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michelle Dec 2015
S C E N A R I O :

    your mother picks out
    paint chips at
    the hardware store;

    “Christmas Snow” “Teenaged Frost”
                      “American White”

    you don’t hear her ask you
    which shade is best

S C E N A R I O :

    your father measures
    the dimensions of
    your yard’s withered grass;

    Perimeter equals Length plus Width times two

    you can’t convert the inches
    without a calculator

S C E N A R I O :*

    you lift the hammer
    but lower it when
    you think of the nails;

    hit the Head, not the Point

    you’re good at breaking things
    not fixing them

              *
(someone smashed our picket fence)
Erika Castaldo Dec 2015
Mother and father stand over a
bright pink crib,
screaming, cursing, crying
until he leaves,
never to be seen again.

The toddler sits in the corner
curled into a ball and
covering her ears as her mother
towers over her and yells in her face,
blaming the young girl for her problems.

The girl stands in front of the mirror,
red cheeks, timid smile,
conscious of her too-baggy clothes
and messy hair.
She walked to the bus alone.

That shirt that used to reach her knees
fits her properly.
She feels more like one of her peers.
But her hair is still knotted
and she still squints because her
mom never took her to get glasses.

Her mother is shrieking that she ruined her life
for the thousandth time that week.
She walks out the door, but not before bruising
her cheek and
shattering the mirror on the door.


That night, the girl took
an old blade to her wrists and
fell asleep in a pool of blood.
If someone asked me if I regretted it, and I said I did...that it made things so difficult, hard to explain, contain...
I'd be lying.
Lying through my teeth, through my woes, through my checkered soles.
I miss your clumsy lips on me, lopsided with liquor as we stumbled along
the tattered college sheets.
It's been a month and I'm two steps back,
Trying to understand my life, my life as sudden as a heart attack.
You gave me your kisses, a little less than intended
I gave you my body but not my choices.
I want more, I wanted more but all before I wanted your friendship
We were/are friends unchained
Students with no purpose running astray
Your piercing and voice commanded to me
I called and you did but who would've thought we had the right chemistry?
I never loved someone more than you, in the way of pure intimacy and shoulder glance
It's been a month since our tryst in the sheets, hidden away in your tiny bed room with nothing but a laptop playing streams and a thick bed sheet
Skin on skin
We were mixed together as one, never been with someone my parents would love.
So bad so b a d
I loved your face and your voice
I loved your hands between my thighs
I loved your lips on my ear and neck
I loved feeling within you and in the middle of me
Knowing someone I somehow knew in all casual entirety
In the rain glimmers of dust
We talked and talked
*** was never a must.
That's why this is a surprise
Someone so dear to me could make me feel such a surmise
You're all I want but all a risk
I can't help but want you by my sheets
I fear a new day
A new day feeling still stuck in this way.
Rakha Sep 2015
Annie darling,

We may not be able to build the space ship you wanted
It's not that you weren't a good girl,
nor was it because you didn't pass the soccer trials

We may not also get you the hairpin you wanted,
the one encrusted in silver,
lined with satin
and chiseled by the finest sculptor

Once again, it wasn't because you forgot your homework
nor was it because you yelled at me


Annie darling,
We love you.

Just maybe not today.
Sami Rose Sep 2015
Steel bars confined
my prowling mind,
circling the borders
in a dysfunctional order.

Rapidly beating against
my distorted slurs
of denunciations, I
kissed the keys
despite their razor
blade tongue affection.

Sudden silence brought
sudden reverberations of
you you you
and again, I
would take another
pounce to add
to my flowering
garden of purple,
green, and blue.

An illegal sort of
extravagance turned into
violently injecting me
with a poison
that I thought
would keep you
here with me,
but it was not
enough, never enough.
-s.r.b.
I give you flowers and tears
You give me sarcasm
I wish you would show a little more sympathy
You'd rather I get a backbone
I whisper unspoken love on your shoulder
You say it with a mothering tone
I have a panic attack whenever something doesn't fit
You dismiss it all with an iron fist
I dream of a place full of love and passion
You're just thankful you even exist
Money, ***, miscommunication and occasional road trips
It's not necessarily a bad thing just
Our own sort of a
**Dysfunctional relationship
Brent Kincaid Apr 2015
PERFECT WIFE

A perfect little wife
A perfect loving life
He slaps me in the face
I don’t feel disgrace.
As long as he comes home
And doesn’t choose to roam
Then I will toe the line
And all will be just fine.

I’m not the perfect wife
I can get out of hand
He’s the love of my life
You have to understand.
We have so much invested
In our life together.
He’s so very special
I’ll never find another.

It’s not his fault
What is going on.
It’s not his fault
I egged him on.
It’s not his fault
I burned his dinner.
It’s not his fault
I should have known better.

A perfect little wife
A perfect loving life
He slaps me in the face
I don’t feel disgrace.
As long as he comes home
And doesn’t choose to roam
Then I will toe the line
And all will be just fine.

When he’s sweet
He’s the love of my life.
He’s the perfect husband
For such a ******* up wife
When he’s angry
He’s not the same.
It’s all my fault;
He’s not to blame.

A perfect little wife
A perfect loving life
He slaps me in the face
I don’t feel disgrace.
As long as he comes home
And doesn’t choose to roam
Then I will toe the line
And all will be just fine.

Brent Kincaid
4/1/2015
duhastnach Feb 2015
I believed you
When you said that
It's you and me against the world

I was blinded by the thought
Of you and me fighting them
Side by side, with our hands intertwined
And our hearts as one

I tore down my walls
And built my dreams around you
Now I'm stuck in this nightmare
Breathing only anger
And self loathing
Delusional of the primer -
That this can be salvaged

You and I
We are too far gone
This, The us
We have and always been
Improbably fated
So I'm stuck in this dysfunctional relationship. I don't even know why I'm staying. I need to get out of this mess soon, this is slowly wasting me away.
Beeha Feb 2015
i came in two sides,
one with four, one with six.
but the two never collide,
broken that could never be fix.

one with too many confidential ,
the other with too much guts.
the two have not much differential,
though they could never be in the same hut.

from the outside they seems fine,
sweet yet full of history,
i should think i'm one of a kind,
maybe i was from a different family.
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