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

Shadow Poetry

patchwork stitchwork

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do you remember?

before the veil? beyond the pale?

do you remember?

after the fall? when you took it all?

i remember

how she swept the night. rigged the fight.

i remember

when you stole my blood. left a letter in the mud.

i can’t tell you

for the chain on my heart. my pain is your art.

i’ll learn

from every new stroke. i’ll fix what you broke.

i’ll make one that’s new

one that sees me, not you.

by Daphne Shadows

Shadow Poetry · Uncategorized

betrayal

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don’t thank me

i might’ve stepped on you

had you strayed

don’t try to change me

i’ll take from you

if your lie is true

and when i’m done

your lungs will empty

and your heart will pound

you’ll call for me

but i won’t be found

by Daphne Shadows

Shadow Poetry

contrary

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silence becomes blaringly loud if you’re willing to hurt enough to hear it.

this sorrow can’t eat into my bones any further. but then you turn your back on me and i’m riddled with hollow marrow. my cells turn on themselves.

this isn’t supposed to hurt but my skin is burning with the cold of your emptiness.

this wasn’t a nightmare. how did you do this? break this so fully? can’t the sun hit my heart enough to bring me back? from the edge. from the moment. the moment i forget how to boil my own blood until i can speak through lips i own.

this wasn’t supposed to hurt.

this wasn’t supposed to hurt.

By Daphne Shadows

Micro Stories · Shadow Poetry

chrysalis

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they poked holes in our walls so they could siphon our voices. and pulled down time to remove our choices. but we remembered our nightmares and made them our soldiers. took to the night and stood on their shoulders.

they scoffed from their pretty plastic houses and ordered us dead from their plush designer couches. not a finger, no, not a one. they needn’t lift to get anything done. they forgot all the danger, all the danger in their lies. ignoring the downtrodden’s desperate cries.

we never forgot what it meant to survive. never a chance, not one, to thrive. but survive pain we could do and do it well, no matter what new challenge, new ambush, new Hell.

we took to the streets and remembered our names, they covered us in deceit and burned us with flames. we took back the matches and rose from our ashes. stalked through their perfect and broke through torn patches.

inside their lofty mansions with stolen rations, they laughed and they jeered. outside in the cold, we struggled and feared.

but every little lie, causes a rift. and every empty promise comes with a gift. because inside our emptiness, we called on a light. and with it, you see, we won this fight.

little did they know, we fight every day. with the poison in our blood and the stones in our way. we fight our own minds each time progress rewinds. and fight our own demons as each day begins.

we choose from our hearts, we choose from our mind. not a piece of plastic nor mask will you find. because we already learned, we already know. what we hide is where we’ll grow. and vulnerable hurts, yes, but it’s better than their mess.

so they can come with their arrows and come with their spears. we’ll show up in armor we stole from our fears.

by Daphne Shadows