TIF

Today I had
a great idea
for a poem.
I knew it would
come together
so easily,
letter after letter*.

But I forgot
to write it
down.

So it left
my
brain
and thus
ceases to exist.

*On a similar note, how do you read footnoted asterisk? As a piece of the prose, or after it is over?

10/22/2015
Riley Welch

Angles

Smooth jazz,
with sharp beats
sounds so
so appealing.
it makes me turn the wheel
of my car
carefully
like the music -
but my heart beats sharp,
interrupting,
like the rhythm.

10/22/2015
Riley Welch

Mov't

And now
clanking chairs
and early ending classes,
sticky hot outsides,
water
condensing on windows
and damp socks,
broken pencil tips
and dried up
ballpoint pens,
tardy homework,
and A- test grades.
Repeat.

10/22/2015
Riley Welch

Easy

Tears come so easy
maybe I was made too soft.
Too happy
or too sad.

They come to the surface,
frustration,
anger,
I am a bad liar,
I am unable to hide
how I feel.
Even in the worst
situations.

10/18/2015
Riley Welch

An Ode to My Hair

I'm glad my hair
has grown out
long enough.

That it tickles
my elbows
when I swing on a backpack.

And it gets caught
under my arms
when they slam down
after a trip
across the monkey bars.

And I have to wash it,
so, so
much.

But I'm glad my hair
has grown out
so long.

8/27/2015
Riley Welch

Look

Look!
You can see the end now.
Finally stretched out
upon us!
The creeping edge.

Do we approach it?
Watch with guarded view.

The fall would be steep.
Carry yourself carefully.
As you step, feel the ground,
move truly, more truly,
beneath you.

Let your toes
steady themselves
along the edge.

Let your feet feel freedom
that you cannot.

9/22/2015
Riley Welch

Could it be?

I feel
as though
I am growing
more familiar
with this life.

I once
had to
think of my
writing hand
to remember the directions.
I now tell right and left
just by knowing.

9/16/2015
Riley Welch