Shadow Poetry

what a pair we make, coming to love and break

Daphne Shadows2 Comments

there’s supposed to be something beautiful in me

but can you see?

slide beneath my skin until you believe

the child in me shouldn’t relieve

for there’s a monster in here

and it’s watching you, dear.

I bet you don’t know

the misery, rage, or woe

hiding behind my smile

I haven’t let it out in a while

be nice, smile pretty

all you want from me

this little child in me, so sweet

of course, you can see her, meet

oh yes, she’s real

can dream, wish, feel

but these ribs want to break

cages, dreams don’t make

this monster you think is caged

an exoskeleton building ‘til enraged

when I sink into my identity

you don’t recognize me

most people don’t really want

to know you’re a ghoul, a haunt

you can lace my boots

clean my gun before it shoots

ignore the blood on my lips

and the wreckage of ghost ships

but once you try to play, break, sway?

you can’t escape the monster in me.

there’s supposed to be something beautiful in me

and one day you’ll see

slide beneath my skin until you believe

the monster in me can relieve

for there’s a war out there

and it’s coming for you, dear.

by Daphne Shadows

Stream of Consciousness

is social media a hamster wheel?

Daphne Shadows2 Comments

do you ever consider deleting all your social media?

facebook, twitter, instagram?

i wonder if there’s any point in it.

i mean, i’ve garnered some pretty freaking cool relationships because of it… but none of which would really be effected if i disappeared.

i mean, am i contributing anything good? PURPOSEFUL? helpful?

i don’t know, really.

human connection is such an infinite, finite, ever-changing and solid thing. it’s like trying to capture smoke in a bottle. did you really get it? or is everything simply a hamsters-running-in-a-wheel, situation? pointless and useless, but keeps you moving, feeling like you’re going somewhere?

i just don’t know.

is my footprint, simply there? or is it a positive influence that actually helps someone, anyone?

how many times can one blather on about their inner workings? (when the right mood hits, i can, for eons) and is it any use?

in this world of attacking someone for having a different favorite hairstyle than you and digging through years old tweets (leaving zero room for human growth or change, apparently) specifically for the purpose of smearing their name in the mud – am i more than a whisper? am i contributing? or am i simply fooling myself?

is it that when everyone has a megaphone, no one does? or is it truly that negativity always screams louder and most days, people search that out for the drama? meanwhile, the positivity is buried. buried, even, by all the mundane yammering of normalcy and humanness that is to be human?

and for all my speaking – am i saying anything worth hearing?

i. just. don’t. know.

Shadow Poetry

Blood & Salt

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I have days
Where I wish
I wasn’t

My fingertips
Burning
With all this
Broken belief

Broken mirrors
Full of dreams
I naively
Dreamt

There are all
These rules
Where I just
Don’t belong

My soul
Is a song
No one wants
To sing

Hope is
A betrayer
A siren song
Sweet lullaby
Sweeping in
To caress

Only,
I don’t see
Until it’s too late
The charcoal claws
Coming for
My soft underbelly

Carving out the warmth
Leaving me hollow
In bed sheets
Wet with blood and salt
Tears I didn’t know
I had left

No porcelain grave
To weep for
My loss

I am barred
From slumber
Repreive

I am begging
For magic
On my knees
Before the abyss

When I’m honest
Alone with
The helpless child
And monster
In me
I wish
I wish I wasn’t

by Daphne Shadows

Shadow Poetry

physio logical

Daphne Shadows2 Comments

remember to breathe into the still moments

the ones decorated with your tears, hiding in the background

the small ember of hope, dancing just out of reach

they’re waiting for you

to see them

touch them

remember to breathe into the painful moments

the one’s teaching you something, scars leaving behind your map

the large expanse of needing, underneath the floorboards

they’re built in

already used up

but renewable

remember to breathe into the forgotten moments

the one’s that broke you, leaving breadcrumbs behind your eyes

subtle hiccups of laughter and sunshine, as winter douses your flames

they’re lovely

love letters

savour them

remember to breathe into the unwanted moments

i know they hurt, but you’re stronger than their framework

your foundation is made of pillow talk and early morning dances

you can do this

they whisper

keep going

remember to breathe into the silence

and when it comes, you will be ready

to hear its brilliance

written inside

your bones

By Daphne Shadows

Micro Stories · Shadow Poetry

lift

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the wind whispers through your embrace. heat strangling the darkness with lace. and they forgot to look for you. should have done so when the lights were on. to be honest, they thought your light would be gone. give it a few days as they pursed their lips and dropped poison down the line.

but we can all see you now. waiting on the horizon, darkness draping you ablaze until it’s hard to look at you. harder to look away. all their hushed gatherings, blood in the drain… for nothing. not even they could hide the brilliance of your silhouette.

not with a thousand nooses. not with a single lie.

traipsing around in ringlets and finery, death shrouds at their wrists. even they stood in awe when night fell. you’d won when they’d counted on you coming undone.

its dangerous to forget. the waves can only erode so many bodies. their secrets can only hold so many people down. until someone remembers you.

a single voice to wake your truth. then nothing can hold you back.

insidious breath never smothers the live fire.

By Daphne Shadows

Stream of Consciousness

Sit Like a Lady

Daphne Shadows2 Comments

Bite your tongue!

Do as you’re told.

You should smile more.

You don’t belong here.

Nice girls don’t get angry.

I need it.

Grin and bear it.

Don’t be ungrateful. Do as he said.

You were asking for it.

Sit like a lady.

NO

Shadow Poetry

you

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You tiptoed into my soul without my say so, slinging all these empty glass jars out of my closet and into my rib cage, breaking the siren song of eternal silence against the wall of this slippery, pumping, bloody mess that keeps me alive.

That’s a falsity. You didn’t tiptoe. You brushed your fingers through the sand, dug them into my scalp, kicking up all these embers until I was choking on the smoke of my own madness. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it.

I don’t know if I should smile ’til you’re on your knees or batter up and swing, let you burn inside my skin or bury you under your audacity to waltz into my heart.

So I’m standing on a doorway, sleeping under a fence, waking in between, drowning in the liminal. Fire dripping off my lips, teeth bared, trying to get a hold on reality. there’s a blurry sign somewhere but I’ve gone blind under the weight of the unknown. patience isn’t my thing, you see. dangerous, to make me wait.

I am neither walking on sunshine nor hunting the darkness to render my nightmares broken and this is confusing to me. I am not that way on a normal day.

So what’s me? The parts you don’t see:

I’m a wild animal, sweet and carefree until you realize I’m a predator and you’re all alone, where you’ve given yourself over to me, signed before you saw me. straight for the kill and you’ll learn. oh, you’ll learn. I am a wildfire you asked for but didn’t expect. I am the lightning scorching the darkness in the tornado outside your door. I am sweeping the blood from your veins and sending mmmmmm down your spine. I am the monster gripping your breath as you slide your feet back under the covers in the middle of the night. I am the last thing you feel, an inch of steel in your throat, before you can’t open your mouth anymore.

but

you

and suddenly, I am…

I am unsure if I’m going to hurt because of you or love you

I guess it depends

on you.

A letter to myself.

by Daphne Shadows

Shadow Poetry

coiled

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I am a live fire or flatlining and nothing else.

I am broken glass and feathery down.

Starless night and sun soaked waves.

I am everything that aches when no one is looking and radiant joy in moments unspoken.

I am here. An empty memory I cannot remember. A boundless emptiness pretty much anyone with the right key can find.

By Daphne Shadows