Just Small-Town Chatter

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All I think about is the day you run out of things to combat –

And you’re left there with your pain,

Left without keys under the doormat.

I hope the way I play the field tears your insides into pieces.

You promised me I will never arrive,

Never see the place where all peace lives.

But my stamina found a way to bloom without you there.

Now you only have the photographs

And your own empty stares.

You ask about me in the shop I used to visit after school.

They know all about your history,

They even call you the small-town fool.

All I think about is the day you run into me in a parking lot.

I don’t resemble your daughter,

You’ve become just an afterthought.

I hope the way I walk by, cold and unfazed, rips you apart.

Despite your worst wishes, I pulled through.

To spite you, I stayed honest at heart.

-JW

Best Wishes

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The webs you made were not a good enough reason for you to leave.

My life stood there, naked and exposed, as I struggled to breathe.

Your sharp teeth found ways to bite, but you were, oh, so surprised

When your own child grew up to be a shark too,

Refusing to swim circles in your lies.

It is true, strangers are alerted about my talent to kill my darlings.

I hear you spoke to the local cashiers; I hear you gave them a warning.

You think you have so much gasoline in your tank, always running,

But you gifted your mistress a perpetual-motion daughter

With twice as much cunning.

Now we pass each other in the city streets, ignoring all the deceit.

Fate is a cruel beast, she loves to frame and glisten the worst receipts.

Your family knows how hard you can go when it comes to neglect.

I wish this the guilt feeds on your soul until the end,

I hope it gets so heavy it breaks your neck.

-JW

Empty Letter

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I am sitting still, staring at an empty letter.

Forgiveness does not come easy to me.

Maybe you are also sharpening the feather,

But maybe you are just as sad and lonely.

Never had trouble forgiving my city friends.

The shame flies low when you compromise.

I want to meet you and see both ends,

You want to spread rumors and villainize.

So, I get stuck on blaring neon streets,

They keep making my cries radio silent.

I dream of trees, but you reach for the reefs.

My pen runs dry, and yet again

I retire the hope of finding an asylum.

-JW

Nobody’s Story

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Nobody’s story ever resembles mine.

I don’t have the scars proving I fell from the highs,

And every soul I meet doesn’t have much to hide.

I tend to wonder –

What do they do with their nights?

Because I travel back to the roads I discovered,

I think about the lives I wanted to color

Just to end up in city crowds, always seeking cover.

The darkness calls again,

It wants to make me its lover.

-JW

Whiter Than Doves

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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

Escape

I stole their ammo and ran away with the winds.

Wild animals followed me,

They carried my sins.

I hope they know I am not a traitor, I am not a fiend.

Whenever it gets dim,

I just level the field.

My shoes shattered under they venomous arrows.

But I kept running,

Sold my own bone marrow.

I stole their ammo and ran away with the winds.

Wild animals followed me,

They carried my sins.

-JW

The Silent Killer

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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

Roadkill

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The anger flooded my basement and blocked the attic door.

It was the right time to leave,

But, as usual, I reached for more.

Now I am six hours away from the place I once called home

With no tricks up my sleeve,

Burning alive on an empty road.

You took me apart and then killed those I considered dear.

I can only grieve,

Kneeling obediently as the death nears.

The flames surround me, they form a crown above my head.

You branded me a thief

When I took back all I have bled.

And now the frames slow down, my vision grows blurry.

What an ending, so bittersweet,

The perfect allegory.

-JW

A Photo Of Us On The Boulevard

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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

You Made Me Their Beast

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The cherry tree only blossoms once a year.

Our love runs on empty every day of the week.

I could not leave out the burning red fear.

They said I was cheap, they said I was weak.

The city parks trembled as we waltzed through,

Even the streets shattered under the pressure.

My intuition was strong, but it needed proof,

It needed to teach them all a lesson.

September approached us with little grace

As we were trying to put our lives back together.

The days ticked away, shooting love into space.

You promised we were birds of a feather.

When I was not looking, you cut down the tree

And fed it to quidnuncs with the sharpest teeth.

You made me their beast to set yourself free.

They thanked you for the fresh prey

As they chased me down in the heath.

-JW