Flooded

And you miss her
And we miss her
Why would you think I forgot
It was different
And
Oh, I know
Haven't you seen
I have the words written
Right here
Dark
Solid
Still cool and raised
If pain is the only thing
That shows us
Absence of pain
Then I believe I have done it
I know the comforting feeling of what I imagine
Is her cool fingertips
Wrapped around me
In a hug
An embrace
And I can guarantee
She is so, so missed.

5/26/2015
Riley Welch

Nights

Thin crispy cookies

And sweet swinging jazz

Pair perfectly

With sparkling wine

In tall clear glasses

Glossed with dots of sweet champagne

And smiling evenings

Where you turn in over and over again circles

Holding the hands of those you love

Spinning and spinning

Wishing the music wouldn’t stop

And you won’t end

And tonight won’t end

And they won’t end

And wishing

That the rest of your memories

Are turned on top of themselves circles

And pitter patter feet

Tripping and dancing

For one more song.

5/26/15

Riley Welch

A Lot of Used Pen Ink

I keep filling up booklets
And feeling accomplished
But I don't really know
What I am accomplishing,
I've written lots of words
But there is so much overlap

I play favorites

Gentle,
Whispered,
Soft,

Repetitious.

What gets accomplished if
I spend my time writing
The same words in different orders?


And I can tell you:

My handwriting has not even improved.

5/14/2015
Riley Welch

Dancing

Braids fell out of their interlocking
The same way
Two snakes would have
Untwisted their bodies
If they fell
from a branch
To the ground.

But once you combed out the hair
It separated into
Delicate strands,

That didn't look like a solid body
Anymore.

Soft ringlets that danced out of her scalp
Long and looping
And particularly charming.

5/18/2015
Riley Welch

26

Last Wednesday, instead of studying for my textiles final like I was supposed to I finished a poem I have been working on for a while. It was a tough one because most of the words in each line start with the same letter. There are 26 lines total, one for each letter of the alphabet, but they are not in alphabetical order.

1. Long loving lilac limbs loom lengthy and lenient
2. Over open opal oceans overflowing.
3. Glistening, gleaming, glowing.
4. Sighing soft sea salt scented splashes,
5. Misting muddled massed mosses,
6. Creeping clustered and close. Clinging to the coasts comfortable core. 
7. Eating endlessly elegant edges of excess Earth.
8. Yelping yellows, yawning and yolky.
9. Jumping junipers jazz juvenilely and jealous
10. Tickling tall tattered turfs tough tops. 
11. Numbing notes name new nobles:
12. Queens quick and quiet,
13. Kings kind kisses...
14. Deep, drifting - depleting demons, drafting dreamers.
15. Royalty's riviera, rough riding rainwaters
16. All about, abundant, but so adequate.
17. Violet viola's only vice are vertical venomous vines,
18. Xanthic and X-ed xylems.
19. Weeping wisterias well with warm water, waiting.
20. Planting precious pedestals, perching and prepping their provenance. 
21. Under undecided untouched underpinning
22. Heavy hands help heave happy homes.
23. Zip-locked and zigzagged, leaving zilch.
24. Beautifully buoyant, bouncy and brilliant - blue brine,
25. Feeling first and fresh, finally free but forceful.
26. In-between iridescent indigo impacts - impassive. 

5/13/2015

Riley Welch

Table 4

I've got wildly tired eyelids
Waiting for that final day
Of each class
Good classes
Good classes I should have done better in
Probably
But sometimes it rains when you schedule a picnic
And sometimes it rains five days straight
And sometimes you make straight B's because you were having too much fun
I haven't got complaints
Except for that hot hot summer
I hate those tiny beads of sweat
On your spinal cord
When you're just trying to enjoy your day.

5/13/2015
Riley Welch

Oil on Linen

Sore aching pitter patter
Of Flittering heart beats
Chins clumsily knocking chins
And while it seems rude
To bump into someone
At night
For just a few minutes
Sometimes
It's exactly what you need
To get on with that life
That won't stop moving
Just because
You asked for a break.

5/11/2015
Riley Welch