I create poetry
by the car crashed juxtaposition
of thought and language.

I create poetry via metaphor,
metonymy, a slight wit.

I create poetry by the
beating and bastardization
of word until the line
breaks just right.
It never truly does.

You create poetry
in your every movement.

You create poetry in the
interaction and absolution
you carry within every waking
moment.

You create poetry only
by opening your beautiful
eyes each morning as
the sun rises eagerly
to see you.

You create poetry.

This, my pale
imitation.

i'm about to finish a puzzle,
completing a portrait
to give me peace.
when the puzzle,
I soon find,
is broken;
there's a spot
with a missing piece.

the whole picture seems ruined
by the hole,
the hole
where something should be.
incompleteness
that once was masked
is now apparent
for all to see.

I open up the box
and find its contents
have been taken.
the piece that has been stolen
left the puzzle with no ending.
I draw out a replacement
as perfect as I can imagine,
but the hollow representation
cannot match
what once was.

I retrace all the steps I took
to get me to this point.
each puzzle piece which I had put
in order to make it work.
the last of all,
the one needed,
the one to complete me,
was given to the one who
needed it more
than I could give.

she has my final puzzle piece
and I have hers as well,
and I would gladly hand it over
time and time again.

she has my missing puzzle piece
and I have hers as well.
neither of our portraits can be complete
without the other's help.
and though this makes it difficult
to carry on as before,
I find the best puzzles require
more than just oneself.

[ARH]

i'm holding your breath
so you won't leave me
and i see you slowly suffocating 
i'm too selfish to let go
so instead i suffer with you
i feel your lungs straining
and i ask you to take me in
like i'm the last drag
of your last cigarette 
let me fill your collapsing lungs
the ones that are crumbling into each other
the way we did
i was always your nicotine
and you always knew 
i'd be the end of you
but you couldn't quit me
i always knew
this would end
i'm an addiction out of style
we always knew
we would consume each other
in the worst of ways
so i'll tear you apart
from the inside out
we've always known 
that the smoke in your lungs
has my name on it
i've become a disease
i guess that makes me cancer
or at least 
something just as vile
just as ruthless 
just as deadly
just as selfish 
at least you'll remember me
i guess that all describes me
and i guess the smoke 
describes you too
and it describes us
how we drifted into each other
stealing parts of one another
and setting off again
losing ourselves
but gaining new parts
and maybe the point
is losing yourself in another 
but if we're the smoke
then we're the cancer
we're just as vile
just as ruthless 
just as deadly
just as selfish

[holyoak]

I lived on an island
in the sea.
Along with me
were others
who lived peacefully.
We sang songs
to remember things
nobody cared about,
all so we could forget
our complacency
with our whereabouts.
Yet we found ourselves
surrounded by the sea.

Some brave souls ventured
into the deep,
and more and more people proclaimed,
"Follow me."
Yet I believed they
were drifting in too deep.
Mindless people
were all I could see.
As for me,
I tried desperately
to cling to land
as the sand
held my memory
and my hopes
were held
in the palm
of my hand.
Both man and woman
exited the island
for promise of
betterment.
"Better to be lost
In the desert of one's
mind,
than in the
waves of the water",
I reminded myself
plenty of times.
I did not want
to fall,
fall away.
Why enter the sea
of storms,
and heartbreak?
One by one,
my brothers and sisters left.
As I saw them leave
I realized
I was dead.
With every breath
I took,
with every time
I shook.
I looked
at the reflection
in the water
and realized
I merely existed
in this world.
Did I even matter?
I decided to venture out myself,
not for others
as a sheep to slaughter,
but as a soul divided
hungering for self worth.
I would not stay here
and let my fears
consume my years.
If I failed at least I could say
I was not led astray.
I took my ship
and set out to sea that day.
I sailed all through
the night.
I sailed with no
clear end in sight.
I began to doubt
there was purpose.
Suddenly I did not want to be there anymore.
I had gone too far I had been too slow.
As the storm began I started to regret leaving the shore.
I could have just stayed down
there and wondered
without end or change.
I could have just laid down
and never floated away.
Through the fear and the hopes
I realized it's all the same.
I'd be saying I'm sorry
all my life,
and in the end
I looked towards
sinking my sorrow
along with myself.
As I gave up my hopes I heard a voice inside my head.
"What if I told you there was a promise you had made?"
The waves crashed violently into my vessel.
"What if I told you this was not the end?"
A vague memory
passed through my head
as my sinking ship
lowered to its end.
I remembered my brother
the one who had led the way.
I remembered we knew each other
and our hopes were to meet again.
I remembered what he had said.
"Follow me instead."
I regretted my inhibition
and my doubts as I drowned.
"I'll take the grave in your place."

I woke up on an island
in the sea.
I asked the man next to me
where we had been,
and where we had gone.
He said,
"This is the place you've been searching for all along,
where all your blood is washed away,
and all you did will be undone."

you're the kind of girl
that they write books about
i always thought you were fiction
but i can't even remember
the last time i finished a good book
i always drop it at the ******
maybe it's because
we never reached ours
speaking of not being able to finish things

[holyoak]

You say you're proud you're clean today
Yet you go back to your old ways
I look at you and see it's a reflection
Of my selfish days and
I realize it's me who's changed
There's two of us inside my head
Fighting for the chance to live
A wolf inside of my own brain
No wonder it's so difficult
This war within my mind I wage
No wonder I can't even think
Straight when the two halves of my heart Decide to break apart and
All I'm left with is the broken parts
Lying on the asphalt
Freeway crashes in my head
Locomotives in my brain
Is it my thoughts or is it a migraine
It's all the same
I'm on a train
Going no specific place
Failing
Derailing
I desperately want it to be a dream
Maybe if I stop thinking
It will all just go away
Drown my thoughts with mindless
Music so I lose track of the pain
Understand
My motives aren't insane
They're just a little out of place
I look at my reflection
I can't even recognize the face
Time to make amends
Attempt to fix the broken things
Shattered pieces vaguely
Remind me of all the times my wings
Failed me
I need somebody to save
We can get a little crazed
When we don't know when to stop
And I will crack open Pandora's box
And let the contents out
Right about the hour that I find the clock
has lost it's power
Sour consciousness distracts me from the task that is at hand
Focus on the destination
And enjoy the journey
It will never go as planned
But we can plan to make it worth it

[ARH]