you could kill yourself with a light bulb,
an extension cord
you could chew your arm off
like an animal,
wide-eyed,
trapped
write a poem about it,
win an award
you speak to the wall
and sometimes it answers
sometimes it’s the most beautiful thing
you’ve heard in years
people walk through the room,
disappear
you don’t say hello and
you’re antisocial,
which is another word for scared.
you turn up the music
write more slowly, think more slowly,
but the pages continue to fill
you try to remember the smell of rain
on hot pavement
the background is too loud,
your hands hurt, your face hurts and
you realize you’ve been
screaming for days
you keep your head down, but
they still keep noticing you
you forget what the night tastes like,
but still understand the way bones attach to muscles
imagine reading these words
years from now
Author notes
If these walls could talk they wouldn't shut the fuck up.
Sage Francis
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Comments
1 - 16 of 16
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i am so speechless.
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That works! Thank you.
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Honesty. The best way to make or break it.
I think this is stellar!
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Thanks!! I fail at re-writes. Haha.
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If my walls could talk they would confirm just how boring I really am
This is so utterly amazing. Such a rhythmic piece and each line/observation/thought flows so seamlessly into the next. I love a poem that punches the way this does.
I think this is brilliant just the way it is
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Thank you! I think if I change it, I'll just rewrite it entirely and post it as something else. It's so hard to work with poetry because I think so much of it is personal preference.
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i've read this 10 times.
i'm no where near being ready to stop.
if you ever stop writing the story of my life... well. just, don't.
i feel like i live in fear quite a bit. and give it lots of other names. but. it's usually just fear.
not that i don't love the rest, but... this is one of my favs. hands down.
are you ready to publish another book yet? the old one is underlined and highlighted and bracketed, and generally looks like someone has fallen asleep with it in their hands five or ten too many times. which they have.
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actually... a publisher asked to see my new book!!!!!!!!! which doesn't mean they will publish it or anything, but YAY. I'm too poor to self-publish, so it would be super grand.
this poem is funny. i wrote it straight out from the heart and half the people seem to love it, the rest think it's awkward. i may rewrite it to make it more "readable" but i love it just as it is, because it's true.
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I'm not sure what is the more startling here - the images of alienation, or the matter-of-fact way they're shown.
I like the reach for comfort, especially 'you try to remember the smell of rain
on hot pavement'
Yes, this poem rocks!
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yay for success!
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wow
this is outstanding, like mouth hanging open amazing. i still don't know how you do it but i'm glad you do.
"your face hurts and
you realize you've been
screaming for days"
sometimes i think i've been screaming my whole life.
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me too. any why am i the only one who notices? also, your comments totally encourage me to write, so thank you.
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i agree with Kathleen, my fave lines too, although the whole poem rocks.
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thanks
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"and sometimes it answers
sometimes it’s the most beautiful thing
you’ve heard in years"
oh kate, that line is a killer. This whole poem is.
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sometimes i worry that no one will understand what I am trying to say. the internet is a wonderful thing.
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