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183 · Sep 2020
Once over
Josh Sep 2020
Said "goodbye"
A thousand times
Tears long dried,
And lost in rhyme
Back to think if smoke could see
A blink sowed shut, that memory
But yet you linger,
A haunting float
I've cursed once over,
Once more than most
To accept the blame
A lost love friend
To taste the sour,
Never feeling again
181 · Feb 2020
Coffee and Her
Josh Feb 2020
She looks at me
Eyes glowing with relief
A grin, stretching to tomorrow
She looks at me
Touching her eye's with mine
As I,
Warmly invite my lips to hers
For a minute
It seems possible
That she,
and me
Might form we again
Just as she looks at me
180 · Jun 2019
Minnesota
Josh Jun 2019
Sitting on the shoreline,
Feet dangling free
Watching the loons fly
Their call echos to me  

Surrounded by Foliage
Covered in vast trees
The years gone by fast
As chipmunks come and flee

Woodpeckers rattle
Bonfires crackle and blaze
Mosquito zips past
Reminding of passing day

Water kissed,
Burnt, until orange bursts
How soft, the hue of purple is
Caressing the waters thirst

Life is drawn here
Right in fresh air breeze
So heavy, it acts as sedation
One to guide tired eyes to sleep

Sitting on the shoreline
Soul rested for the week
Caressed by nature’s touch
Until back home, I’m rushed to see
179 · May 2020
Flight of a Leaf
Josh May 2020
I can feel my eyes weighing down
Twisting and fluttering in stasis
Like being lost in a maze of rapid, never ending turns
All while traveling to a destination unknown
And I miss you
I miss you like I've never known
My hard-worn wings,
Confused and without a purpose
Waiting for the task of knowing
Dreaming of the day,
When we trace the outline of our own song
The weight
Sinking in my chest,
Bringing me to gravity's mercy
It's been years,
As I've been a lost leaf scattered amongst the wind and trees
Flowing through the air,
Refusing to land
175 · Jun 2019
She, the Tornado
Josh Jun 2019
she rips though,
dipping the sky black in despair,
the faint hiss in the distant air that is her greeting,
marks death for those who wait to see her closely
she wears a jet black skirt of debris,
as she spins her deadly dance across the marked land,
ripping and shredding
those who would try to court her
those poor souls,
bold enough to think that if they stare hard enough,
she might extend a merciful hand,
she never does,
she,
the deadly renegade mistress of the heavens,
spares no one
175 · May 2020
Insomnia's Touch
Josh May 2020
"Good night"
I should say,
But I can't,
Dream with
Lights and
Sounds
Blaring in my head
Until dawn
Breaks
Her breath's muse
173 · Apr 2019
Forever Fields
Josh Apr 2019
Wind bends the tips of grass
All down up and down the plain today
At twilight we dance,
Smiling to keep the rain away

You and I, alone at last
A caring mouth to take the pain away,
A warmth reluctant to pass
Together's end, never leads astray

Your eyes grow tired fast
Our blanket crafts a trusty place to stay
Before a few last laughs,
Starlight guides the dreary castaway

I'm still out there with you now,
Though, the years out lasted May
Those rolling hills, forever ours
Even with you gone and passed away
173 · Jul 2020
Collection of Numbers
Josh Jul 2020
Was the eight after the four?
Perhaps the three past the seven?
I take it time has changed,
Along with my memory

An encryption of numbers
Outlines a path of old feelings,
Leaving me wilted like a flower
With no sun

And if by chance,
The digits align
Would your tone lift up,
Or would I find a stranger, as perplexed as I?

Two,
No, Three
It has to be the pattern,
The right collection of numbers this time
172 · Feb 2020
Days in the dark
Josh Feb 2020
Everyday
The clouds bunch up
Glue themselves in place
and sit with the sun buried infinitely beyond

There I wait,
Staring sorely at the dial
Crawling it's way
Towards the end of the day
172 · Mar 2019
Pushover
Josh Mar 2019
I've dug you up again,
and I'm so tired of doing so
I've grabbed,
hand over fist at the dirt I've already laid, too
Shoes ruined and hands masked with black filth,
full of broken earth
Finger nails worn down to the pads of my finger tips from scratching to the depths of your roots
Every time I finally permeate the yards of disturbed soil
I see you,
Same clean face,
Confident and assured,
With fresh hair that smells of lavender
As always, you smile and thank me,
Just before you yawn of boredom and request I bury you all over again
169 · Nov 2023
The Meeting
Josh Nov 2023
"It's been a while"
She said, standing vacant
"I guess I crossed out the thought
of seeing you again"

Your lips, still young
I remember when we both were
Embraced in a hold of fate
That crumbled like an ember cast from the blaze

I stare quietly,
Eyes accusing with the same prejudice,
The wind and cold air entrap me in that old solitude
As you shine ever-bright,
the same

"It's good to see you", I say
Mustering a grin,
Knowing years have changed me,
As I turn and walk the other direction
166 · Mar 2020
Les Arbres
Josh Mar 2020
I hear a gentle tune
sweeping across the plain
With wind, carries the song of friendship from afar
I see such beauty in the green vastness in front of me,
Sun peering down through the window of blue sky

A shadowy dread clouds my thoughts
For the bond that was created so long ago
Still, I remember
When you passed through my arms
Down into the earth's hands
Your eyes faded to forever

The tune calls me back to you,
To remember what was lost,
To accept this reality
Of sun covered in smoke
harrowing over a war torn land

I hear a gentile tune, but lose sight of you now
As your face distorts over time
I can't picture your complexity,
But remember this melody
Sweeping into my skin as I drift off to sleep,
Hoping that when I wake,
I wake up home again
166 · Apr 2019
Tracing you
Josh Apr 2019
I love your lines,
Sweeping thin straps lain over the skin of your shoulders
Drawing my eyes to wish,
Like magic wells to quarters
Your breath touches my neck,
A pulse of electrical shudder
My hands are hounds,
Curious and starving—
Locked on the scent of what's under
163 · Sep 2019
Leaf
Josh Sep 2019
This leaf's life cycle is much like our own
it grows from a much more mature tree
blossoms and ages,
changes with the seasons,
explores and fly's with the wind,
and eventually,
withers into bits before it's absorbed back into the earth

I brought it to you
so you always know where to find me,
beyond the pines,
waiting to grow,
change,
fly,
and wither
with you
162 · Aug 2020
Fall Country
Josh Aug 2020
Someday we'll go
One and all, we'll know
Where fall jades meet garden spades
And luster leaves with orange glow

And through your eyes
A resting soul,
At last on these grounds
Where heaven's sold

A pillow for your heart,
And sweater for cold
Casting dreams to the stars,
As our lives unfold

As jade turns to bronze,
And finally bronze to gold,
The *****, laid down
As we lie on a blankets fold

The book will cast meaning,
With ours fingers linked bare,
Someday we'll go
One and all, we'll know
160 · Apr 2020
Willow Stream
Josh Apr 2020
There is a place,
Stored away in my mind,
Where it's always summer
And there's always time

Where once we are
As we once were
All of us light,
Lifted wings of birds

Friendships forged thick,
Permanent in cast
The seasons never change,
No cold comes to pass

We are still there
In my mind, it's certain
Their pen-drawn faces,
A blink draws like curtains

This place,
Where twilight is permanently sealed
Where together, we'll always be
In a sun-cast lit field
160 · Aug 2020
Caffeine
Josh Aug 2020
Automatic fingers,
Robust and tracking wild
Ready to fill and flutter with the rush of caffeine
A sip starts a spiral,
A spiral starts a cascade
Of feelings and rapid thoughts, erratic as flies
They tell stories as chicken-scratch letters,
Fragmented, but conjoined,
Portraying tales as slides in an old projector movie
Or an old orchestra of nostalgia
From a set list of what once was,
and certainly no longer is in sight nor sound
A sip starts a spiral,
A spiral starts a cascade
While the morning sun continues to rise
159 · Jul 2020
Mirror
Josh Jul 2020
A reflection shows
A face which I chose,
To make-shift grins
and tiny innuendos

But behind the veil,
Lies a face more pale
And oh so much more visceral
151 · Jan 2024
Meant to be
Josh Jan 2024
We'll never know each other
In touch, nor in thought
Our words won't reach
To greet our ears

When the night begs for company,
And lonely is our bond
Our eyes won't lead us to link

We won't hear,
But our soul's will whine and yearn,
When we think of things that can't be

When the unknown is as vast as the infinite,
Yet circumstance writes lines to a script

We won't know what it's like,
But in a different life perhaps,
As time records,
Etching it's marks upon our faces

Perhaps, we'd laugh,
Maybe we'd love,
We'll never know
Estranged,
As if having once met
136 · Mar 2020
She said
Josh Mar 2020
She said,
Your eyes are endless
You've seen things and remember
Sometimes I look at you and know
You are somewhere else

She said,
I see pain deep inside
When isolation becomes you
And my touch
Fails to turn you whole again
When the light leaves you,
And the breath that escapes is frost
When you sleep, but never dream

She said,
I'll follow you,
But I can't stay long,
Lost in your eyes, where I lose myself
But my keep-sake heart is your token,
Take it in your palm when you go
Each night,
When you sleep and never dream
136 · Jan 2020
Another Six
Josh Jan 2020
The hand ticks past the six,
Past the years I knew you
I'm not the same person, you know?

The past six,
Were used to reform
Shape and shade my feelings to something real
Someone,
Authentic and bold

Six times I looked back
'Watched as my reflection changed
Shrewd and concise hands on the clock
With passing ticks that led me here, now
Waiting to look back again after the next pass
Until at last, another six
132 · May 2024
Isolation of her
Josh May 2024
Her arms draped over her knees,
Like a blanket strewn to cover
With a blank stare,
That spans hundreds of miles away

Thunder rumbles, as her eyes radiate green
And tremble the ground, she sits
Isolation, in the lower lip she bites
Hope, in the air she breathes

The world passing,
While fame melts away her appearance
Distorting her into someone unrecognizable
As she stares, wishing she wasn't sitting alone
122 · Nov 2024
<3
Josh Nov 2024
<3
My heart is flat,
Like the sole of your shoe,
Inflating and deflating
On thought of your que

But as quickly revived,
I soon learn despair
At once, a long time
My heart lay ensnared
120 · Aug 2024
At Worlds End
Josh Aug 2024
When the earth turns over
Dust will settle in
When nature takes back it's home
I'll search for you
In this wasteland,
Where grass now grows from cement
When people, now gone, are replaced by the sound
And silent air in it's lonesome

The vacant buildings will stand as haunting monuments
Casting grave shadows below upon their gaze
I'll search for you
In this endless cold,
Where damp filthy clothes become my skin
And the miles become weeks
And the weeks become years
I'll search for you

In each deserted town
In every empty car,
I'll scan  horizons and tree lines alike
The world will wait,
As weary and futile my deterrence
With the memory of your warmth, fueling my steps
And will serve as food among the starving

As the abandoned spreads,
Endless in it's sprawling
When there's nothing else that matters
When the worlds at and end,
When the only thought I have is your voice
I will search for you
100 · Sep 2024
Lead
Josh Sep 2024
I'm Addicted
To drops of words, or acid rain
Bleeding down my throat as I
Swallow

I marvel at her eyes
While I choke,
My throat burns to my stomach

My body shuts down,
And my brain reacts
Letting her seep into my soul with a smile
As the toxicity permeates

I'm hypnotized,
Tortured, through kiss
Shackled by touch
Poisoned with lead
82 · Feb 3
Evermore
Josh Feb 3
I think your soul
Is pure and full
But as you drift through time and silence,
I hope,
It doesn't hurt anymore

In a bed of cradling clouds,
and a blanket of warm stars

You must still feel,
but how do you stomach?
Afterall,
Her face glows beneath his touch

Does it hollow you out,
Turn you even more weightless?

Or do you find comfort in the quiet-
Where memory cloaks you in black
and her, in white?

— The End —