I Weathered the Storm, but You Weathered Me

by Rachel Kelly

I Weathered the Storm, but You Weathered Me

  Text copyright © 2014 by Rachel Kelly

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher and author.

  First Printing, 2014.

  Summary: A poetry collection about heartbreak, infidelity, leaving, and finding your way.

  Ebook ISBN: 9781310557255

  The ache of missing you does not sound like a song, it sounds like a hollow tomb

  Dark trees,

  Darker nights,

  Overgrown hedges hiding houses

  That once resembled magic, but now

  Only exhibits the feeling after being left;

  I am a creaky home,

  Once bright and shining,

  Now tired and falling apart.

  I could use an extra coat of paint,

  Some trimming around my ivy,

  My windows need to be re-done,

  My roof is collapsing.

  How could so much beauty

  Be lost in the simple case

  Of missing someone?

  --

  I don’t look for monsters under my bed, I look for him

  Haunted by the fragments

  Of what is past

  And who;

  They say you can’t fall in love

  With memories but look at how many

  Do;

  An anchor tying your waist

  To the biggest lake of

  Regret;

  And you’re drowning in your words

  Wondering if anyone will

  Forget;

  Then finally, your face bursts through,

  Breaking past the

  Surface;

  Just because you are lost, does not

  Mean that you don’t have

  Purpose;

  The first chapter of a book

  Is never close to the final

  Pages;

  So put away your past and

  Shatter all of your mental

  Cages;

  You’re stronger, so much

  Stronger than the pulsating

  Tide;

  And when the going gets tough,

  Remember that I am right by your

  Side;

  --

  I’m so alone, darling

  Loneliness is magnified

  In quiet rooms –

  Fancy hotel suites with

  Only one person warming the bed,

  University dorms when your parents

  Finally left,

  When the beat of your heart

  Is the only thing pounding in your ears.

  --

  Rouge No. 01

  Lipstick stains covering

  The left side of my still-warm coffee cup,

  The rouge leaves its imprint

  Better than I ever do.

  Invisible in every sense of the word,

  Yet my physicality always leaves a trail.

  Wordless, soundless,

  More like a ghost than a person;

  If there ever comes a time

  When you can no longer find me,

  I’ll leave my lipstick on coffee cups

  And know that I would have preferred

  If I could stain your lips instead.

  --

  You were afraid, weren’t you? Say it aloud with me now, fear.

  I remember when your fingers

  Whispered into my hair

  All the words you were scared to say

  I remember when your mouth

  Met mine in moments when we both

  Needed an anchor to keep us afloat

  I remember when your back

  Became encompassed in goose bumps

  Because my fingers traced their love

  I remember when your arms

  Wrapped around my waist bringing me back

  To you when I threatened to walk away

  I remember you softly stroking my legs

  As you called my name over and over

  So quietly, it mimicked breathing

  I remember when you’d brush my hair

  Out of my eyes as I fell asleep, your eyes

  Memorizing the rise and fall of my breath

  Its days like these when

  I remember you.

  --

  Mending Fixtures isn’t fixing

  You can’t mend people

  Who would rather

  Gaze at their reflections

  In the shattered glass

  Than glue the mirror

  Back together