Best Pillowcase Poems
With lonesome fingers I now trace
the lost impression of your face
that once compressed my pillowcase
washed away but not erased
now by polka dots of tears replaced
I'm having nightmares but I'm still awake
Hoping that thoughts of you won't steal the day
This vodka hasn't done anything to kill the pain
So I'm in bed with tears on the pillowcase
I should be ashamed because I don't know the name of the girl I just woke up with
She's just someone I met in the club to help me get over the girl I just broke up with
I felt sick in my stomach when she left, I was eating but she chose the dish
I wanted to tell her I loved her, I should have spoke up quick
Maybe I read you wrong because I thought we were on the same page
I'd rather be honest about it all, than put it all on a blame page
If this was all an act by you
Then I guess you belong on the main stage
Every secret you told me, will stay with me I won't speak it
I wish we were still speaking, but the piece of my heart you left with you can keep it
Maybe this was all my fault
Because I put you on a pedestal so high that even I couldn't reach it
I'll heal in time, but right now my heart feels the pain
I'm having nightmares but I'm still awake
Love songs and vodka to try and kill the pain
One day my tears will dry and there will be no tears on the pillowcase
Rain on the window
Tears on a pillowcase
Empty bottles of Vodka
Music playing to the sounds of my heartbreak
We started off so well
Everything seemed perfect
Told secrets I thought I'd never tell
Because you seemed worth it
Memories of you in lingerie
Your body looked so great
Your bedroom eyes told a story
My tongue wrote the words on your page
I was a game you were playing
My all wasn't enough
I'm crying while it's raining
Wishing you would call me up
But you cheated with him
So here I lay alone
My heart is broken
By the dream girl I wish i'd never known
The love is gone
Was it ever there?
Was it a dream?
Are feelings ever clear?
Rain on the window
Tears on a pillowcase
Empty bottles of Vodka
Music playing to the sounds of my heartbreak
A pillowcase backpack, camping under the kitchen table.
Lost in imagination, deaf to strife.
In every way full of wonder of life.
Holed up in a couch cushion bunker.
Barefoot and bare chested.
Taking aim to fire a one-eyed shot.
Make believe enemies threaten an onslaught.
Built a kingdom of cardboard
With a window cut by a kitchen knife.
A quarter inch of corrugated paper,
Captured imagination now vanished like water vapor.
The boy inside still resides though the memory needs prodding.
Make believe turned to believing in what he makes.
Construction in cardboard again he undertakes.
This time with less charm and laughter.
Replacing pure gold with iron pyrite.
Like replacing the sun with a porch light.
One is fueled by timeless truth
Penetrating the darkness of space.
A flash of this lightning epistle
Descending on earth like a heaven sent missile.
The other a cheap motel incandescent,
Off-white, almost yellow.
With tiny circling friends that drone on.
And only if someone left the light on.
Retreating back to a cardboard box.
Smells and feels familiar.
The box seems smaller or am I older?
Don’t care. I’m with a heaven sent soldier.
Now this box is as grand as the first.
With the same laughter and bright eyes peeking around the corner.
Making believe is reborn in the eyes of another.
When have you last seen the underside of a kitchen table?
Or crawled through a paper tunnel?
To peep with a grin when you reach the end.
When?
Tears now soak the pillowcase where once you laid your head
I am weeping uncontrollably now that eulogies have been said,
And since you are gone with the wind, I know you are really dead.
I cannot stop sobbing, and my sodden dreams will go on forever
Just as I know our love will go on forever and forever, however,
It is clear to me, now, that we were never meant to be together
Forever, my dearest darling, I know in heaven you are crying tears
Up there somewhere…salty tears flow into your sweet, lovely ears,
So much so, that "my achy, breaky heart" * can find no cheers.
I shall preserve this pillowcase in plastic to allay my recurring fears
I knew our love was not meant to last, I am weeping in my beers,
For you have gone away from me, and I am drowning in my tears.
FIRST PLACE WINNER
Written July 12, 2021
For “The Goblin’s Jewel Box 1” Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Jack Webster
HONORABLE MENTION
"Broken Heart" Poetry Contest
All Poetry - October 20, 2021
[* with a nod to Billy Ray Cyrus]