Bloom

Days
keep on blooming
rich and red
and sometimes
so delicate
a
whisper of wind
shatters each fragile
petal
to the ground,
raining glory -
for days passage
there is no winter,
they bloom
and bloom
and
bloom.

8/22/2015
Riley Welch

Over and Over

Repetition
will
never get old.

I can't help
it.

The connotation
of a word
said
once, twice, over
and
over
and
over.

It creates familiarity.
It creates pattern.
It creates comfort.

I can't help it.

10/12/2015

Seconds and Thirds

I'm flying in and out
of other people's
groups of friends,
but where am I?
Are these my friends?
I can't tell yet,
I feel like a meteor
who flew through
a solar system
or planet's orbit.
I didn't belong in,
sorry,
you're welcome,
here I am.

8/19/2015
Riley Welch

Now

Heart races
going faster and faster
gasping for air
that just doesn't seem
to get to you.

Drowning.

Piles over piles under piles,
can't get out.
Won't get out.
Am I trying to get out?

Go for a run
like
your heart's pulse
triples
doubles
this it it.

8/19/2015
Riley Welch

Dough

I wish  could be
the type
of person
who enjoyed
washing the dishes.

Because all things
in life
spill over.

And wouldn't it be
lovely
if I loved
to clean up my messes.

And all the other
unpleasant things
we have to do.

8/19/2015
Riley Welch

Letters

I sent out
poem after poem
into the universe
the internet
spoken indirectly into
your head.
I feel like I still haven't
given
enough.
To say thank you
for learning how to write
in the first place.

8/19/2015
Riley Welch

This is short.

Forcing out words -

gets twisted

like knotted headphones

you forgot to wrap

up

before you put them

in your pocket.

8/19/2015

Riley Welch

3 Right Turns

I don't know
when I started
taking the long way home
to listen to one more song
at 3 am
with my windows rolled
down.

And the sticky fall, summer,
winter, spring air hitting my hand.

But now
it feels
like I always do it.

Extra seconds of thinking
have become something
more normal
as if
sometime
in the last few years
I got stuck in my own head,
and I don't know when
or how
or why
but now I take the long way.

8/19/2015
Riley Welch

3 Corners

Can I have more count off poems?
Where I go back from ten
and at the end I feel better,
or at least
not as
crushed?
Overwhelmed?
Buried underneath
piles of broken
incomplete thoughts
where I can't get up.
I forgot my goggles,
I can't open my eyes buried
this deep
burning
churning,
can anyone help?


8/18/2015
Riley Welch

Out of Titles

I stood in shock
staring
at the picture
from
all those Thanksgivings
ago.

So many new built traditions.

I have adjusted
and the very act of that
seems wrong.

How did this happen?
How did I let it?

I am shocked.

But
I cannot dwell on what is not.

Maybe.

How do you?

What do you say to those
who lost so long ago
they have already
forgotten?

9/29/2015
Riley Welch

Grand Part Two

The sound of
pebbles
gently
crushing
under solid tires
echoed
off curbs
and all the insects
gathered
to see you off.

9/28/2015
Riley Welch

GMLMH

as the car
slowed down
the ground
appeared
so much closer
than I had
expected it,
galloping and rocking,
the road
seemed so
smooth
and slick
when I coasted it.
how did I remove myself
so far
from the Earth
without
even
noticing.

9/25/2015
Riley Welch

330

I woke up
shaking.

I knocked my bottles
of lotions and serums
on their side
when I reached for them.

I filled my body with caffeine
anyway.

I took notes
at the speed of a rocket,
But with many more mistakes.

Swirly, unreadable loops,
scratched out,
more shaking.

Feet tapping.

If I don't let the movement out,
it all runs inside my brain
left, right.

How am I
all at the same time:

concentrating so smoothly
and not at all.

9/30/2015
Riley Welch