Home » Poems » Best » Jessica Walls » Best Jessica Walls Poems

Best Poems Written by Jessica Walls

Below are the all-time best Jessica Walls poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Jessica Walls Poem

Burn Victim

What happened?

I bolt awake, the heat of the fire 
Still burning in my brain.

Oh, it was just a dream.

Or was it?  I look at my skin, 
Realize it’s black and bloody all at once
Cracked, peeling.

I sniff, 
The whisper of smoke still in my nose,
My hair.

A tear rolls down my pitted cheek
As I remember, like I always do,
After I wake up.
Reliving that night.

The last thing I remember,
I was
Home, entwined in your arms
(your fingers were entwined, too, in the hair I’m stroking now).

The heat between our bodies
So strong, that I pushed you away;
I regret it now.
(I just wanted a little space.)

Because the heat then became suffocating, consuming,
As you rolled over and said
this wasn’t the same anymore.
I couldn’t breathe.

Soon, I was sweating, 
100 degrees and climbing,
as you got up and packed your things
then left the room.

The slam of the front door
Was the catalyst.

My heart was the match,
And I the fuel....
 I exploded from the inside out-
The flame ripped me open,
My skin started to blacken and smoulder.

Stop drop and roll?
They never taught us what to do
In a human inferno.

In desperation, I laid there on the bed
You and I shared
My tears nothing 
but puffs of smoke 
as they fell uselessly upon my skin.

The tears I’m crying now
In the hospital bed
Remembering
Are no more productive...

But my dear friend sitting next to me
Who pulled me out of the flames
Is there to dry them
And to console me

Telling me I still look beautiful
the wounds will heal
And that you aren’t worth them anyway.

I now know what I have to do 
once I can leave this place.

Months later,
My burns have closed, now only scars remain.
I walk up the street to the house you and I once shared,
Now only a pile of rubble.

Picking my way through the charred remains of our bedroom,
A curtain scrap there, a chunk of headboard there,
A stray blackened sock,
I stop, and kneel down in the ashes.

I begin to sift through the ashes, the memories, with my finger,
Both erasing the past,
And bringing it to life all at once,
Until I have found it.

A blade of grass.
One.
Standing tall, strong,
And unapologetically green.

In the middle of the ashes,
With the ruins of our life together all around me,
I delicately clean the area around the blade of  grass 
with my finger, and

I smile.

Details | Jessica Walls Poem

The Swimmer

Darkness.
Smothering me inside and out.
My soul gives voice to your name...
I choke it back; my pride does not allow
for such things but

Inside, I scream as I slip under the waves.
I'm going to drown if I don't let the tears fall,
but I don't care; I haven't since that night.
Apathetic, I'd rather be numb
than let this pain rob the breath from my lungs and soul.

I just wish I understood...
How could something that seemed so right go so terribly wrong?
They tell me, "Life is like that sometimes."
But what is life
if you're not there to hold my hand?

All unbearable, but here's the worst:
I forged the weights that drag me under.
I remember knotting the rope that wrapped around my legs.
I was the one who fought against the current
instead of trusting your quiet depth.

I remember you cried, "Why can't this just be easy?"
You were right.
Ahh, hindsight...but that won't help me now.
I know that only I can cut the ropes, claw myself to the surface.
But I just don't have the strength.

Details | Jessica Walls Poem

Beauty In the Breakdown

love is not hearts and flowers
love is the points on the hearts and thorns in the roses,
darts
or maybe love is both
as far as we go, we’re all of that and more
human
confused and clueless
no one else would understand
us
like we do

no one understands (.)
some things do surpass experience
transcendental
but we both know we’re just fooling ourselves
we can’t possibly be all that we’ve ever wanted 
and more
there’s no such thing
and to think that I’ve found it 
with you
regardless of “feeling”
is a mistake

but there’s beauty 
in the 
b
re
akd
ow
n

and even though 
with you
love always
hurts
and no matter what, 
I can’t let go
at least the pain, though 
raw
is real...
for the first time
I feel 
Something

and now I understand
the grace
in a hunter’s skillful aim
as he pulls the trigger
and the
bullet pierces
the buck’s 
still
-beating 
heart.

Details | Jessica Walls Poem

Poetry Soup

Sometimes
I feel it within me
bubbling, hissing 
pop!
beneath the surface
a cauldron of ideas
and I get the urge
to take a big spoon and mash them all together
stir ‘em up, squish ‘em down
sploosh
adding a dash of comma,
a Pinch of misplaced Capitalization
and a whole jar of allegory
let it simmer for a couple of hours
not too long now
and then when the mixture is colorful
morning dew abatement musty swim delicious red hot nighttime
I pour it out upon the page
drop by drop
letting the sensations seep slowly into outside the box
pooling peacefully onto “poetry” and “prose”
and look!
look closer at the formless rhythm
and peer down the depths of the clouded moonflower acrid sunset
beyond the obvious...into oblivious
oblivion
but 
deeper...
It is my soul.

Details | Jessica Walls Poem

Autopsy of An Um Friendship

I might self-destruct at any minute
tick tick 
boom goes the dynamite
it’s suppression
confusion
so tangled i can’t even put it into 
words
What a tangled web i weave.
Or we weave.

Is it you or i at fault?
it’s just that i am sensitive
to things (under)
the surface
a pulse of a real conversation
inside the rhythm of our idle chatter
but like the tides, um friend
i roll with the moon
and when I want to flow out
you? moon? pull me back into the strands 
of Um Friendship.

So “where is this going?” 
I want to shout
WHERE IS THIS GOING?
but “the rules”
and fear
keep me tied to the beach
prey for the black widow ex
and things that go bump in the night
like kisses
and caresses
and smiles
and going with the flow
means facing those things again
and I don’t know if I can.

And I don’t know if you know if you can
Are you trapped with me 
in the shadows
of the moonlight....
....or do I stand alone?
That is all I want to know, um friend.
I pretend I don’t care
or that I don’t think about these things..but...

When “going with the flow” 
means swinging between heaven and hell
from second to second
rolling tides
sticky web strings
real conversations?

Are you with me?
WHERE IS THIS GOING?

(do I want to know?)

Details | Jessica Walls Poem

Ele(Me)nts

I can feel it.  
Flowing through me, twisting, taking root.
In the mirror, my eyes blaze green fire.
If you snapped one of my arms, it would smell like dew, new
Like fresh green twig. 

I am surprised that passerbys don’t notice.
My hair sets the air afire as I walk down the street:
Not even tears of rain dampen the burning strands.
They say you can’t mix fire and water,
But I whip both into a glowing froth and emerge reborn.

You wouldn’t recognize me now.
I am pure spirit, stripped earth air sea and fire.
True, daily I smooth on calm agreeability, pleasant smiles.
But do not be fooled. Look closer, the phoenix rises in my eyes.
Nothing can touch me.

Can you feel it?
I doubt it.  You who tried to trim me back with pointed words
And thought you’d won.
Well it’s spring now, the spring of my soul.
And I am laughing, bursting into bloom.

But I am more dangerous than any flower.
I am raw soil, sharp breeze, foamy wave, searing flame.
All the elements are alive in me.
Bubbled up from the womb of the earth,
I am uncooked power, newly-picked strength.
I am Woman
Goddess
Gaia.

Details | Jessica Walls Poem

Mutually (Ex)clusive

My love.
Your words, last ones,
echo in my head today:
“I think the difference is 
you’ve made your peace with it.”

And then.
9 months later, in my dreams,
a different sentiment was
voiced from your lips:
“I feel there’s a little 
piece of me inside you.”

But love,
peace and piece, 
think and feel, 
Why must they be mutually exclusive?
It seems we cannot have both.

I cannot find peace within my mind
if pieces of my heart
are still with you.

Neither do pieces of your thoughts
give my heart peace.

Details | Jessica Walls Poem

There Are Nights and Then There Are Days

They say,
“Time heals all wounds.”
I believe
and I am happy....


But there are nights
when I shake with cold
and roll into an empty space

There are nights
when I think too much....
(I thought I forgot your face)

Yes there are nights
when the tears fall down
From my heart I cannot hide

Cause there are nights
in timeless deep
when we’re forever, you and I....


But don’t mistake me love,
I am not weak.
there are just....
nights


And I will survive


‘Cause there are days
when I smile with pride
pleased with the new me I’ve found

Yes there are days
with firm resolve
to keep my back turned right around

Love there are days
when I can breathe!
no more plagued with uncertainty

Oh there are days
I embrace the ride
trusting what will be will be


They say,
“Time heals all wounds.”
I believe
and I am happy....


And I will survive


Because for now
at least....
there are more days than nights.

Details | Jessica Walls Poem

I Must Not Have Noticed (Maybe I Didn'T Want To)

(You have stolen my heart again) 

I don’t know how it
happened 
when I was
busy saying goodbye
from the last time you left
you must have slipped through the
back door 
with that smile of yours 
(oh that smile)
I must not have noticed.

Maybe I didn’t want to.

Because I know
It’s all part of that game
we play
I chase, you 
run you chase, I run
And so the minute I turn around
you will be gone again

(and I will frame your smile
and hang it on my wall
to gaze at over breakfast.)

(and you will tuck my heart in your
pocket for safekeeping.)

Details | Jessica Walls Poem

Butterfly Heart

Have you ever noticed
that when you hold a butterfly
too tightly 
its wings stop
beating against your palm?

Do you remember the panic?
One squeeze too tight
even if involuntary
and the wings will never
beat again.

I recognize the feeling
even now, twenty years later
as I cradle your heart
in my hand
admiring the lacy vessels
streaming gracefully across the surface
and the solid rhythmic beating
like breathing

Yes, you entrusted it to me and 
I promised.
But now I’m afraid
my hand is too clumsy
and life is too uncertain
and 
and 
and....

So for now
I cling to you, losing 
myself 
hoping our embrace is loud enough
to silence my thoughts

But I forgot to return
your heart.

(and I think I squeezed too hard.)