THE ART OF SLOW DEATH

MILK  &  HONEY .

          poetry  sweet  as  honey  falls  from  her  mouth  and  he’s  fortunate  it  is  HIS  (  and  only  his  )  for  him  to  taste .  he  feeds  on  it  almost  GREEDILY ,  like  an  abyssal  maw  harboring  an  unabated  hunger ,  and  so  he  kisses  her  once  more ;  that  she  does  not  pull  away  is  a  blessing  in  and  of  itself  he  knows  he  doesn’t  deserve ,  and  yet  he’s  gifted  with  it  anyway .  his  own  tongue  feels  leaden  with  the  weight  of  its  own  eagerness ;  he  feasts  upon  her  sweetness  with  utter  abandon  —–  and  behind  the  taste ,  the  very  last  thing  to  reach  his  senses ,  cold .  how  he  REVELS  in  it ,  how  he  lets  it  worm  its  way  past  his  throat  and  into  his  lungs ,  and  by  the  astrals  themselves  for  a  moment  he  SWEARS  he’s  alive .

– So I really liked the original meme here, so much that I ended up buying the poet’s book Crush to read. 

Inspiration hit and here are 79 lines, categorized by poem. Feel free to change pronouns and any names!

SCHEHERAZADE

❝Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake and dress them in warm clothes again.❞ ❝Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it’s noon, that means we’re inconsolable.❞ ❝Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.❞ ❝Tell me we’ll never get used to it.❞

DIRTY VALENTINE

❝There’s a part in the movie where you can see right through the acting, where you can tell that I’m about to burst into tears.❞ ❝I swallow your heart and it crawls right out of my mouth.❞ ❝You swallow my heart and flee, but I want it back now, baby. I want it back.❞ ❝I’m sorry. We know how it works. The world is no longer mysterious.❞

LITTLE BEAST

❝I like him and I want to be like him, my hands no longer an afterthought.❞ ❝Someone once told me than explaining is an admission of failure.❞ ❝I’m sure you remember, I was on the phone with you, sweetheart.❞ ❝History repeats itself.❞ ❝There are many names in history but none of them are ours.❞ ❝You could drown in those eyes, I said.❞ ❝But damn if there isn’t anything sexier than a slender boy with a handgun, a fast car, a bottle of pills.❞ ❝What would you like? I’d like my money’s worth.❞ ❝Sorry about the blood in your mouth. I wish it was mine.❞     ❝I couldn’t get the boy to kill me, but I wore his jacket for the longest time.❞

SEASIDE IMPROVISATION

❝Tell me you love this, tell me you’re not miserable.❞ ❝You do the math, you expect the trouble.❞ ❝Draw a circle with a piece of chalk. Imagine standing in a constant cone of light. Imagine surrender. Imagine being useless.❞ ❝A stone on the path means the tea’s not ready, a stone in the hand means somebody’s angry.❞ ❝The stone inside you still hasn’t hit bottom.❞

THE TORN-UP ROAD

❝There is no way to make this story interesting.❞ ❝I want to tell you this story without having to confess anything, without having to say that I ran out into the street to prove something.❞ ❝Tell me we’re dead and I’ll love you even more.❞ ❝And he knew it wasn’t going to be okay, and he told me it wasn’t going to be okay.❞ ❝But the minutes don’t stop.❞ ❝And words, little words, words too small for any hope or promise, not really soothing but soothing nonetheless.❞

LITANY IN WHICH CERTAIN THINGS ARE CROSSED OUT

❝You will be alone always and then you will die.❞ ❝So maybe I wanted to give you something more than a catalog of non-definitive acts, something other than the desperation.❞ ❝I’m sorry I came to your party and seduced you and left you bruised and ruined, you poor sad thing.❞ ❝You want a better story. Who wouldn’t?❞ ❝I can tell you already think I’m the dragon, that would be so like me, but I’m not. I’m not the dragon. I’m not the princess either.❞ ❝Who am I? I’m just a writer. I write things down. I walk through your dreams and invent the future.❞ ❝And yes, I swallow glass, but that comes later.❞ ❝Shut up. I’m getting to it.❞ ❝For a while I thought I was the dragon.❞ ❝Okay, so I’m the dragon. Big deal.❞ ❝You still get to be the hero.❞ ❝What more do you want?❞ ❝Are you there, sweetheart? Do you know me?❞ ❝Here is the repeated image of the lover destroyed.❞ ❝There is something underneath the floorboards.❞ ❝I arrived in the city and you met me at the station, smiling in a way that made me frightened.❞ ❝This doesn’t look that much different from home.❞ ❝Love, for you, is more than the usual romantic love. It’s like a religion. It’s terrifying.❞ ❝Okay, if you’re so great, you do it–❞ ❝Unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of time.❞ ❝I have told you where I’m coming from, so put it together.❞ ❝When I say this, it should mean laughter, not poison.❞

A PRIMER FOR THE SMALL WEIRD LOVES

❝And you know that a boy who likes boys is a dead boy, unless he keeps his mouth shut, which is what you didn’t do.❞ ❝Because you are weak and hollow and it doesn’t matter anymore.❞ ❝And the boy who loves you the wrong way is filthy.❞

UNFINISHED DUET

❝He wants to be tender and merciful.❞ ❝He meaning you.❞ ❝Do you love yourself?❞ ❝I don’t have to answer that.❞ ❝It should matter.❞

I HAD A DREAM ABOUT YOU

❝I don’t think I can take this much longer.❞ ❝In the dream I don’t tell anyone, you put your head in my lap.❞ ❝In these dreams it’s always you: the boy in the sweatshirt, the boy on the bridge, the boy who always keeps me from jumping off the bridge.❞ ❝Oh, the things we invent when we are scared and want to be rescued.❞ ❝I borrowed your shoes and didn’t put them away.❞ ❝You didn’t show up. I kept waiting.❞

STRAW HOUSE, STRAW DOG

❝You have a cold cold smile.❞ ❝Watch me, just watch me.❞ ❝I swallowed crushed ice pretending it was glass.❞ ❝I don’t really blame you for being dead but you can’t have your sweater back.❞ ❝You can sleep now, you said. You said that. I had a dream where you said that. Thanks for saying that. You weren’t supposed to.❞

PLANET OF LOVE

❝And you play along, because you want to die for love, you always have.❞

WISHBONE

warsan  vs  melancholy   |   not accepting

          MOTHER, MOTHER PRAY TELL OF MY FATE ; WILL YOU LOVE ME STILL WHEN INNOCENCE HAS WANED, WHEN ALL THINGS SOFT HAVE SHARPENED?  

 will  she  love  him  if  his  heart  were  to  turn  to  black  and  rot?  what  of  when  his  smile  becomes  feral  and  his  soul  wounded  from  the  wickedness  of  this  unyielding  world?  the  other  gods  foresee  disaster  and  so  they  turn  their  backs  –  in  shame  and  sorrow  –  for  the  boy  is  mere  mortal,  he  will  age.  and  one  day  he  will  leave  his  mother,  and  another  time  he  will  do  it  differently.  it  will  hurt  all  the  same.    

     (  we  warned  you,  a  hissed  symphony  encircling  the  revered  mother.  his  creation  manifests  that  of  superficial  beauty,  it  is  not  ever - lasting.  the  smug  choir  sings ;  what  will  you  do  if  he  forsakes  his  bloodline  or  his  soul  tainted?  will  you  turn  your  back  on  him  too,  as  you  have  done  to  others  before?  )    

       mother,  comes  the  melodious  cry  from  a cherubic  face. it,  too,  will  all  fade  someday.  herein  lays  a  boy  now,  soft  and  gentle.  he  is  a  masterpiece  of  her  craft,  unaltered  by  time.  and  that  shall  never  come  to  be,  for  she  is  a  god  and  she  wills  it  so.  arrogance  is  unbecoming  of  her.  but  it  is  not  pride  which  insinuates  this  behavior,  it  is  love,  she  insists.

   love  is  what  bore  him.  it  is  the  only  warmth  needed  for  he,  a  child  of  winter,  to  survive.  it  is  the  tone  which  all  her  words  are  spoken  to  him,  a  stark  contrast  to  the  condescension  and  harshness  among  the  others.  and  it  is  that  same  tone  which  is  notably  absent  then  and  there,  when  she  speaks  a  prayer  perhaps  intended  for  herself.  her  voice  is  hoarse  with  sorrow,  how  it  shakes  him  so.  for  whomsoever  makes  his  mother  weep,  he  shall  put  to  the  sword  someday.