#newpoetscorner

Don’t you get tired?

Of talking about the same things all the time?

What’s new on Netflix? Who’s dating who?

It’s a loop that just doesn’t end,

One conversation ends, another one is ready to be started,

And we’re always so enticed to be a part of these conversations,

To be asked about how much you hated the last season of GoT,

Or how Tony Stark deserved to live,

You don’t even realise how life becomes a series of attending parties and talking to strangers while trying to figure out why you’re there doing this,

You agree to disagree and everyone sips on their drinks while another conversation sucks you in like a black hole,

But you don’t want this, do you?

You’re tired of pretending to be this person everyone wants you to be,

You never tell anyone about your love for stars,

Because who even sees the stars anymore?

Or the fact that you prefer green tea over coffee because you’re scared to be outcasted,

You don’t tell anyone that you love novels because they’d call you a geek,

When everyone is Snapchatting their life, you want someone to write you letters,

Everyone’s laughing in their instagram stories and they cry at night thinking why they aren’t enough,

Everyone laughs at jokes on the internet,

They laugh at how teenagers really went to area 51,

But no one talks about the girl who strikes for climate change,

Or the child who wants to change the world by using his crayons,

No one talks about our dying earth,

Everyone talks about wanting to bring change,

They bring change by green display pictures and petitions that never show results,

You don’t want to do that,

You want to step out and take things in your own hand,

You want to paint poetry all over your neighbourhood walls,

You want to plant trees in front of industries and big corporations,

You want to scream and tell the world that what they do isn’t ever enough,

But then again you know you’re alone,

Often we forget; help comes to those who ask,

And you?

You find an empty seat on the couch and agree to things you know aren’t right just because you’re too scared to pick a fight,

And then the loop starts again,

And you’re driving home drunk and almost flee alive in this death chase,

People continue to stay awake crying in the shower and post good morning messages with a smile of their face,

Everyone searches for conversations that they know they can be a part of,

Things never change,

And then one day you see a boy painting on a wall near the footpath,

I can’t help myself but look at old

photographs of us

videos of us

social media posts of us

saved texts and screenshots

photo booths and snapshots

every one is different, the time

the place, the season

but one thing always the same

unchanging and unyielding

the way I’m looking at you

while you laugh or while you pose

how in love with you I am

the absolute glow

the smile so sincere

and the eyes locked on your face

my forehead pressed against your beard

my happy my happy my happiest

and I know that I need to leave

get away so far from this place

far enough that a car ride

wouldn’t bring me to your face

far enough to not touch the smile

and the forehead, to dip my feet in the

happiest

far enough for the nerves to die and

never grow back, too far gone from the

happiest

how can it heal if you keep

touching it

how can it heal if you keep

touching it

it won’t heal if you keep

touching it

I’ll never be far enough away

it’s right behind my eyelids

and at my finger tips

waiting to spill away

and force myself to see it

tell me

how can I get far enough?

to where your touch can’t warm me anymore

how can I wait long enough?

so my hips won’t miss you anymore

tell me

because I’m dying to know

I’m dying to know

I’m dying here slow baby

we both know baby

I’m dying here

I’m dying here slow

2018 is here

Submit a poem or quote from your collection!

Dear anxiety,

Do you know how it feels when you make me feel like I should just kill myself? Every time that I make friends, every time that I try to do something for myself, you step in. What if I’m not good enough? What if my friends don’t really like me? Am I too fat? Does he really like me or is he just being a good friend and tolerating me? Do I talk too much? I should probably stay quiet. You make me think all of this, you make me feel like I’m nothing. Every time, every day, I try to be a better person, just so that I can be part of the crowd, not be ignored. Why do you do this to me? I can’t sleep at night without recalling all that I’ve said and done during the day, I speak calculated words, you make me fear falling in love, you make me fear attachments. I feel that I can’t be close to someone because I’ll destroy everything we have, you’ll bring things in my mind that aren’t there, you’ll make me bring up situations that never existed and will never exist. It’s your fear that makes me end something that had just begun. I’m just trying to live, I need happiness too. I wanna laugh like a normal human being, feel loved, give love, you stop me from doing that, you make me think that every time something good happens, something bad will always follow. But I know it’s not true, but I always give in to the voice you have within me and I give in to you, you lock me up inside me, you’ve chained me up. I know that it’s upon me to break free and I’m trying to, but I just can’t help but think and think and think of everything going on in my life, it’s like a never ending cycle. You’ve taught me a lot about life and about myself, but I wish it wasn’t you who taught me things that I could’ve learnt in so many other ways. Please let me breathe for once, you’re suffocating me.

Yours truly,

A victim.

I know that you’re awake at 3 in the night; counting my recklessness in the sky like stars,

I hope that someday you’d stop, the moon wouldn’t seem like a memory that we called ours,

I hope that one day when I’m nothing but a shadow of the past, I still bring a smile on your face,

And you don’t have to wipe off my embrace from your cheeks, let them seep in their rightful place,

I hope that you don’t hate me, for my silence has made wounds more than the echoes of my laughter could heal,

I hope you throw that letter away after reading it the last time, and touch is all you feel,

I know that I left without saying a proper goodbye,

I couldn’t risk seeing you in my dreams and not being able to look you in the eye,

I hope that you believe me when I smile for the pictures and have a laughter that you once knew,

I hope you never find out that I’m still stuck waiting at the staircase with an aching heart for you,

And it takes everything in me, not to come knocking at your door risking all that I’ve got,

I hope that there’s no chain on your door, but this will ever be nothing but a thought,

I hope that some days I escape your lips in a disguise; never in treachery,

And I pray that some times you wonder about me.