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Best Poems Written by Julia Jaffee

Below are the all-time best Julia Jaffee poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Julia Jaffee Poem

Cast Out-Unedited

Why
And why now?
I can't believe I had told myself you had changed
Defending you, against everyone
Who told me it would end up this way
Angry
So angry that the walls we built still stand
And we raised the sails and set the ship to sail once more
But the wreckage was still there
From stormy tides that dragged me down into the depths of sea
You managed to swim away from the wreck
Only for the waves to wash you back up to my shores

So here we are again
I allowed the vessel to be carried out once more
Made strong with my hope
That it could make to shore
But I still had dreams at night
Of again when the storm would rage on
Rage against us, 
Rage against me

I thought these stormy seas were much farther away
But I feel the first drop of rain
And if this boat too were to sink
Would you carry out of me out of wreckage 
Or once again find a new barge to break
As my body drifts across the ocean

Details | Julia Jaffee Poem

Ginger

I first recognized you as a brother of a friend
But it wasn’t long before
I dissolved your identity from hers.

We talked for hours on end
About school, t.v. shows, and friends
I met you that night
When you picked me up from downtown
At 3 a.m.

It wasn’t too long that we realized we had clicked
From hours of laughing
The countless stories
Some funny
Some sad
Some funny, only because they’re so sad.
I stared at you the whole time we sat across from each other
I noticed that your eyelashes match
The color or your hair
But your eyebrows do not

Ginger it was, 
Although you hated that
And wanted it to be called blonde
But I thought how it was so beautiful
To have those long ginger eyelashes

I’ll never forget the night
We sat in your room
And talked about our childhoods
When I told you a secret,
You asked
“How many people have you shared this to”?
A handful
But I wanted me telling it
To be special for you

You listened to my problems
Every last one
And to cope with your recent breakup
You made me feel that my presence was enough.
Yes, presence was plenty
We lived in spontaneity
Never having plans
No itinerary
Just the company of each other
Was all that was necessary.

Then I told you how I felt
And you did not feel the same
So I was left to worship you like a god
But unable to love you like a partner

“I don’t want to feel limited”
You said
“Wondering if you’ll stop talking to me
If I talk to other girls”
I do not want to validate your fears
So I say to save face
“I can get over you”
But the attempt to knock you down
Gave you an answer to a question 
I didn’t know you had
“So you liked me a lot”
I was leaving the car we were talking in
And I muddled over what I wish I could have said

Like and love are two different things
I do not love you enough to want to see you happy
With someone else
I do not love you enough to stay sold in your life
No matter what
And I do not love you enough to work so hard 
To get you back
But yes, I liked you a lot

Details | Julia Jaffee Poem

Rivers

So this is the part where the storm comes in
This is the place where the tides collide
And the rivers rise
Where everything you've tried to hide
Floods your mind
Get ready to be washed away
This tsunami of pain

I miss the places we used to go
But the waves have ceased
The land's dried up
And these rivers no longer flow

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Rules of Friendship

I refuse to care
For the ones that do not care for me
I refuse to care
For the ones
That do not care
For me

I never ask anyone for
What I cannot give
I never ask anyone for
What they cannot give
But when I give
And you refuse to 
Give back
Then I refuse to give
Anymore
To you

Details | Julia Jaffee Poem

Don'T Be So Happy

What if happiness were
Like sadness
Happiness would come instantly
And it would linger
The happiness would creep and lurk in your body
For as long as it wanted
Happiness would loom over you
Clinging itself to you
Like a spider's web to the back to the foot of the fly
Happiness would chill your bones
And you would have to wrap yourself in blankets
To melt away the happy
You would be in bed anyway
Too happy to do anything
Too happy to care how you look
Too happy to try to look better
Too happy to even think that you could look better
Countless times you would complain to your friends
About being happy
To the point where they're sick of hearing how happy you are
You're embarrassed of your happiness
You will try to talk yourself sad
You can control being happy
You can will yourself to not be happy anymore
And even if you are successful
For the moment
The happiness will find you again

Details | Julia Jaffee Poem

Virtuous

Why do we hide from vice?
 Do we fear the rain will poison our skin?
A man must not believe that
A drop of liquor will melt our souls
Or that the touch of lust will burn our skin
Do we fear the beggar will snatch our greed away?
Forgetful, are we 
That the flames of wrath do fall to ashes in time
Most are too prideful
To see their roses stained with the blood 
Of those who are falling
And there lingers forgetfulness of the human condition
That we work with the pace of the sloth
And lie down
To get a taste of a glutton 
Envious we have become
Of what we will never not know again
We cover our ears from dirt spat out
Of men with a tongue that is not foreign to our own
Cast shame upon the ones who look at
Displays of filth
That have brought us pleasure
But we wash our hands of that
Wrap our eyes in white ribbon
And continue to walk away from our reflections

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Locked Gates

If your voice can make
God’s deaf ears hear
If your face can make
God’s blind eyes see
Then maybe he can help you
Where he couldn’t help me

Details | Julia Jaffee Poem

Aligned In Faulted Hands

The tip of a brush is the finger of God
Each stroke a creation
Each movement a chance to bring beauty to an unaltered platform
But when there is a crack in the pavement
The hand of the maker no longer caress the cheek of the brush so daintily
The lover is now the combatant
And the hand begins to slither into a grip around the throat of its holy wand
The field of flowers long grown out
Is hoed time and again 
To arrange them in a perfect order 
That was faultless art before
But the master washes distain upon the far gone creation
The finger, now an outstretched palm of disaster 
And so begins the flood