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All smiles and          
lies. It's just not        
right. There's still    
time to make it          
mine. Take up the    
blame, I'm still the    
same. One of the bad
guys, I'm not very      
nice.
Justin S Wampler Jan 2024
I don't know what to say,
or what you want me to say.
I don't want to just say
what you want me to say.
I just want to float.

Salty ripples
lapping at my sides,
squinting at
the summer sunshine.

When I close my eyes,
I'm
there.

Stop peeling up my lids,
don't make me look
at this... this,
this bottomless pit
sunken into my skin.

I don't know what to say,
I just don't want to,
okay?

Ah, but it seems my preferential tendencies
are rendered sundered and inadequate
by your overwhelmingly imposing emotions, and it's like they never ******* mattered
one ******* bit to begin with,
did they?

I'll keep that in mind
for next time.
I'll know just
what
to say.
Justin S Wampler Jul 2022
Men that won't eat *****
are just ******* in disguise.
Justin S Wampler Jul 2014
well this keyboard is intimidating
but jeez i can't keep
using a pen forever
so what if it's more
comfortable?

This poem looked better
When it was
Written down.
Justin S Wampler Apr 2015
I desperately need someone to ****,
both literally
and metphorically.
Justin S Wampler Aug 2020
The wind blows
Carrying a cloud of sand
Like a thousand little razors

It feels
It feels like pins and needles
It feels like waking up
     To something that's been here
          All along.
Justin S Wampler Aug 2015
Three shots and I'm free.
Five cigarettes filled with regret.
Two miles home.
Three more hours of being awake,
then comes time for dreams.
Justin S Wampler Mar 2015
Look how I care
Look how I pour
Look at what I share
Look how there's more
Look at the newsfeed
Look at internet ******
Look how people breed
Look at ISIS gore
Look at mirrors
Look for new wars
Look beyond years
Look at the poor
Look for your peers
Look inside drawers
Look behind you
Look down at the floor
Look nothing's new
Look at the front door
Look for the parts
Look inside your
Looking-glass heart
Close your eyes


.
Justin S Wampler Feb 2019
what's it really matter though?
take my hand,
this is my revenge.
Justin S Wampler May 2015
everything
everything is a bruise
painted and dyed
black and blue

and I'm tired of
I'm so tired of the light
please feed me darkness
I've got blackened blues

with purple and yellow
and green sometimes too
broken blood vessels
just make me miss you
Justin S Wampler Nov 2022
Lies and deceit are a heavy spritzing of perfume,
truth and honesty are a rotting carcass in the ditch.


Both are bitter and sickly-sweet to my nose,
and if my eyes are going to water either way
then what does it even ******* matter.
Justin S Wampler Jun 2015
I think she forgot to look both ways
before crossing my mind one day,
for now she is but a bloodstain
upon my memory.

I feel she was beaten to death,
one brutal pulse at a time,
by the last heart attack
that I suffered.

But sometimes the daydreams take
me away from this atmosphere,
and the shadows from Saturn's rings
form her name in space.

As I spill my coffee,
alone.
Justin S Wampler Jul 2016
I just can't stop
replaying it in my head
over and over
again and again.

Soaked sneakers and Jesus,
I felt like a god
and tasted heaven
on your lips.

The sweat sheet cleaned
our muddy feet
and then I found myself
in your hips.
Justin S Wampler Jan 2021
I'm in a state
Of constant disbelief,
As I look at your face
Peering out from under the sheets.

I'm comfy,
Let's stay
Right here
All **** day.
Bye, Bella.

The amount of pain we feel
is in direct correlation
with how much love we had for you.

How much love you had
for us.

I know you wouldn't want us crying,
but
you've got to understand.

It's been building in us ever since
the first time
you put your paw in our hands.
Justin S Wampler Nov 2021
I think about my next drink
because I drink so I don't have to think.
I'm so over these hours spent sober,
when will this sober be over?
I take a nip but the bottle bites back,
I bite the bottle and I chew up the glass.
I'm never hung over with dread
because responsibilities hang over my head.
I know what I need to do,
do you know that the ***** needs me too?
In a bittersweet twist of fate
for every drink that I take
the drink takes a sip out of me,
and although I've plenty ***** left
my mind's now mostly empty.
Justin S Wampler Apr 2015
Look how famous I am!
Extray! Read all about it!
.



'How to get likes' was the original title,
this will probably flop.
Justin S Wampler Nov 2018
When I wrung out the sweat
it went and stained the carpet,
like when I found that dead cat
and took it in as my pet.

Then I lied to the landlord
said "I don't smell it a bit"
but the bugs gave me away,
too many flys and maggots.

Walking down these dark streets
never going too far,
looking for an empty seat
at any ******* dive bar.

Slugging now, I don't sip,
I ain't got time to not drink,
when drunkenly I trip
and the bottle breaks in my lips.

So now I eat up bits of glass
and they splinter in my gums,
and my teeth start to crack
as I wait for day to come.
Justin S Wampler Dec 2020
Years of flipping through them,
Torn pages filled with photos
And things.

Must've thrown them away
At some point,
Maybe recently.

The book was in the cupboard,
The photos were in the book,
She was in the photos in the cupboard in the book.

It was there for years,
And years and years,
Every time I looked.

Now they're gone, and I'm not sure where
They may have ended up, but...
I don't really care.

Because sometimes it takes
A little letting go
To let the past fade out,
And to focus on tomorrow.

My bird returned home,
Only not in photo form.
Those photos may be gone
But now there's time for more.
Justin S Wampler Aug 2022
Lost a piece of a me
amidst this life
of stable work
and responsibility.

Gone are the days
that I slept the sun away.

Gone are my nights
of staying awake.

I was reckless, and a blowhard fool.

Wandering that veiled path
of apathy and altered mindsets
robbed me of my love for family.
But it granted me words,
I found poems everywhere
while lost in that haze
of clouded adolescence.

I wanted to be Bukowski,
I wanted to be Keidis.
I wanted to be Dylan.

I gaze back at myself sometimes,
the boy I used to be.
The twenty-something ****-up
that hadn't a dime to his name,
that hadn't a care in the world.
I gaze back and wonder
if there was a piece of me there
that got lost in the transition
between boyhood and man.
Something left behind that
used to truly define what
I believed in and
what believed in me.
Justin S Wampler Mar 2015
he's pacing under there, cant you hear?
It started with a knife,
light chopping. Hunting for a seam.
Up on the counter now,
cleaving more vigorously.

It stood fast,
hardened hairy shell
mocking me bitterly.

I went from a chop
to a stab,
the knife bent
and it rolled off with a laugh.

Away I stormed,
with one thing in mind.
I returned and in my claw
was a hammer of the same kind.

Poised again, the countertop
now begging me to stop,
I started to swing and
it was more effective than the chops.

A crack here, a glancing blow.
Water splashed out
to and fro.

When at last I found a seam
just large enough to
force my fingers between.

With a mighty grunt and roar,
finally in twain;
the fortified fruit I tore.

Sweating and bleeding I sighed,
no wonder people stranded
on deserted islands die.
Justin S Wampler May 2023
Annoyed and whiny little fools.
All led astray with their keen writing tools.
Moan and ***** enough and you'll see
that my poetry isn't for you, it's for me.

So *******, **** your talent and charm.
Go write your feelings out and drown
amidst this ocean of mediocrity.

******* all.
Worthless people.
Spew your trite.
I'll spew mine.
Let's ignore each other
for the rest of time.
Justin S Wampler May 2014
I have no...
(self-boundaries)
...means of changing.

It's not my fault, I...
(place blame)
...didn't mean to lie.

Why should I try, I will...
(believe in nothing)
...eventually die.

All the underground people...
(your ancestors and mine)


...Do they remember
Being alive?
Justin S Wampler Jun 2015
I'm laughing
but it's not really funny how
the ones who make you the happiest
can also make you the saddest.

Exploitation of vulnerability,
just never get too comfortable
because the day will come when
it'll be time to move on.

And if you chose to linger
in that never-world of lost love,
then getting used to broken springs
is the key to dreaming again.
Justin S Wampler Aug 2014
The only pain worth my time
is broken-heart kind
Justin S Wampler Oct 2016
I just want to sing

about everything

and smile and smile.
Justin S Wampler Dec 2021
We were a trio.
Gone together,
mentally alone.

90's alternative had been playing for maybe
three-quarters of an hour, and at this point
we were all mostly toasted.
A shot of beer a minute.

Talking ****, shuffling the deck.

Nick laughed, Luke mocked.
I cheered them both on.
In that moment we all lived in the golden light
of youthful ignorance and concrete friendship
that can only be fully grasped by a drunken trio of guys
in their mid-twenties at 2:00 AM on an idle Thursday night.

We all cracked fresh cold ones and lit up fresh cigs,
and I raised the burning tobacco in a toast:
"To friendship!"

Luke matched my pose, left arm outstretched.
We caught each other's eyes, and without missing a beat
his right hand plunged the cherry into his left forearm.
I looked down and saw myself doing the same,
yet felt no pain. We stayed that way until our embers died,
and relit the remaining smoke off of a shared flame.
Nick never matched our level of commitment,
I doubt he even bears a scar these days.
My scar still itches from time to time.
I wonder if Lukes does, too.

Eventually
I started seeing tunnels
and soon, gravity took me.
Horizontality was my fate.
I was the first to fall,
the first to succumb to gratuitous consumption.

...

Birds chirping, deafening in the late morning.
The angry sun cast slotted beams
through the still-lingering twines
of cigarette smoke from the night before.
I watched it slowly twirl and stir through slitted eyelids.
My eyes hurt, and my neck creaked as I looked around.
Nick passed out beside me, I figured Luke got the top bunk.
In the daylight I could always see the apartment for what
it really was.
An escape.
One room, bunk beds, and abject emotional destitution.
I rolled over on to the floor and steadied myself with
closed eyes and a palm planted on the ***** carpets.
My phone was on the desk in the corner, I grabbed it
and headed towards the bathroom.

**** cascaded, and through the open bathroom window
I could hear it echo off of the buildings lining New Street.
My hand floated up to the back of my head
and picked at something. Something hardened.
There was a thick layer of something
on the back of my scalp,
down the back of my neck.
It felt like wax.
We were burning a candle last night.
They must've dumped it on me
since I was the first to fall asleep.
I quit picking when I was struck by a sharp pain in my arm,
my left forearm.
A bit of my hair had probed an open wound,
a round burn mark.
I sat down on the floor and remembered for a bit.

My phone turned on with a melodic series of beeps,
it had been awhile since I turned it on.

One new voicemail.

I dialed the number 1 while picking wax from my hair,
put my passcode in,
and listened.

Mom called me last night, she was crying.
I was used to that sound at this point.
"Otis wont get up, I think he's dying Justin."
A brief pause.
"Please come home."






I'm sorry Otis. I loved you.
More than a dog, you were a canine brother.
Raised alongside me.
Raised by the same parents.

I didn't come home,
at least,
not then.
Seven years.

I still think about that night,
That morning.
That mourning.

My scar itches.
Justin S Wampler Sep 2014
I wish to burn
I live to die
I yearn to drown
in flooded light

I see the end
I hear a cry
The taste of copper
blood that's mine
Justin S Wampler Jul 2022
What if?

Plague of thought,
those words are.

Love is everything,
the only thing
that's ever mattered.

Yet I'm still fascinated
on whether
love's ever been
real or
not.
Justin S Wampler Mar 2015
Suddenly, violently, nothing changes and we
lock eyes in acknowledgement.
Justin S Wampler Jan 2021
The sharpened edge of light
Cuts through lofty clouds,
Like a bite taken out of cotton candy,
And shines with a boding, ochre imminence
Of the day that's to come.

Breath comes out
In puffs of coiling steam,
Is this reality
Or is this just a dream?

Reach for a hand
Passing by in a stream,
Do they need help
Or are they at peace?

The blunted darkness of night
Bludgeons the solemn crowds,
Like a buffeting storm of sand,
And it washes away all innocence
To expose what's been done.
Justin S Wampler May 2021
Buy as much paint as you want.
Everyone will don a coat of rust.
It ends up stylish, dark,
red and robust.
But,
buy as much paint as you want.
Justin S Wampler May 2023
Hey Candy and Chris
can't you see that this
ain't no way to spend the day?
The slots' bright lighting
make the light inside her
fade, fade away.

J-J-J-Jenny and the bets.

Hey! Don't waste it away
the years come and don't stay
when you're spinning that roulette.
Still she sits down beside them
filling up on the tidal
feelings that she gets.

J-J-Jenny

Jenny

Jenny

Jenny Jenny Jenny Jenny

Jenny and the bets.
Justin S Wampler May 2015
"When first I opened this book, I felt the pain of it's spine beginning
to break. Although this may be my initial entry, I dread the day that
the binding gives way & spills the golden-edged pages unto my lap.
What a curse to envision death before we've yet to even begin living,
what a tragedy to squander and waste this time that I've been given."
(11-29-2012)
Justin S Wampler May 2015
Glass betrays my eyes,
for I do not see what lies
beyond the window.

I gaze solely upon
my own faint reflection.
Justin S Wampler Feb 2021
O, mem'ries.
'Member when?
This again.

Morning's mourning,
when death arrives:
I'll be ready.
I've imagined it already,
a thousand times.

They, they're, still alive
but for what?
Like he's just waiting to die.

My father, grand father,
I'm a busy guy.
Is it selfish?
Am I?
Justin S Wampler Aug 2014
Strobe-lights flashing rhythmic patterns;
alternating red and blue.

Searchlights arcing across the earth;
they will find you.
Justin S Wampler Jun 2022
If you ditch your kid,
every day is father's day!

Or maybe none of them are.

Happy father's day Dad,
you schizophrenic loner.
I want to be just like you!
Look at how I've spent the last ten years of my life!
Squandering opportunities,
drinking myself stupid,
and going out of my way
to be alone.

I know you'd be proud, because honestly
I'm just jealous of your freedom.
Do you sleep well?
Are you still
sick?

Mom's dead, by the way.
I guess you kinda are
too.
Justin S Wampler May 2014
The sunlight you radiate
burns off bits of dense fog
that seems to coat the memories I have
of all the time we spent in love
then I see the pain in your eyes
and the scars that I've left behind
all over your heart
and in your mind
that's when I realized
that it was I
who wrapped the memories up in mist
to mask the sensation of warmth
and pretend that you weren't even missed
because you deserve to be happy
and I deserve to be in this twist
where another boy's lips
are the ones that you kiss.
Justin S Wampler Jul 2016
There's a thunderstorm in the sunlight
beneath the sky we share.
Yet it just doesn't seem quite right
without having you here.

So I'll make do just killing time
waiting for the rain to quit,
because once I can call you mine
I'll be happy that I did.

Then we can scour the earth
in search of those bright grey days
that made the wait worth
spending it alone in the rain.
Justin S Wampler Jul 2015
now this website
is just like reality,

whomever has the
most expendable income
becomes the most known
SHINE LIGHT ON THIS, *******
*******
GO DIE IN A FIRE
Justin S Wampler Apr 2015
Kneeling before me
she played with her ****
while leaning her head back,
running her tongue out
and closing her eyelids.

Thus I covered her
with the essence of
my meager manhood.
Justin S Wampler Feb 2017
Each and every word
that flows from
her mind to her mouth,
washes over me
like the waves of
an electric ocean,
the current undeniable
in it's ability to move
my body and soul
to unknown places.

I smile my teeth out
and squint my eyes
as her electric love
beats down upon me
like a radiating sun.
Justin S Wampler Aug 2016
Only two more hours of work
on this rainy Thursday afternoon,
and with each step I take
I check the clock
and between my heavy breathing
I mutter to myself with a smile:
"today can't escape tomorrow."

...

Sunday morning and we eat like royalty,
I'm all smiles and her eyes are all over me
and with these empty plates between us
I tell her I don't want this day to end,
and as a longing grin shows on her lips
she so eloquently says
"but today can't escape tomorrow."
Justin S Wampler Mar 2015
A generation force-fed beautiful lies
more desirable than their own lives.

Touchscreen dreams and virtual societies
keep the mass' minds dry and occupied.

Their bodies malnourished and deprived
from all of those
delicious GMOs

Wake up, humanity, and
smell the final rose.
Justin S Wampler Apr 2015
I walked in with my **** swinging
and it got caught in the doorjamb.

I know that ***** stole my lighter,
so I tell her:
"Empty your pouch, you ******* kangaroo *****."

But all she had was a japanese napkin,
and pounds and pounds of makeup.
The beauty of a vast field
covered in rippling waves
of budding, golden grain.

Offset only by its uninviting notion.


Lovely to look at.
Hell to walk through.



Like much in life.




Like your eyes.






Like my mind.
Justin S Wampler Mar 2016
It's so easy to be kind to people,
the hard part is actually meaning it.

Is it better to be revered,
or just left alone?

I don't know.
I am the singularity,
a golden omniscience
granted unwavering clarity
over all that passes
through my eyes.

I am God of my life.
I blink,
and everything is gone.

I sleep,
and everything is gone.

I'm right,
and everyone else is wrong.

It's exhausting.
It never ends.
I merely humor you all,
that's why I'm always laughing.
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