I think I know We play denial, These dragging hours Dripped Soaked Splattered Silenced In the insincere. Posts that saturate my phone screen, Illuminating my eyes, Full of both fire and water, With a loud Purple and blue light Contrasted with The darkness Of my 2 AM portrait. I asked myself If they’re intentionally armed […]
Leaving Earth
I’ve left Earth in search of a solution, a solar system promising testimonies and remedies and success stories. I’ve left in search of universal interest. I’m not certain that this term is in our lexicon. My grandmother’s garden is only outdone by the bees sidetrack, death racked, throwing in the towel. Take your trendy hashtag […]
When roses are dead they are
limp cracked memories resting on display on coffee tables on bedsides in vases in vain when love expires she too takes center stage still yet in denigrated form faint shadows and traces of beauty glimmers of light of golden beams of reminiscent of moments caught and burned by the searing lights too bright too much […]
Yellow
I was asked, no, instructed to close my eyes and remain silent. My pigtailed friend told me to imagine myself standing on top a chrome skyscraper as she grabbed my shoulders and swayed them back and forth, back and forth. Felt the wind delicately whipping through my hair as it cooed in my ears. Pictured […]
Finale
When the crimson petals collect At my proud and worn feet. When the audience leave chairs Vacant, abandoned seats. When the thick navy curtains close And the white spotlight depletes. Say, oh please say, You’ll remember me.
En Route, Alone
After the rainchecks and The paperwork and the Meetings and the coffee spills. When the moon to your left And the sun to your right Exist simultaneously In pale phantom form. When the silver clouds head home And the pastel sky packs up. That’s when your eyes linger To the still waters beside you. That’s […]
My Mother’s Mace
Barely eighteen. Overflowing my sedan with the essentials. The belongings I prize most. The ones reminiscent, symbolic of home. The certain warmth and scents I never want to strip myself of. Little bird leaves the nest. Clear eyes full of wonder, lifted head full of ideas. I was never meant to stay in one place. […]
Lukewarm Lattes
Stumbling out of bed. Into the spotlight of delicate white beams seeping through windows, through blinds, through construction paper pale skin, through cracked violet eyelids. You stand before your audience in a sooty apartment mirror. Eye contact. Reciting your mission statements internally like clockwork becoming framework. This makes you feel alive. Feel human. Feel right. […]
This is Just to Say
-For Papa Your moon-eyed gaze claims beauty anew Reminding emerald shooting stars of their start. In vibrant hues, the world is you. Graphite woods blush at your step, they whisper and admit They’ve never expected such unusual heart Your moon-eyed gaze claims beauty anew On inky sunset sands you stood, you lit Beams of gold […]
Trampoline Girl
When you fall in love with everything in your candied vision: Tracing shapes on fogged bathroom mirrors Laying your hazy head across a cat’s purring stomach Announcing to the room when the time is coincidentally 12:34 Claiming the beach and the mountains because you can’t just pick one Swaying to a dusty vinyl alone under […]
Haley Gilbertson 