Perdition.

by Poet on the Piano   Nov 27, 2018


You used to cause permanent
destruction whenever our paths met;
now, walking in your shadow leaves me
underwhelmed, confused.
I don’t sip on disappointment anymore,
it's already burned me more
times than I care for.

If anything, I’ve created a burial site
for anger that still traces my spine,
chemicals not sure where to poison next.
Memorabilia of the mind
that I can’t lay to rest.

Flashbacks to promises made,
how I wanted nothing more than
a dose of safety when held to your chest -
memories distorted from the times I
returned home expecting bloodbaths,
yet silence always proves its knack for
causing the most potent damage.

I know I’m better than what
you see me as,
but lately I’ve been singing myself
to sleep with a mantra I no longer
harness guilt over:

“we would have been better off
if you had left, and never looked back”.

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Latest Comments

  • 5 years ago

    by D.

    I like how your poems have a narrative voice - your poetry is direct and personal. Your voice isn’t intrusive though, and it takes some skill to write as you do without talking AT the reader!

    I enjoy how you turned abstract ideas into tangible ideas here. You sipped disappointment, you dosed safety, you slept with a mantra. Individually, they probably would sound out of place and incredulous but together, they are fitting.

    I do think, critically speaking, your poetry is often a bit of a mouthful, haha, as in, sometimes the language is suffocated with other language, but this is not always the case, and I would hate if your style was altered in any way. It’s just a thought I had whilst reading the third paragraph. Sometimes the vocabulary is harsh, and very polysyllabic!

    Your message about a lingering or failed relationship or friendship? hits home. The final quotation is a beautiful bookend to a imagery rich poem. Accomplished as always.

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