Get Your Premium Membership

Best Poems Written by Tanine Graham

Below are the all-time best Tanine Graham poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

View ALL Tanine Graham Poems

12
Details | Tanine Graham Poem

My Name Tag Says...

“Hello, my name is bisexual”. “What’s your name”?
Annoying name tags! 
Who do I wear this name tag for?
When throughout the day can I just snatch it off?

Never because it’s tattooed to the right side of my chest.
the way I choose my life to be isn’t the best,
Some say it’s a “sin”!
Some say it’s “selfish”!
Some say it’s “super-fresh”! 
Either way I can look forward to some good rest tonight.
How about you?

“Don’t like the same sex, 
You’re going to be marked by this the for remainder of your life…
Wait, what’s bisexual again”?

Why must I specify, what I do in my private time?
Do you know what that word means?
Cause I don’t know anymore.

“I’m tired of people not saying what they really are”!

Excuse me for keeping the conversation on the “up and up”.
As I said before, my sexuality only makes up 5% of my personality.
Did you know that I was a good person?
A law abiding citizen, 
I don’t do drugs,
And I try never to hurt anyone unless I absolutely have to...

Okay, I sound like the average serial killer.
But how many half-a fag mass murderers do you know?

I’m trying to be polite,
But it has never been that black & white!

A label,
Enabling you to feel better about being around me.

It helps you tolerate me and my sexuality,
Why 4, I’m not fornicating with you!

So what I’m unsure, (I use condoms and dental dam.)
This country has done nothing for me to yield to such rules.

You can’t even serve in the armed forces, without looking over your shoulders.
So what are you really saying to me?
Nothing!

Our land we love, don’t we?
Paying “F.I.C.A” is as patriotic as your going to get me to be.

Hell I’m paying for the labeling,
So you can feel comfortable.
I’m a human.
When has that ever been just black & white?

Copyright © Tanine Graham | Year Posted 2008



Details | Tanine Graham Poem

Green Back Addict

Green-back addict
Ambition is the keys to unlocking all the doors. Enthusiasm or courage can 
possibly put an end to world hunger. But let’s be honest, who need courage 
when you got that instant almighty dollar.Remember this: the “cowardly lion” 
don’t have to fight when he’s rolling in something with plush interior. That’s right!
I got my eye on business, your business that is. 

And don’t do me any favors; because I don’t want any type of paper, I want 
your “ye'pper”. The gross point of this is, love still don’t pay my bills.
Unless I can, Can it up and stock it on shelves for fools like you to buy it 
wholesale. I want you to turn me own.To you your stocks and bond,With me 
about your vivid dollar signs, I like to see it sprawled all out on table, in 
untraceable 20’s and 50’s.

It’s dirty, and it makes you fresh and clean, you’d want to be me. Day and night, 
anything else would be uncivilized. I’m true, I care  to spend your money, on 
clothes, pearls, at fast car dealerships, I want that diamond life.
All color jewels, right off an Arabian prince’s hand.

I marry folks that resemble “Franklin”; I’m not too smitten with the Washington 
family.I need her and she needs me. I’ll stick her in my purse, meanwhile 
pocketing your accounts, that Swiss cheese is what I need. Call me old fashion, I 
like that 100-year old money, give up those decrepitude figures, I’ll spend it to 
smithereens. Giving that old girl a new attitude!

Wealth will withstand my impulse, to kill in these stores over seas and in your 
town, buying top designers: Fendi’s, True Religions, Red Monkey’s, Baby Phat, 
Valentino’s, Dolce & Gabbana’s, Couture, Coach bags, Gucci shoes, Jimmy 
Choo’s, Ralph Lauren’s and Versace.
Max lip glosses, botox and make me over after the swelling go down. Nip and 
tuck me in. read me a story, out the newspaper, not the funnies. I only go to sleep 
to clabbered-up chatter on how my addiction has foreclosed another billionaire’s 
wallet. 

That greenish blue piece of paper got me firing my best friend, a widow with 5 
kids and no health insurance. (Oh yes I did).Sad part is, if she got have a chance, 
she would have done the same.Don’t frown up your face, Ok, put it this way…
 When I can make profit off a packaged haters, then we’ll do lunch. Until then I’m 
going to see if Larry H. Parker have girlfriend, money calls … 
 You know the story.

Copyright © Tanine Graham | Year Posted 2008

Details | Tanine Graham Poem

Not Tonight

Just awaking in me to be something other than what I appear to be.
Placement productivity, because this is what I appear to be.
That sublime stature, of open emptiness, and lustful matter.
 That, 
“I keep it from you because I care”. 
You don’t want to appear harsh and unyielding, 
In your shielding the fact that you love another,
And I’m cool with that.

You see… I want something else tonight, 
Not to be the apprentice, to your significant other, I want something you never 
dare offer.
Incurable senitivity, showmanship ambition for me, a guaranteed,
Place in your heart, 
A place where I can lay,
In your mind, with room, and space to grow,
No… that’s right I don’t want sex tonight!

You might think we’re still living in the moment,
But we’ve been planning this all along; spontaneity was never an official issue,
Because it’s me, I don’t want the second seat, 
I don’t want to be turn into the “old biddy” teaching live seminars “for the sure-fire 
way to monogamy”.
So go home, run for that bus,
Catch that train,
 Before you miss that plane, because i don’t want sex tonight.

That touch I yearned for, was never the speeding ryhme, but that steal comfort 
that it’s going to last unequivocal.  
If I walk a hundred paces in from you, I don’t to have to worry.
And hurry back, because i can’t trust the silence any longer.
Play with my ears, the looking me in my eyes, kissing me with intensity, 
Is liable to increase my faith in us.

I want more, than appears to be here,
Devotion, extra attention, words that can send warm voltage,
To my senses
You have it in you; I just know that’s not for me now.

So I love you, I do, okay, but your sex don’t make me safe,
It doesn’t protect me from my conscience, when you leave.
So go home please!

Copyright © Tanine Graham | Year Posted 2008

Details | Tanine Graham Poem

Guilty of Pleasure

It’s you again, oh me, oh my. I’m blinded by…
Seeing nothing but an application of a relentless stupidity.
Oh my heart, and its restless inquires. 
First glance, from a stolen photo, first syllables, on the phone… I’ve fallen before.
But never in front of you.
 Revealed, unraveled, now I enjoy hearing the phone ring. 
I feel delivered some how, 
This is absurd? 

The coolest girl (Rizzo), turning into the band geek.
 I awake to thoughts of 
Life with your arms around me. 
It’s like I don’t have armor anymore. For my “amor”, makes me want to put down 
my sword.
You seek the real part of me, you see through my lying. I feel you.
In the air, my skin, you take oxygen from blood.

A sweet smell of butter cinnamon and sugar.
 Memories loading reflections of you 
Into my mind, 
Why do I crave you so? 
I adore my obsession, my one guilty pleasure. Holy sin, locked away from mine 
eyes
Just a window of opportunity is all I need, sacrificing and eating my morel fiber.
Because you are the only healthy thing for me.

Copyright © Tanine Graham | Year Posted 2008

Details | Tanine Graham Poem

Surprise Accomplishment

Please leave a message after the tone…

Hey babe, I did what you told me to do, 
I did what they say I couldn’t
I did it!
And I wouldn’t take no for an answer from myself.

Breathing faster,
I put my pride and insecurities on the top shelf.
You would have been so proud.

With each keyboard stoke
 I moved closer to what had eluded me
For all those years.

And they understood me,
Do you know how good that feels?
I know this message is going to seem pretty long today.
But “Michael”, “Laura”, and “Amy”, really liked what I had to say.

It’s pretty late; I think I’ll lay down for a bit,
So when you get this call me…
I love you bye!

Copyright © Tanine Graham | Year Posted 2008



Details | Tanine Graham Poem

My Drunken Sad Heart

My Liquor language, and bottle babble, is giving you and on slaw of curses an 
voodoo spells. The heat from lips that can singe the devil feet in 
hell.Contemplate; contemplate the real side of the flow of things.I paid my price, 
for you to let me be. I have so much to offer, there is so much to see from a far. 
We played all the games, and tossed off the dice. And now it’s to late you when 
again. A cancellation is to see the real you. The man has in juried my fantasy, 
made me see my feelings differently.I have to pretend to be loved. Show the 
world that I’m invincible. It’s far from thetruth.

My tears flood my tearing wheel, and cell phone .a picture perfect-damage 
visioning all red. I waited for you to show. Every car, I thought maybe… some how 
it never is. This is the same trick that is constantly being played on me? When 
will the lesson ever cease. Leave me be, I want your procrastinating clutches to 
release me.Your passion, and awkwardly glance sporadic feathered hands rinse 
in my sorrow. Being naive is a virtue, it always goes as plan. A painless position.
I sit here in my gloom and watch my expiration pass across your eyes .

Pressing my pressure , share a secret here and there, simplify or pacify. 
Borrowing my sight sometime. Not two but one, that can rescue my from the 
rubble of my solitude. Ok-ok I’m drunk! And need to rest my head on this steering 
wheel.But I tell you one thing… you better hope I keep misplacing my sanity on 
these random sheets. You don’t want to see me with a hang over. I fathom why  i 
continuously let you suck oxygen from my veins, and fill my head with phantom 
fantasies. Need my head examined…or … maybe I need to partake in some 
more of this liquor. And I need for you too leave me be! Don’t try to take my drink 
from me, I’m not that drunk you see.

Let me get what I need, somebody that wants to see me happy, for all the right 
reasons, when I’m starving for his presents, he will only be so overjoyed to 
oblige, with these new found liberties. Because my drunken spirit-man doesn’t 
tell any false tales, but I fear you do. It’s A-ok, cause I can’t feel the string from my 
distrust- so leave me be, don’t mess with my drink… let me get what’s coming to 
me. I know I’m not myself today. Plus you like the other person, that inner child, 
which never questions your motives. Well! That’s not really me. I faked it every 
time. It wasn’t much of a burden; it made you feel so much better.

Copyright © Tanine Graham | Year Posted 2008

Details | Tanine Graham Poem

Happy Women's Day

Nature’s first successful science project, 
The fate of the galaxy relies on the changing of your mind.

Curses and gifts.
 An uplifting redundancy surrounds the pronunciation
Of all your phases.

Kin to the world.
Keeping the earth well feed
With the fruit of your consideration.

In love with all things young and old. 
From high valleys and low roads,
You display many moods and modes,
I try my best to play catch up.
Truth is I’m lost with or without you.

You leap to your feet for good luck,
Only to pass it to the next man.

A fan of peace and laughter,
Determined not spend life cornered by strife.
You stand for right. 
But no one understands your plite.

Do you know whom I speak of?

The person with the biggest smile, 
And the nicest compliments.
The one that will stay to help you clean after the party’s over.
That hardy cooker. That class act.
The one that got your back, no question about it. 
 
So who could it be?

It is she!
That woman,
That mother,
That girlfriend,
That lover
That gay brother,
That best friend,
And cousin.


The ones you’ve borrowed time,
 Love, money, 
Space, ideas,
 And expectation from.

And since I never will be able to pay you back,
I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Happy Belated Mother’s Day!

Copyright © Tanine Graham | Year Posted 2008

Details | Tanine Graham Poem

In Tell Your Eyes

In tell your eyes, 
Wanting to resign from staring.
Your snore sings me a lullaby, or 
Is it you know just when to cuddle up.

Combined audio presence of us at night, 
When all is quiet, we experience passion,
Sharing the days intimate rashon, with sweat,
And heavy breathing, in telling by your smile,
That you just might beat me in scrabble.

Guess who love you, with my hands 
Over your eyes, knowing I just rushed home to 
My sunrise, I try to demonstration,
A display of excitement in a variety of always. 

Your warmth, that laugh, 
I’m now on a boat over the tears I cried.
You just sign, when I want to become combative.
It suddenly makes me feel really stupid, 
Because all I’ve said just rushed back.

I love you, for all the wrong and right reasons.
Even when you promise something you can’t keep,
It pisses me off often, but I’m smitten with your smell,
Right before you get into the shower.

Can it be, that I can be a good women for you
I asked it as I walked to work,
You walked in the opposite direction,
After a kiss, 
That gave me a hint 
That we wouldn’t be playing 
Scrabble tonight…

Copyright © Tanine Graham | Year Posted 2008

Details | Tanine Graham Poem

1:23 Am

Afraid of the rain, I don’t want to be... I’ve emptied Pandora’s Box on my bed.
It’s 1: 23 and I didn’t mean to do it. How could I do it again?
 How stupid you must be…
I just want to cry, I don’t want get out bed, but I do.
 Because I was ready for once in my life…devastated, strung-out.

I looking at the compact, I see the rain out of my mirror. I'm strapped to an image, 
of something that was foraged. 
I just wanted to love you again. Wanted to be pure in someone eyes. 
I’ve soled my soul for it, 
A zombie, machinery that’s in love with you.

Seeing you from cross the platform, kissing and hugging, someone that should 
be me,
Was it me? 
Its 1:23, my heart just stopped, figuring it’s figment of my imagination. Who would 
have known? Who would have believed? 
It’s 1:23 and I’m hurt, and I think everybody knows. I can’t close my heart, 
I tried to see this optimistically.
“I’ll just wait for him to come around”, but the rain is coming now.

Mixing ebony skin, so much he and she became invisible, 
I’m creditable, and it’s not enough for you anymore,
Look at all that rain! Watching the ground flood through my clouded eyes,
In the middle of storm, it’s 1:23, walking off the platform, down the stairs,
With your love as a painful memory, that the frightful rain is my only friend.

Copyright © Tanine Graham | Year Posted 2008

Details | Tanine Graham Poem

1:23 Pm

Dragging his fingers across the inside of my wrist,
Studying the horizontal mental lacerations,  
Stuck in my unbreakable enchantment
Correcting the problems of pass quarries.
Right before the clock stuck1:23pm.

Making my body relinquish, 
Aching promises, 
Two and three syllables cries of beseachment,
Hand cuffing operatic moans.

The feeling of riding up and down a steep hill,
Pleading with you to never leave me,
Touching my hair, 
Locking eyes with what you stole,
“And you’d say; I’m not going anywhere”.

You know what to say, 
You knew what to do to get me through,
To get me off on you, 
A convincing conversation,
To let me know,
You care for this thing we got going.

Blue skies, sunshine, rainbows and wind chimes, 
I can see in closed windows,
Lying on your chest,
Feeling confident enough to believe what seemed real.

But, at 1:23pm your cell phone rang,
Interrupting your temporary pacification,
And I began to fall, 
I could see pass the strong hold, 
To hear her voice on the other end of the line.

Muffled sounds, and a train passing, 
I lie naked and still, refusing to breathe,
Recording every one of your notions,
As you rush to get dress.

Those “Minute Man” abilities,
Time stood still on 1:23pm,
Approaching my front door, 
Remembering to kiss me goodbye.

Obviously entrapped in a cellular tryst,
You ran back up stairs, 
To throw a token of affection at me,
Squatting low to pitch it,
When the sultry voice, 
Confessed your social interaction with,
With four little words.
(“I Love You, Baby...”)

Copyright © Tanine Graham | Year Posted 2009

12

Book: Shattered Sighs