EmilyBuchanan

I usually write poems but felt this fit better more as a prose poem/short story. The second person narration is also an experiment for me. I would love to know if it works.

Story

Comment

The bass rattles my ribcage;

Dislodges a bone;

Pierces my heart.

The blood splatters inside me.

I want you to travel inside me

To see the crimson flow;

To read each stem as if they were

Tea leaves or tarot cards.

But you stay outside,

And my skin is not translucent.

My injury is my secret.

It will heal

Or it will fester.

And you will never know.

1 2

I think someone visited my family tree.

They studied every branch

And cut them away, one by one

Till only the trunk remained.

Now no bird rests on me;

No squirrel climbs on me.

My roots stay steadfast

But they are hidden in the ground;

No one remembers them.

All they see are the stumps;

All they do is lament the loss

Of the leaves, flowers, fruits.

All I do is evoke pity,

And they avert their gaze

Till I stand alone.

I think someone visited my family tree.

But I’m not even sure, anymore.

1 [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/7bg7ur/the_predestined_eve

My Friday night
Is dew under me,
Darkness around me.
The cruel wind blows,
Cuts ribbons in my skin
Like how your breath once
Caressed me.

 

The dew must have
Seeped through my skin,
Travelled up my veins,
And welled in my eyes.
For now it carves lines
Down my face.
You knew these lines so well.

 

Clouds break and
The moon is forced out.
Its light shines down.
I turn towards it and it
Warms my ribboned skin,
Dries my wet cheeks.
We see the same one.
Feel the same one.
That’s something, I guess.

 

My Friday night
Is over, now.
I wonder how yours went.

 

[1](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/commen

My thoughts, they scurry away,
I clamber toward them
Trying to catch them,
To calm them down.

I think of myself as rational,
But I chew nails to the bone,
Run hands along polished wood,
Salute magpies.

It's a way of keeping control,
But I only succeed in losing it.
Losing it to senseless actions.

If only I could escape my thoughts!
But my thoughts are all I have left
When I believe the rest of the world
Is out to get me.

Thoughts, nails, wood, magpies,
I am caught in this hurricane.
Thoughts, nails, wood, magpies,
Are all that I am.

These thoughts, they enclose me.
I try to escape them,
They are not mine,
I can't calm them down.

Feedback: [

I breathe easy when I see you,
Spires dreaming.
Touch the sky, caress the blue.
I see you in me.

Feelings blur and
Emotions hit.
There’s nothing quite like
Knowing where you belong.

A smile spreads as I
Walk your familiar streets.
I always knew them,
Had them mapped in my brain,
My veins an ordinance survey map
Of alleyways and cul-de-sacs.
I never arrived because
I was already here.

I breathe easy when I see you,
Spires dreaming.
I can’t leave, I must stay
For
I see me in you.

Reviews: https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/6cb0t2/life_expectancy/dhtc5l1/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/6cb432/a_deep_sigh/dhtdlxp/