On Edge

Things felt like closed doors.
Churning stomachs.
Ache.
Vomit crept up
neat at the edge of our throat.
You didn't know what to do,
with all these feelings.
Caffeine
turned over on itself in your gut.
No, no, no.
Not again.
Swallow one time.
Hold it down.
One more,
one more,
one more time.

5/24/2016
Riley Welch

Repeat/Restart

Things aren't very
explored
in my head the way they used to be.
maybe I'm my best me
worry, hungry, helpless,
but at least
the head on my shoulders
is all I worry about.
Wishing
back and forth
and forth
and forth
forth.

5/23/2016
Riley Welch

A Love Poem

Sometimes when I'm back here
back where is technically home,
on especially cloudy days
I imagine I'm back.
Back up north.
And the only reason I can't see the mountains,
is because the clouds are hanging low
and wrapping their bodies around the foothills.
The air here is too dense
and it doesn't always work -
but sometimes,
for a split second,
I look west
and see clouds
and imagine the bodies of giants behind them
and imagine the air thin and cold and dry
and imagine I can hear the pitter of a summer rain,
that always sweeps in the afternoon.

Riley Welch

4 Chairs

Working and waiting
although,
lately.
I've had trouble differentiating the two.
Days have slowed down
and I'm bored
and excited.
I'm working on wishing for weekdays
instead of weekends.
Because sometimes,
pieces of advice stick on my skin
and I can't remove them.
And once,
I wished all my weeks away,
and was scolded
because my life was of value.
Everyday, second, moment.
And I've got to quit letting it
fly, fly, fly
by.

5/19/2016
Riley Welch

Cat

Running in circles
was always so, so pointless.
Pointed?
Exercise seemed daunting.
If you walk everywhere, does that count?

I'm screaming
screaming
screaming.
Inside my head.
And it's shocking, but no one can hear me.

Now, now, now.
Racing - running? - no, racing.
Down spiral, spiral, spiral.
I don't know how
to quit repeating.
Everything gets so lost
and only sometimes
(sometimes?)
gets found.

5/14/2016
Riley Welch

25

The ground changed under the tires with a bounce

Dirt

Pavement

Dirt

Or

Asphalt

Concrete

Asphalt

It was always sandwiched like that

making the center material stick out sore.

Budump bump dump

The air rushed past the windows

And the clouds were hanging so low you couldn't see the mountains anymore

Goosebumps traced their was up my spine and I smiled the whole way there. 

5/17/2016

Riley Welch

9:34 am

I love the idea of dirt.
It feels so full.
Rich and damp and nutrient packed.
Like if I drop a smattering of seeds,
they will sproutsproutsprout
and tiny greens and roots will grow twisty and winding through the soft broken up bits of grass.

5/6/2016
Riley Welch

All

Things edges don't stick
without glue
no matter how inconvenient.
I find crafts boring
and always forget
the glue.

5/3/2016
Riley Welch

The Green(ery) Collection

Another finished notebook means another poem dedicated to the months I spent with it. 

Here's a new kind of confidence.
Houses, food, friends, family.
Searching, searching, searching.
Struggle and bustle.
Want sometimes outweighing obligation,
and almost never the opposite.
Word and worries
and
tears
tears
tears.
Colors melded together and sleep came and went.
Things feel right,
no matter how much gets reworked
again
and again
and again.

5/3/2016
Riley Welch

More Rain

Water always cleared out
thick clumps of dirt
along the sidewalk.

Rushing, pushing them apart
and to mud -
smooth and earthy.

Rain moved in between grass blades,
sometimes sweet, and gentle,
sometimes rough, and destructive.

The tree's bark was dyed a darker color
by the dampness.

And all the twigs and sticks, scattered on the ground, became soft.
Where they had been brittle, they no longer cracked under foot,
but instead bent softly under the sole of a shoe.

Things would dry out, days later.
The mud would turn dirt would turn dry.
And everything would become a shade lighter
and wait again.

5/2/2016
Riley Welch

XO

I'm getting
anxious, anxious, anxious
I'm amping up
doing
more, more, more
I'm nervous
I'm building
waiting to
erupt
explode
move on,
or whatever.
Everything feels
tense
I edit my writing
over and over again.
I just can't imagine this not bursting,
spilling over,
and painting my body
red with relief.

5/2/2016
Riley Welch

3 Pretty Happy 3 Line Monday Thoughts

10:57 am
Oh jeez,
almost 11, totally drowsy
up, down, up, down.

3:04 pm
Day dreaming,
drifting,
sunny or cloudy. Fresh.

10:57 pm
How symmetrical,
chicken and tortillas,
salsa on top.

4/25/2016
Riley Welch

Yellow

Bursting pride
yellow lilies overlapped
petal, petal, petal,
do lilies even come in yellow?
I seem to have forgotten simple facts
things I learned
when i was little.
How you have some things, that are immediate knowledge?
Everyone knows cheetahs are quick, quick, quick.

4/21/2016
Riley Welch