If you just stay close as the train passes our station,
You might save the tears of another mourning nation.
Do not hold back, reach around my wrists and scream,
Yell louder than the thoughts I have,
They are still inescapably mean.
If you turn me away from the wreck as it burns,
I might do the same for you when we take turns.
Do not hesitate when the final push comes to shove,
Breach all the safety protocols,
Paint them whiter than doves.
-JW
I wandered the sunsets endlessly,
Stepped into each river
To block its flow carelessly.
You watched me shiver,
You never warned my bones.
I stepped into a river,
But it did not take me home.
My feet chased gold and silver,
My eyes looked up to gods.
“Nothing will ever fill her,”
They said, wrapping me in rods.
The heaven is a silent killer.
I escaped through the woods
And I cried red into the river
In your neighborhood.
-JW
Chant hexes at me from the hotel roof,
Wish on the star you always promised me.
We are drifting, alone, just counting spooks,
Building the next rotten dynasty.
Print your little white lies on T-shirts,
Maybe then someone will buy them.
We agreed to never leave the shore.
Now we are lost, and the lights are blinding.
Drop me like ice-cream on the boulevard,
Shake me awake with the breeze.
We always played it, but never smart,
Now we hide our smirks in the debris.
Abandon your morals at a stranger’s house,
Tell me all about it five years later.
We are getting lost inside the grand chaos
But at least they cannot call us traitors.
-JW
Isn’t it scary – collecting wild roses,
Knowing you won’t be able to take them with you
Once the final gate closes?
You always called me cynical.
I used to throw my palms in harm’s way for you,
Thinking it was my pinnacle.
Now you’re getting ripped apart by the thorns.
Everyone warned you, but still –
You burned alive every single thing you adored.
I will take my rose with me,
Enjoying each moment of the destruction,
Forgetting you were once my legacy.
A piece of me will ache all the same.
And I should be happier than last year, but still –
It’s never easy to drown the shame,
So I scream at the rain from my window sill.
-JW
My skull is a long-lost ship adrift in its own boiling darkness.
It smears my thoughts with soot, hiding blades in deep waters.
The daggers only leave scarlet scars if I pull them out weeping.
Searing misdeeds call for my neck whenever I try sleeping.
It has been months since I have seen shore or even a beacon.
The hope overflows each morning, but every night I get weaker.
My anthracite tears drip slow like honey, they burn with rage.
My head is a snarling beast, captured and locked in a gilded cage.
-JW
The feathers fall on weathered tombstones.
All the candles are dripping bright orange wax,
And the lights are calling me home.
Shapeless branches cover me like a blanket.
I hide from the moonlight yet another night,
Seeking out shadow to thank it.
Leaves get tangled in my hair with spiderwebs.
There is not a single soul around in these trees.
I give up my common sense.
Tranquil whispers shuffle in the distance
As I waste myself away hour after long hour,
Searching for a sinless existence.
-JW
The road beneath my boots is everlasting.
It trembles as I rush,
Melting like it’s made of plastic.
The thunderclouds are stealing my breath.
Lightning erases my thoughts,
Taking all that I have left.
And the dust settles but not for too long.
The particles resonate,
They carry a dying song.
I stand in the middle. I am out of excuses.
The night screams like a banshee,
Killing my muses.
-JW
With nothing left to lose in my pockets
I say goodbye to our white picket fence.
One day you will remember to lock it
Instead of fixing wounds with empty amends.
The road never gives up its sources.
It has been a long time coming, my love.
You warned me about devious forces
But this path seems to fit me like a glove.
When I was longing for some affection,
You said moments can last a long time.
Our tension fell apart like a lost connection,
It started itching like a dirty crime.
So, I took it upon myself to fix the wires.
The winds never agreed with my grand plans.
Now I say goodbye to our forest fires
As guilt and I have the very last dance.
-JW
I stood on the edge of an epiphany,
Trying to choose between a peace of mind
And my own serenity.
But I swore to give it all for my kind,
Swore to swallow the burning jealousy.
I swung my foot over the emptiness.
You told me to hold back.
No, I do not sell my selfishness.
You do not own whatever I lack.
Meet me at the end of this precipice
So we can fall towards the soothing black.
-JW
The night covers my honesty in dim lies.
It is just you and me beneath late October sky.
The moon drips silver in your empty cup.
I reach for the light, but I am out of luck.
And you dance through the grey branches,
Shuffling the particles into avalanches.
It is a perfect storm with us in the middle.
I try to entangle the story
But each part is a new riddle.
-JW
The Daily Writing of Jackie Wright 