The Experimentals
The experimentals (c) faolan bartholomew two thousand teenagers ranging from ages fifteen to nineteen, were standing in a giant auditorium in a haphazard mass looking around murmuring to themselves about why they had been taken here
Somehow, she's me
Her hair is tied with a ribbon Saying "This is not for you." She wears a pendant of stamped brass Saying "Non sum qualis eram." "I have been a hero since birth," She tells herself, As though that will somehow Explain her scars. She...
Post-op images
Saturday is for mechanics. Sunday is for terror. Monday is for acceptance. Tuesday is for purging. Wednesday is for anxiety. Thursday is for sleep. * * * When I am asleep The world changes around me. In spring, I am changed. * * * I'm no good at...
Unimportant Verse 14
Between our houses, there is a simple fence - not a chasm, not a wall. Chain-link, waist high, bedecked with sweet-pea and set about with violets. Something we can tend, something to feel good about, something between us other than nothing.
Unimportant Verse 13
Every time I seek to change my life, myself, my love, my name, every time I try and broaden my range in this shitty, all-encompassing game, I hesitate. With every change in my life comes the terror of maybe losing you of maybe being caught in...
Unimportant Verse 12
When a light so far above me shines down, I lose my footing, stop, look around, and for once, see my way lit before me. Through you, I learn how I move. Through you, I see how I act. Through you, I judge myself. When a light so far...
Beneath her coat was a whole identity
Beneath her coat was a whole identity: A subtle form of ideas under soft fur, A constantly shifting mass of meaning... And somehow, she pulled it off. She would go for days without shedding a thing, And then, as if a bottle rolling off a...
Growth
Used to be you and I daily would walk through the fields out back of the house and talk for hours, spilling words and emotions. These walks were our daily devotions to each other over the years. The fields, dotted with ponds, were our space. We...
Unimportant Verse 11
_Yit'gadal v'yit'kadash sh'mei raba_ Would that I had the faith To pray daily. Eleven months to let you go, And an amen to end the sorrow.
Meaning & Self
There's some duality between sources of meaning, Between the types of stories we use to back identity. It's not quite good & bad or light & dark, Though I'm not yet sure just how to define it. Dad used to punish the dogs by locking then in...
Unimportant Verse 10
I could never tell you that you feel too much. That you feel too hard, or that your feelings overwhelm and overtake you. I could never tell you how beautiful that is. That I wish I could feel those things, that I wish I could feel that way. ...
Unimportant Verse 9
Tightly wound springs Of very carefully Not touching. Secret words To be said With confidence. Rules. Prohibitions. Limits. Discussions planned, Side-channels arranged, Whiskey purchased. And now anxiety Over what it means And how...