Paperweight Poetry

These scars I wear are my stripes  These bullet holes, my stars  I gargle on my own blood So that you may gargle on your mouthwash  Complaining that it is overpriced and then slip quietly into bed While I slip quietly into death Never once thinking that this is overpriced Dying for you, because you are more than worth it But still I would like a little more when I march home Than a disgusted stare at my missing arm while I buy my mouthwash  For I didn't know that the bullets that my skin stretched across countries To block from ravaging you was only worth a fifteen percent military discount  I didn't know that all I would get on my door when I walked home from the airport alone  Would be an eviction notice instead of a banner screaming "welcome home" I didn't know it would be spit in the face by some and an aversion of eyes by the others When I took my shirt off at the gym revealing the Jackson Polluck painting of bullet hol...

Let me kiss your bruised knees And you can kiss my wicked heart Because I didn't mean to make you fall Or push you down, or hit you,  Or slug you until blood ran like a labyrinth between splintered bones Yeah you know whatever you want to call it  And yes maybe it was more than your knees It was those clumsy hands of yours  And those dirt ugly ribs that jut out like you haven't eaten in days When God knows I haven't starved you for more than a day  And maybe I broke your pathetic teeth that never smile for me It's just you're too focused on yourself  You never want to do anything for others  So quit laying there all limp and your skin red and dripping with self pity  So get up damn it and kiss me.  -anna sluder

"What happened to the stars?" She whispered, into the stark ebony night "They fell down" he said "Into your hair, curled up in your chest, fizzled into your eyes, melted into your fingertips."  "Why?" she asked "Because light loves light"  -anna sluder

You see your breath that kisses the cold air into a fog?  That is you making a mark on this world It isn't you contributing to the pollution and smog That is you giving air to a tree that will give air back to you Can you see yourself walking on the street?  That is you scarring the world with your heart For when you smile at every person you meet You are giving them a little sunshine they otherwise wouldn't have  Do you see your hand making its outline when pressed to the sand?  That is your proof that you existed here  That you made a lovely mark on this land And that you are here, even when death is near And until then you aren't going anywhere.  -anna sluder

Every time I look at you  It is like getting drunk on the universe Like seeing something beautiful and forgetting the words To a line you had perfected and so eloquently rehearsed.  -anna sluder

I remember hope The way it felt against my chest How it could make you smile And forget about all the rest How it tasted like sugar plum dreams And sounded like butterfly wings How one day it would shake you awake And the next day to you it would sing  So I remember hope And I know she whispers to me that "I know you"  For I never knew Hope would also be Love  And that I would fall in love with her for that too.  -anna sluder

You broke my knuckles when I knocked on your door  For after one night you fortified the walls so strong  And who would've known that I would be curled on the floor Wailing, in my own blood, that I knew this was wrong all along.  -anna sluder