This is a collection of poems I’ve written in the past couple of years. Inspired by people, movies, random epiphanies, and prompts given by friends, there is a range of work from reflection, depression, and insanity, to satire, comedy, and futurism. I’ve tried to give the pictures and notes wherever I can, for a little extra context.
Headlines and Footage
I'm a good person
A good, kind person
But that's not what the headlines say
“He's too mysterious”
It makes me delirious
To read accusations every day
He has the same face
I can't seem to trace
Where I was the night it transpired
I know that's my coat
But I didn't board that boat
I never saw the shot get fired
I go out with friends
I don't play pretend
I laugh and joke until tears fall
I see the blood drip
I see the body slip
Everyone too horror-struck to call
I fled the village
I watch the footage
The car pulls into the station
It happened so slow
How was I to know
My own mind would be my damnation
Rain on my tea party
And as I reached for the last sipOf my burning, dark sweet tea
I saw the edges start to drip
As its colour was set free
At least it won’t stain the tablecloth
Its flowers washed and soaked the same
As your mug of coffee, nearly goth
Your lack of sweetness is a shame.
And then
The rain came pouring down…
Revolution
Why don’t we change this flawed world of change
When all believe it unfair and unjust?
When the wrongs are of a much wider range
Than the rights in which none can place their trust?
Reading long books of dystopian hell
Honestly, don’t you see we are falling?
Though to believe, we have been raised well
That the future is safe and it’s calling
But we know to change; we’re not so naive
We all need to rise to unlock the cage
In futuristic dreams we cannot believe
It’s not safe and the world could be a stage
So please raise your hand, your glass, and your voice
Only together do we have a choice.
The Art of Losing
“Everything you lose is a step you take.”
It’s easy to say, it’s true
But that’s what causes hearts to break
Why should it, if you know it will?
“It doesn’t,” but you know it did
Now there’s another void to fill.
“You’re going to lose things all your life.”
You learn not to get too attached
But you really, truly loved that knife.
Eyes well up; caught on a frame
It’s been almost three months, move on.
Laugh, but still don’t speak the name.
“Did you hear he crashed and burned?”
You force a sympathetic “no.”
The art of losing you think you’ve learnt.
“None of it mattered anyway.”
The art of losing is apathy.
Your mind could not lead you astray.
Now, always, you expect to lose.
Not feeling for your loss, evade
Notice not the burning fuse
Burns till your facade collapses
“Loss cannot be numbed forever.”
Wispy, spelled out in the ashes
“Everything you lose is a step you take.”
If only a little, but it fractures just the same
And that’s what causes hearts to break.
The art of losing you think you’ve learnt.