By Karen Houle
Pulling the foreign body off me—
out of the dress up over my arms through the neckhole—
he says, You…
he says, You…
Explore Poems: Break-ups & Vexed Love
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- By Richard SikenThere are so many things I’m not allowed to tell you.
I touch myself, I dream.
Wearing your clothes… - By SapphoTranslated By Anne CarsonDeathless Aphrodite of the spangled mind,
child of Zeus, who twists lures, I beg you
do not break with… - By UnknownLēodum is mīnum swylce him mon lāc gife;
willað hȳ hine āþecgan gif hē on þrēat cymeð.
Ungelīc is ū… - By Cornelius EadySome folks will tell you the blues is a woman,
Some type of supernatural creature.
My mother would tell… - By Tilsa OttaTranslated By Farid MatukI like to think that when lovers say they’ll love forever
That really their love does last forever
And… - By Cheryl ClarkeI could use a good ole R&B lyric
right about now to face this hard absence.
Only its terse verse can approximate
the testament.
Or the big arms of “these arms”
circling my wide waist
to close the space
after all the years
... - By Salima RiveraDied: Our vows to love, honor, and cherish.
Time: Left suddenly on a bright summer day
Cause of Death: misgivings, duplicity
and lack of faith.
The dearly departed left behind
a discarded lover
who has inherited an estate of left over memories
and a grievous soul.
The deceased... - By Stacie CassarinoI admired the sea, most days,
but not the heirs or millionaires
sailing in stiff-capped winds,
buttoned for summer. After all,
we were the spectacle, two women
touching in all the wrong places,
furnishing rooms with no children
in the hull of a house gone still.
She had... - By Susan BrowneDown the lane winding between & behind houses, I find the cottage
I rented after I left Michael, he painted it bright yellow, decades later
it’s the same color, Mike with stars of paint in his curly black hair,
standing at the door,... - By Diane SeussSome women make a pilgrimage to visit it
in the Indiana library charged to keep it safe.
I didn’t drive to it; I dreamed it, the thick braid
roped over my hands, heavier than lead.
My own hair was long for years.
Then I became... - By Brian GyamfiWhen Eloise tells Kofi she wants a divorce,
he sits naked on the kitchen floor skinning
an ox tongue to prepare Eloise’s favorite dish.
Blood trickles down his fingers onto the floor.
This is not in my head, in my head the bruised
organ is... - By Justin Phillip ReedDoes a man with no intentions know he means
you only harm? If lodged in the scar were a pearl
of such precise damage no tongue could lift it—
Either I am talking about my ex-lover or
I am talking about the president. Every
choice... - By UnknownTranslated By Roy M. LiuzzaIt's as if someone should give a gift to my people—
they will kill him if he comes to the troop.
It is otherwise for us.
Wulf is on an island, I on another.
Fast is that island, surrounded by fen.
The men on the... - By T. S. EliotI
Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoon
You have the scene arrange itself — as it will seem to do—
With 'I have saved this afternoon for you';
And four wax candles in the darkened room,
Four rings of light upon the... - By Hoa NguyenA student at the military school 1956
and a literary teacher at the nearby high school
fall in love Cute:
each day after school the military student left
a love letter on her door Thao (an orphan)
wrote back and left a love letter reply... - By Alina StefanescuToday I wept with the kids as we drove
the dirt roads, grass greener than ever. I felt it
closed. The meadows smothered dozing cows in clover
and violet. A certain valence. It came so close
to something nameless. I needed the omnivorous
metaphor, a... - By Josh Alex BakerI ask when
is the last time you returned yourself to yourself. I
am a hypocrite to make
you answer what I cannot. Love
is a death wish between two men bold enough to believe in it. To
love you is to fade daily. To... - By Michaella Batteni.
i am sitting in sunday school
in a handsewn pink dress and white lace tights
i am putting my hand down when we
learn about david and jonathan
i am not asking if king david was bi
i am taking communion
i am bowing my head... - By Iliana RochaMorning dragonflies tricked by the sliding glass
door, scattered on the porch like cigarettes torn in half,
& a horse in watercolor, its joints light blue circles.
Golf carts zoom over the green breasts
of the hills. I slept on my hands,
flat pillows filled...