Poems & Takeaways—the end of our Poetry unit (Tues)



7 responses to “Poems & Takeaways—the end of our Poetry unit (Tues)”

  1. Jumbled Words
    Words don’t slip off my tongue like water
    They crash like waves of words
    stuck in my throat
    Like a dog eating peanut butter
    My saliva a gooey substance
    Prohibiting words from forming
    Sometimes words can be spoken
    But there is a disconnect
    the brain and the voice
    lost in transit
    to the mouth
    words are uttered incorrectly
    a mess of
    Half sentences
    Speaking
    Becomes meaningless when
    It can not be understood
    Silence speaks louder

    (sorry if the structure gets messed up when I post this)

  2. Boyish

    A pretty blonde becomes an apex predator
    Hungry for shirtless boys in Georgia humidity
    His rock-hard muscles, bronzed and bruised
    She aims and fires Cupid’s southern shotgun hit

    Fantasies of biting crimson into his exposed neck
    Backs soaked by the damp football field
    Lips locked hungry, pleated skirt hiked up
    She awakes battered and deserted in a haze of dewy dawn.

    A teenage whore bobs along the waves of an indigo lagoon
    Body freckles into iridescent scales and jagged fangs,
    Full blood moon, Athena looms over
    She absorbs the fossilized pain of a sea-born siren

    Hunting throughout the swamps of slime
    She chases a rickety rowboat cradling
    A quarterback making his midnight escape
    Unhinging her jaw, unleashing her terror
    She ravages him into a red pool of
    sticky,
    sweaty,
    boyish mush.

  3. No more Honeymoons

    She used to like when he played with her jeans
    Tracing the seams
    Smoothly passing through
    Voicing out
    Every cut and blend
    With no interruptions
    He continued

    She wore the same pair
    A light-wash denim pair
    And every time he found something new

    Mid-rise

    They see each other every day,
    He traces the seams every day
    Like the grooves on a tire
    Worn down with every pass
    She never thought much about it when home

    He plays with her jeans
    Tracing the seams
    Little rips slowing him down,
    Sometimes his finger gets caught
    In the frayed ends,
    Hurts her when it tugs,
    More strings come out

    His mouth opens,
    She thinks he’ll apologize,
    But he doesn’t say a thing

  4. If you want to be a good big sister

    If you want to be a good big sister,
    Be disgusted
    When your brother
    First shows his face into
    The world.
    Complain to your mother
    How you didn’t want a brother,
    And instead wished for a sister.
    As the days go by,
    Start to warm up to him
    But don’t admit it yet.
    When he’s older,
    Turn him into the sister that
    You never got to have.
    Dress him up,
    In all sorts of things:
    Dresses, skirts, skinny jeans and high heels.
    Paint his nails,
    Do his makeup,
    Put his hair up,
    Make him pretty.
    He might resist and complain,
    Cry out for Mom and even shed a few tears,
    But know deep down he loves the attention.
    Force him to come to your tea parties
    And make him gossip with Mrs. McStuffins.
    When he starts to grow
    Into his boy identity,
    Make him be the Ken to your Barbie,
    And force him to play with you and your dolls.

    If you want to be a good big sister,
    When your brother starts to get bigger
    Show him who is in charge,
    By showing him who is still bigger than him.
    Wrestle him,
    Tickle him,
    Shove him,
    Push his face into the couch and hold it there.
    Make him so mad and angry
    That he cannot yet beat you up.
    Say to him,
    “Maybe one day, little bro.
    But right now is not your time.
    Right now, I rule this house.”

    If you want to be a good big sister,
    Don’t let him turn into
    One of those normal teenage dirtbags.
    Show him what good music sounds like
    And get him to stop listening to that trashy techno music.
    Teach him Indie Rock,
    And Classic Rock,
    And all those genres that were on your Spotify Wrapped.
    Show him The Smiths,
    Clairo,
    Lord Huron,
    Arctic Monkeys,
    The Neighborhood,
    The Strokes
    And of course Taylor Swift.

    If you want to be a good big sister,
    Guide him through those hard years,
    Those years from 13-17.
    When he’s trying to find his own identity,
    But he doesn’t know where to start.
    Help him through his first break up,
    The one with the girl who cheated on him.
    He may be acting all tough,
    Not hurt,
    Unbothered,
    But know deep down that he needs you.
    He needs you to show him
    That its okay to feel his emotions:
    His sadness
    Heartbreak
    Anger,
    Betrayal,
    And eventually his hope.
    Show him that just because he is a boy,
    He doesn’t have to be tough,
    But can cry and ask
    “Why did she do this,
    What did I do?”

    If you want to be a good big sister,
    Show your brother how to treat a woman right:
    Respect her choices,
    Respect her body,
    No means no,
    Open doors for her,
    Buy her random gifts,
    Know that periods are hard for her,
    And always listen to her talk.
    But also show him
    how he should be treated in life
    As a strong and respectful man.
    He shouldn’t
    Be walked all over,
    But instead respected for his good manners.
    He shouldn’t
    Be expected to pay for every date,
    Or everything
    Just because he is a man.
    He should
    Be taken out,
    On dinner dates and more.
    He should
    Be pampered
    And cared for,
    And spoiled.
    He shouldn’t be denied true love
    Just because he is a man.

    If I want to be a good big sister,
    I just have to show my brother that it is okay
    To be a human and make mistakes.
    Eventually,
    Through all my torture and lessons,
    He will one day see me
    As the good big sister that I am.

    Takeaways: I had a great time in the poetry unit, which is something I honestly didn’t expect. I loved just getting to experiment with different structures and write random poems for the fun of it. Overall, my favorite unit.

  5. Circadian Rhythm

    Light strains from the only window
    Swallowed by the darkness seeping
    From the corners of the room
    A glimmer of sun streaks in, reflected
    From the pane of glass

    Not direct, in fact it’s beginning to set
    Rays that were never warm
    To begin with
    Instantly frozen by the biting air

    Time feels irrelevant
    No longer separated by days or hours
    Eyes first opening in the afternoon
    Not closing until morning

    You’re a distraction
    You’re turning me nocturnal
    It’s not natural
    For my eyes to stay closed
    Through the day
    My circadian rhythm has given up

    The room still smells like you
    From the other night
    One of the five senses
    That triggers memories and emotion

    It’s too late for coffee now
    The stars are in the sky

  6. “Forever”

    A girl I once knew
    gave me half of a heart that said “forever.” It lived on our chests and turned upside down when we cartwheeled and
    trampolined and danced.
    We spoke in tongues,
    ran until our lungs
    gave out & we hung, from

    trees and scraped our knees on the way down &
    historians would later
    decipher our words, confused. Rollie pollies bury in the cool of the dirt hiding in secret. We unearthed them. Butterflies flutter around the monkey bars that calloused our hands. We chased them.

    We filled a treasure chest, our secret, sacred vault that we passed back and forth to each other, containing letters that professed our undying love for each other and claimed “forever”—

    Another girl I knew gave
    me tips and tricks on how to perfect my punches. We got up at dawn to practice, ready to defend and depend on each other, until the end— we stressed over tests & our sweat dripped wet on the mat. & When it
    finished, I slept over where we painted our nails and drowned in sodas and sweets, surrounded by soft sounds of music playing distantly on her CD player— I sat next to a girl in computer class.

    She was A, I was B
    She was #1, I was #2. A match made in heaven.
    Later, our letters traveled over the Atlantic Ocean & maybe the Indian Ocean too because some she never received…so maybe a fish in the sea is reading pleas of “Come back please!” and has a piece of

    a picture of me in its teeth— I befriended a girl. We twisted and we wore our just-sewn pj shorts. The next day we shouted “Marco! Polo!” with a plastic tube sticking to my bare leg, we cooled off in

    the pool until our fingers
    and toes were pruned and the moon loomed in the sky. Unmoving, we just turned up the heat and took a seat leaving seedlings of tea, for the water to keep—
    I noticed a girl who walked through the breezeway. We twinned with long dark ponytails, she shouted in class and made everyone laugh distracting from the lesson on the U.S. presidents. One night she called me crying, sitting on her porch, locked out

    trying to make sense of
    her forever hell, so I cried with her, forever. I met this girl, soft, though I had not yet touched her, sweet though I’d never tasted her. We conversed as if continuing from where we left off in a past life. Like I said “See you later!” instead of “Bye”

    waves crash on the shore. I was the shore, existing under her waves, not noticing. Not noticing, even when we slept in my twin bed together on
    the weekends. The world shed frozen tears, but we

    played joyously in the
    snow. The snow, too slushy
    for it to form, so we just formed each other. I dive deep into her arms and see her chest, wearing half of my heart that says: forever

  7. Two Ghosts

    In this house, there is a ghost.
    He pays no rent, to my frustration,
    At least I live down by the coast.

    He’s sneaky when he steals my post,
    Impish as he stamps my vegetation.
    In this house, there is a ghost.

    Oh, and how he likes to boast
    Of his many years of education.
    At least I live down by the coast.

    Today he ate my honey toast,
    and asked about my isolation.
    In this house, there is a ghost.

    I’m forced to play reluctant host,
    As he meddles with conversation
    At least I live down by the coast.

    But what I hate the most
    is how he’s become an expectation.
    In this house, there is a ghost.
    At least I live down by the coast.

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