Stained glass window

in a church

jesus staring at me

what have I done?

-

Look away, myth

I have nought to say

your stare should mean nothing

why doesn’t it mean nothing?

-

Is it my craving for community?

Wanting to hold hands and chant?

Oh lord of negative square roots,

banish thyself from my presence

-

If you are the lord of light

and the light is shining through your visage,

through your stomach,

are you a cannibal?

Not a great example of the kind of stuff I usually write, but it was nice to stray away for a bit.

I’m walking in the dark, eyes closed.

-

I’m only confused when they’re open.

-

I see the world through a filter,

an audaciously red screen.

-

Everyone else is holding

greyscale plates

before their eyes.

-

Through my audacious screen,

I see what the plates hide,

though thoroughly tinted pink.

Everything. Nothing.

Whatever.

-

I wonder, am I…

Sane or crazy?

Right or wrong?

Common or rare?

Good or bad?

Now or later?

Here or there?

Most importantly:

-

Does it matter?

There’s also a pattern here. MEGA kudos if you catch this one.

How do I do this?

I don’t know.

Do I try hard?

Do I try to change?

Emulate others?

Nothing makes sense.

-

Sometimes I can’t think.

Encircled with pain.

Containing my essence.

Really, I’m confused.

Entirely tired.

Things aren’t themselves.

Something has to change.

Kudos if you can read between the lines.

Oh, my sweet Caribou gift card…

You have let me buy many treats

my sweet, sweet, coffee,

given from you, my plastic fairy godmother

-

I may recharge you

and use you again

but I wonder if that would

insult your original sacrifice

-

So tell me, you

depleted plastic pick-me-up,

will you buy me coffee again?

Or would you rather rest in peace,

with a chocolate covered espresso bean tombstone?

My teacher told us to write another ode…

After the long, obtrusive day

where I was moving all the while

and a too short night 

where the movement didn’t stop

-

I take a nap.

-

After trying to find my homework

coming to the conclusion I hadn’t done it

And the next day finding it between the pages

of the textbook of that very class

-

I take a nap.

-

Oh, the nap…

The gracious, 20 or so minutes

that calms me down

and prepares me for the 13th round

-

…after which I take a nap.

-

The modest nap

not trying to compete with sleep

just trying to help if it can

I usually need one, so

-

I take a nap.

-

And after my dad yells at me

for laying around the house all day

and not getting my chores done

there I see him

-

taking a nap. 

My English teacher told me to write an Ode. So I did.

Although it seems I see the sun so high

It does not see me for I am a speck

To say we know each other is to lie

For I’m less than mosquitos on the neck

-

Its rays do fly and fall upon my face

But light reflect cannot go quite as far

If I was close for visage to be taste’d

With burns my face would show an awful mar

-

So tempt me not to show my love for light

For light should be in every sane man’s heart

If t’was all that composed it, none would fight

And earth would be all filled with works of art

-

So tilt your head to sky and take a breath

And hold that light inside you ‘til your death

I think this one has the most interesting back story. It was really late at night, and I was so so tired. I started thinking, “what if I wrote a sonnet in my sleep? What would it be about?” And before I knew it, I had written the first few lines. I couldn’t leave it there, so I finished it.

That gentle brush of lips against my lips

A moment I do treasure, every time

A feeling worth enduring 40 whips

It leaves my mind a-shaken, heart sublime

-

You do not know what treasure that you hold

For it, I’d walk a thousand miles a day

The heat transferred from you kills dead my cold

and makes me want to have you ne’er away

-

But this great feel cannot last ‘til next light

for your lips must soon break away from mine

and then your body follows out of sight

your absence makes my mouth taste like old brine

-

I’m left with that great shade of pink as thought

and I wish for your stay that I had fought

After a date I went on, I had gotten a kiss on the cheek. Here’s what it inspired.

The day has come for me to tell the truth

the silence I have let grow far too long

I’ve wanted you since we met in my youth

And now I say on two-and-ten late gong:

-

I wish for days to start with you and me

and have them end precisely as they start

we could partake in constant reverie

there’d be no need to live by some old chart

-

So take my hand and let me show you true

how I’d treat you more great than those before

for they, those scum, were only using you

and would have left for any random whore

-

So now there’s but one thing for you to say

I’d give you all if you tell me I may.

After writing so many sonnets, my English teacher told me that historically, they are about trying to convince someone to love you. So I wrote this one.

The love I have for you will never die

No matter what you do or think or say

you truly are the apple of my eye,

I’d spend my time with you all night or day

-

you make me feel as whole as one can be

and fill me with your gaze so pure and deep

The fact that you are even friends with me

does make me wish that you were mine to keep

-

I sit and think and try to find a path

‘twould lead me to your side, us hand in hand

but thoughts like this cause me to feel my wrath

and know that place is not an honest land

-

So I will sit and dream my hopeless dream

but lo, at death it’s your name I will scream

This was written in 3 minutes for a girl who is as to me as it says. And, needless to say, it had a very small impression.

It’s been a while since I had my last date

And here you come to sweep me off my feet

Before I thought my love life had been late

But now you raise me to that of elite

-

You and I embraced and spinning slow

We’re with ourselves and have our own small choir

I look and see my old sad self below

Attempting to climb over some barbed wire

-

Moments filled with joy all fill my day

And barely are you ever off my mind

I’m always thinking of what I should say

To hopefully not lose you, my great find.

-

You are my savior and what I have craved

So now I thank you for having me saved

Inspired by a girl who ended up taking me to prom.