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Matthew Bailey Poem
In a box full of everything I’ve ever lost,
The first thing I’d rummage for is the patience that could’ve led me
To your open arms at any cost
Slow moving nights, without a trace of day-dreamt advice
My home away from home you provided, but without a trace of a porch light
Well I’ll find you but it’ll take so much out of me
And I’ll hunker down and prepare for the motivation I’ll lose suddenly
Well I don’t have the time to find everything
and here is where I put myself aside to choose priorities
But in a box full of everything I’ve ever lost,
The first thing I would scour for
is the opportunity for mental bandages, only a damaged soul could’ve ignored
And every ring of earth's rotation bringing me to a soured destination
Of knowing now, that you were the glass that kept us separated
I’m antagonizing fight or flight so we establish who controls this
My head’s too far in the clouds, I’m blind to where the runway is
And it's getting hard to tell
of what rejections were the world’s protection
And what were just sacrifices
But in a box full of everything I’ve ever lost
The first and only thing I would gaze for,
Is the paper you riveted with every metaphor
That would’ve changed my view of you, had I not tossed
But mistakes are the thorns that bring intimidation to every flower;
Dwelling on them won’t make you more well-rounded
And it’s about time I started living my life in my own honor
Cause everything I’ve ever lost,
Took a nerve laced under skin and numbed the ends
Before the people pleaser in me attempted to plea with one-sided amends
That would have led me nowhere,
With no one to carry me
So in a box full of everything I’ve ever lost,
I’m peering for ashes, post-flame
From a shifting smile that disintegrates
Copyright © Matthew Bailey | Year Posted 2024
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Matthew Bailey Poem
Becoming the prey
I’m melting away like a 5 foot wick
To show a skeleton of who was once the author
Now the pencil tips break and the pens ink tends to escape
My eyelids worked overtime as hazard lights,
Trying to communicate
That I'm still held captive in this reaction
But it's okay,
Cause I could never be the captain anyways
Taping cardboard wings to exit strategies
And sending them through flaming hoops,
Though it's not the spirit I feel I've captured
But I tell myself that it's okay,
Cause I could never tame the lion and be the ringmaster anyways
You already disappeared like a missing plane with no debris
There's a chorus of voices in my head
As painted clusters of imaginary enemies
And sometimes I feel as though your color slips in
With nothing but recycled oxygen and anxiety to give
Maybe this time I won't let you touch me during it
I couldn't count these fights with a tally on the wall like a prison cell
You wanted a battle and you got a war less tangible
You were diving head first, but I had no access to my arsenal
And I'd still give my life to you
But it was never mine to give
And I've always wanted to sing this all out to you
But I'm not Stevie Nicks
And I refuse to admit that you win
Even though I wanted it like this
And you're not one to talk
You already disappeared like a plane, vanished without closure
You’re the personified version of a unknown number
If I'm endlessly terrified of what you think of me, is that terrorism?
You took a dirty needle and injected a lifes supply
Of a doctor-complex
with a degree in misplaced heroism
It's hard not to hear you behind me
With the ground cracking underneath you like glow sticks
And don't tell me you're too lost to find this
Just follow my voice like you did before
And I know you love the role of antagonist
But I really need every confession I can get
Dressed in tiny little bows and wrapped up like presents
I wouldn't put it past you to lie in a courtroom
The stenographer is sweating!
Trying to unpack all these hidden messages you're relaying
I'm bored, and I'm betting we could get more direct answers
From king tut's tomb
I wouldn't be surprised to feel you stab me in the back
In a courtroom
Can I be your exposure therapy?
Can I act so insulted that you feel the need to make it up to me?
I hope you still carry around the blade I bought you just in case
Handmade and white with purple stains,
I wanted you to finally feel safe
Your therapist is sweating!
Trying to figure out why you're not thinking about me, incandescently
Copyright © Matthew Bailey | Year Posted 2023
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Matthew Bailey Poem
Soldiers sacrifice their arms and legs
While your greatest weapon is forcing my hand
Oh but I'm told it's all in the name of romance
But when I fall asleep at night and the pillowcase
goes damp under my face,
You'll know I heard what things you whispered as you fail to say them to my face
There's only so much time you can spend in space
And there's only so many victim trophies to go around in the first place
But you can only ever be alone in space
And my oxygen has already suffocated me
without the shift in atmosphere
And just when I think your words are starting to intertwine us,
They disappear
Out of my hands, and into your layered mental shield of self protection
Out of my ears, and into the file of your toxic denials
Labeled under "reasons I knew I was right to move on"
I'll save my best chorus for you, my saddest song
The birthday card I never got
Said "let's get this party started"
And I'm praying that we end this on a good note
Out of my hands, and into your violent guilt spirals
Out of my ears, and into the dying wishes of my last chance
That you chose to hold against me
All in the name of romance
I never got to see you in the light I wanted
I never got to hold you in the darkness you always fall in
Soldiers sacrifice their arms and legs
when all I've ever wanted was for you to hold my hand
I'll never see you in the light I wanted
I'll never get to hold you in the darkness you fall in
The title of that book I never read
Said "let's get this show on the road"
And I'm begging that we end this on a good note
Diamonds are worth their weight in gold
Your one-word responses
Make me wanna light myself on fire
I touched your soul and it gave me frostbite
Shoulders aren't the only things running cold
Diamonds are worth their weight in gold
If you weigh them after they're sold
That short poem you wrote in 6th grade
On the back of your homework
Said "here's to those who softly spoke"
And I'm really praying that means we’ll end this on a good note
All royalty stems
from sociopathic tendencies
And you might just have the ego to reign
Longer than Charlemagne
You can’t have your cake and eat it too
If our love was shown in wavelengths,
It would have more flatlines than an ICU
Don't worry, your friends are already asking
Who's running this hospital?
Who's running this hospital?
Don't worry, your friends are already wondering
A one way ticket
But not because it's a means to an end
But because if you miss the train,
It’ll never show up again
Don't worry, your friends are already asking
Who's running this hospital?
Who's running this hospital?
Don't worry, your friends are already wondering
Copyright © Matthew Bailey | Year Posted 2023
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Matthew Bailey Poem
How could I exist like this?
Get out of my head and on your knees
For another way to worship
Don’t wait on me, I haven't conquered anything yet
My times a soldier with a leaking social battery
but I've got more danger in the clip than in Chernobyl
And a terrible hill to die on
If this is how duty calls,
Than I don't wanna be noble
I wanna be something you can't live without
Oh, but I’m just a scribble in a page of your autobiography
But I know I’d be the whole damn table of contents
But if I already saw the 3-D movie
Why would I care what the book is about?
How could you exist like this?
Am I something you can't live without?
If our friendship was the town,
I’d be flood and you’d be the devastating drought
You're like the people with split personalities
Each one takes a position on the jury
Where they point the finger at anyone but themselves
And wait for an apology
My restless mind syndrome
Keeps calling and stalling for the toxins to invade
I only hear what I wanna hear
Were my ears produced?
They seem homemade
A lone wolf in sheep's clothing
But it takes two to tango with blame
And I know who you'd have your arms around
When the shame sets in and i’m reduced to a short line from your autobiography
But you're my whole acknowledgments page
You left me waiting for a fleeting answer for years
Is it a hard truth we refuse to hear or is it building suspense?
Does it overcome you with repentance or paralyze your mouth with fear?
The question isn't how did I exist without it
It's how did I exist with it at all?
I might be the final nail hit in your coffin
but you’re just an unpublished table of contents
Every groove in my brain likes to move forward at the quickest rate
While you’re waving to me, fading away in retrograde
But it’s too destructive and counter productive
And it lead me right back to the same hill I chose not to die on
I should've known from the way you saw right through me
That this reliance was just a con
And I hate to spoil the ending
But this sixth sense tells me I’ve been seen through the whole time
and you’re just pretending
A lone wolf in sheep's clothing
with the bite of a great white
You’re a drooling dog with desperate eyes I shouldn’t pet
A house engulfed in flames that I haven’t retreated from yet
Everything I ever created rests inside
But I can’t be a hero in my own story and not end up alive
And to be crystal clear,
This is something I can live without
But the question isn’t whether I can or cannot,
It’s will I fight to keep it alive or will I let it degrade into an afterthought?
Copyright © Matthew Bailey | Year Posted 2023
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Matthew Bailey Poem
Into the sunset we’ll ride
And we’ll see how much you’ve grown
By the last words you choose to leave behind
We can pretend that heaven denied you
because you found your own path
We can pretend that we all don’t know what’s really going on there
A novel of lies,
Read it and weep
Read it and weep
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride
And it’s easier to rule with silence than to silence the ruler
And it’s an easy ride into the sunset when all your bridges are still intact
And it’s much harder to see the ashes of hell with your head in the clouds
But it’s so unsurprising to see you comforting yourself with a novel of lies
You know that if wishes were horses, beggars would ride
Standing there like a lemon
Thoughts too sour to protect your tower of porcelain
Such sweet irony to know you’re crumbling under that mask
A scroll full of ink of your behaviors that could be their own disorders
Read it and weep
Read it and weep until you crack
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had genies in our pockets
Karma in a bottle, you gotta harness it the right way
It’s unsurprising you choose spite
Over learning about yourself
A nobel prize winner of carefully woven lies
But you know if wishes were horses, beggars would ride
Into the sunset, away from the burning ashes of your obvious end of the line
Copyright © Matthew Bailey | Year Posted 2023
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Matthew Bailey Poem
You're a fool for starting the friction
But I'm a fool for starting the motion
F you, no I’m a fool for believing the notion
And giving my eyes to the intention
The northern lights fell on me
And open ice sheets make me weary
I can see every breath but I don’t feel alive
I can see every breath but I don’t feel so alive
I need a radio to play this line to me every day:
Never burn yourself
To keep others warm
Never burn yourself
To keep others warm
The truth is
I wouldn’t wish it on anyone
I wouldn’t wish this on anyone
When someone pulls a gun on you,
You pull a bigger one
And when someone tells you to give them a show,
You drop the match on the gasoline and have some fun
You’re never gonna guess what he said to me
You’re never gonna guess because in a murder case,
This would be the clue they all disregard
But turns out to be the missing piece
But everything is evidence when you’re over-analyzing
Take off your detective hat and enjoy my presence while it lasts
Broken bones and a heart-shaped cast
I wouldn’t wish this on anyone
Military grade, tested against god’s fists
But it wasn’t made to last
And I already know the grass is greener on the other side
Every blade is a shard of glass that cuts me everytime I try to forget
Well I don’t forget!
And i’ll remember that I wouldn’t wish this on anyone
But will I remember to never burn myself
To keep others warm?
Im tempted to test it but I know I’ll just forget it
When someone pulls a gun on you,
You pull a bigger one
And when someone says to blow them away,
You throw the match on the dynamite and have some fun
Oh, and there’s that shooting star I wished for
a year and a half before
That asteroid hurtling towards earth
Couldn't hit us any sooner
And who's the son of a that said the grass is always greener?
I know I should bring this all to my therapist
But I’m just gonna forget it
Copyright © Matthew Bailey | Year Posted 2023
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Matthew Bailey Poem
Feel the fear rushing through your pulse
I'm sure it's nothing like the pain I was forced to endure
I'm sure it's nothing but a misplaced heart beat
Like what happens when you're lying
But I'm innocent until proven guilty
I'm sure it's not as bad as I've explained it to be
Some days I think I'm stronger than an ax
Some days I think I'm weaker than a feather in a tsunami
And on the days in between I tell a lie out loud in my room
And try to feel if my heart skips a beat
Maybe a shield of detection would allow for better self reflection
But I'm always innocent until proven guilty
The veins running up until my finger tips
I'm convinced, my self control is just a substance
Sometimes it's flowing, other times I've hit a drought
But it's hard not to cave in
When everyone around me has made me build a wall of defending impending doubt
I'm a martyr of loosely spoken factuality
But yet again, I'm innocent until proven guilty
And some day
I'll realize the skeletons in my closet
Are just costumes that forgot to hide my face
And some day
I'll be better than the outlaws that came before me
That got caught before they could change
A heartbeat in my arm and in my chest and on my neck
I am seething life but obtaining words is knowing
And watering the flowers of our minds is growing
And leading the charge of a change is hoping
And taking steps back isn't always a bad thing
Backing away from a cliff is prevailing
I'm sure this worry is nothing but a lost and dampened heartbeat
But either way, lasting through it and seething life, is surviving
It never mattered if I told a lie
I’m sure God’s got an eye on me anyways
I’m a fire-starter in the walls of broken democracy
But yet again, I’m always innocent until proven guilty
Copyright © Matthew Bailey | Year Posted 2023
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Matthew Bailey Poem
I'm not addicted, so this will be easy
It's a hard truth to hear so I just tune it out
and I’m arguing with walls
but I end up letting them fall on me
“But it can only be as violent as your imagination,”
She said quietly
Well you're still smiling in the mirror
And that tells me failure has a sense of humor
But put some quality to your consciousness for just a second,
Am I the victim or the detective if I’m asking all the questions?
I'm not addicted, so this will be easy, right?
I'm not here for friends,
I'm here for validation
A doctorate in consuming your radiation; the only way to become immune
But it all backfired when the friendship bracelets untied
and left a trail of charms, crawling to the corners of the room
Another memento collecting dust
Along with the oxygen tanks I have stored
For when you take my breath away
But now they’re all poised and dressed in rust
I'm not addicted, so this should be easy
A single chance to prove to myself that I was right
Screaming in my head that this never should’ve happened
It never should’ve happened!
But I become a shell of a used battery with no current
When I try to fight this
The rulers above me hear fire alarms when I pray for proper punishment
A single complication that could torment my expectations
If my bar was any lower for you, it would be caressing gravity’s cheek at the bottom of the ocean
Like darkness converging towards you at the end of a tunnel
You’re biggest mistake was underestimating me
A sailor who overlooks the water, ends up a skeleton full of stars and coral
I bleed smoke from my ears as the world moves on
And my mouth is a blinking fire alarm
But it’s silent and the blinding light is only casting in my eyes
and praying for proper punishment fuels the constant fire
behind the adrenaline rushes of well-crafted lies
Injustice digs the grave,
But you’re the one who lays with mouth and eyelids stitched, readily encased
She asked me if she had the information, would I want to know?
My skin jumps out of me, and into third person
Screaming at myself that this never should've happened
This never should’ve happened!!
And so it goes
But I looked at her through a watery blur and told her I don’t want to know
“It can only be as violent as my imagination”
I said quietly
The ambivalence of the situation is deafening
And my delusions of how much time is actually passing
Is forcing me further into survival mode
where my emergency flashes must be refracting
Cause I’m the only one seeing this!
And these walls that I keep arguing with
are the same ones I built around my support system
and now they’re both collapsing
Am I the only one seeing this?!
Am I the doctor or the patient if I’m asking all the questions?
Am I the hero or the martyr if I’m saving myself from my own deception?
The leader or the enemy if I take accountability?
Self-awareness isn’t always a treasure
And so it goes
But I looked at her through a wavy blur
And told her I just don’t wanna know
A single detachment to leave my integrity jeopardized
But I’m not addicted, so this should be easy, right?
Will this be easy?
It never is,
But this has to be easy, right?
Copyright © Matthew Bailey | Year Posted 2024
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Matthew Bailey Poem
Slowly creeping out of winter
Would it ever be the same
If I showed up at your door
Out of breath, out of line
With a million excuses behind my manic behavior?
A video diary full of verbal hints to find through camera fractures
Indirect messages, cold and desperate
Slowly creeping out of winter
The aching wrinkles of my hands tell me it was nothing short of brutal
I said we'd do it this year,
You sighed and said “I hope so”
I said there's nothing left of me to share
You shrugged and said “I wouldn't know”
And I can’t relate,
But you wouldn't dare to apprise me this was all a mistake
It didn't have to end this way,
Dying at the bottom of a hole in the earth
But they say all's well that ends well
But how could sutured lips expatiate a destination
when the future remains a secret only time would tell?
The rotted mask on your face, I can’t see through
But I can hear your regretful recitation running through the landline poles
Its now the only part of you there is for me to know
A disposition, once torrid and comforting
Slowly creeping out of winter
Falling snowflakes no longer graze my skin,
They stick as sharpened, chilling splinters
It’s a fine line between becoming less sensitive and not being accommodated for
It’s a page-turner of violent folklore;
A forest of trees growing to appease the planter
Every grain of hope in an hourglass,
falling longer and lonelier
I marched to the beat of everyone else’s drum before screaming through a once melodic encore
Is it really a happy ending if I'm still emotionally scarred?
You’re no better than my morality that’s left me stranded
But did I really get what I wanted if I’m still emotionally lost?
Was the conviction overruled if I was never really caught?
Was I left uninformed at yours or my expense?
Or was I just too young to know?
Awaken, adapt, recover
I thought I saw you throwing your patience out a hotel window
You were just too young to know!
Covert frowns going unnoticed until the kin conform to growing old
5 'o'clock shadows turn to greybeards
Graduation caps and income tax will show
why you were just too young to know
I couldn’t contain you in real life
Just as much as I can’t contain you in my head
You’re a self-reading book that never ends
And every lie folds the pages so the sentences never make sense
I’ve always been the one chasing a firefly with broken wings,
marking the way to darkness
Awaken, adapt, recover, I digress!
Holding hope over her head like a ing parachute
Its criminal
And it feels like I won, but I’m the one who got so personal
This is a dream I'm chasing off of cliffs, without a parachute
Defying gravity and never taking a stand on anything
You're the bystander effect with a cigarette and a suit
Knitting heart strings together like the web of a spider
But just because it's weaved harmonious and intricate
Doesn't mean it isn't a trap
I'm biting entire nails off
Waiting to catch a crimson glance from you
So my insides can start a fire more organically
While you're rejoicing in the silenced parallel play,
This is one indignation away
From you being my savior of organ failure, though halfheartedly
But the flame of the blame is not lit under me
Its lit under your voices of accountability
When they start getting cold feet
It didn't have to end this way
But all's well that ends well?
and how could sutured lips expatiate a culmination
when the future remains a secret, only time will tell?
It didn’t have to end this way
And tell me that you feel this wasn’t a mistake
Grains of sand in the hourglass of our time together
Falling lonelier and progressively somber
I carved the rhythms of your affection into my tongue
before screaming through a once melodic encore
It’s just what you wanted,
I’m cascaded in blankets, consoled by the fire
While you’re staring at the sky, waiting for the gray to retire,
Slowly creeping out of winter
Copyright © Matthew Bailey | Year Posted 2024
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Matthew Bailey Poem
Sensitive skin
Scraped by sensitive information
If I don't know who I am, then what will I tell everyone?
A scuba diver without his mask is just a body in water
A father without a child is just a stranger
A lion's head on the wall is a symbol of wealth,
Not strength
If I don't know who I am
Then what will people say about me when I'm dead?
How could this possibly have happened to me
With the apple in the pig's mouth?
It’s not as red as my cheeks when I’m around you
But it’s fresher than the lines in my head to try and impress you
But you’re still my good luck charm
And always will be
And how could you be God with all those rips in your pants?
The doctor said, sometimes words fail
But I need to trust you
When your holding the scalpel in your hands
But how could you be God when you need a dog to protect your land?
The doctor said, sometimes words fail
The doctor said, sometimes words fail
But I have to choose to trust you
When you’re the one holding the scalpel in your hands
If you wanna be a leader,
You have to lead once and a while
Part of a lion’s prowess
is standing tall on the highest rock
When no one else will
If you wanna be a hero
You have to save something once and a while
And writing letters and putting them on doorsteps
Is not the same
I wish you held me as close
As you hold the pill bottle to your side
It's so sardonic how you act like it's nothing to depend on them
If you wanna be a hero
Then you have to save something once and a while
And the way your pills have given you a new life
Is not the same
A preacher without a story is just a scammer
A lawyer without a paycheck is just a liar
And myself without defining traits
is just a shell of what I could've been
If you wanna be a beautifier,
You have to feel beautiful once and a while
Since when did hating ourselves become satire?
Only when it boils over, is when we yell to cease fire
And I’ve never cared to be popular
But everyone loves having fans
And how could you be God
as such a harsh judge of character
without a gavel in your hands?
Copyright © Matthew Bailey | Year Posted 2023
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