion.
Unfinished, but I don’t much care.
Broken
To be constantly indecisive is,
in most cases, not much of a boon.
But considering this temper of his,
I see the truth comes out almost too soon.
To have known love and lost it rends the heart
in neat little pieces, never repaired.
But lost love, found back again at the start,
is one that is not readily declared.
Chilly spring mornings spent out on the lawn
are perfect for declaring devotion,
but only if words, in between yawns,
can come from the mind and be given motion.
So it’s a wonder, my dear, that we’ve ever spoken,
The feelings are there, but the words are broken.
– – – – – – – –
I don’t suggest ever trying to compress the entirety of the teenage experience (at least of one night, or a series of them) into a single sonnet. Even so, on the whole I’m fairly pleased with this particular one. Aylin never fails to provide adequate fodder for my writing obsession, and Hazael never ceases to enjoy obsessing right alongside me.
The first kiss is always the hardest.
– – – – – – –
I had a dream a couple nights ago that I made out, quite extensively, with Kaoru. I am thoroughly disturbed by this dream, ever more so than some that could probably be considered stranger, because I woke up some minutes later completely disoriented. I turned out to be sprawled over a pull-out bed next to, you guessed it, Kaoru. I know for a fact that nothing happened. I was only dreaming, but my minor trauma remains.
(Parenthesis) 