Words Like Daggers: A Poetry Collection

by Steve Wands

  WORDS LIKE DAGGERS

  A Poetry Collection

  Steve Wands

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  SMASHWORDS EDITION

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  Published by:

  Steve Wands on SMASHWORDS

  Words Like Daggers: A Poetry Collection

  Copyright © 2010 by Steve Wands

  Cover Design and Layout by Apparatus Revolution

  http://www.staydeadrev.com

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  * * * * *

  A word from the author

  I'd like to take a second to say thank you to my family and friends for your support, friendship and inspiration--Thank You.

  And, to the readers who took a chance by picking this book up--I hope you've found what you were looking for.

  To Jacob, may these words give you a greater understanding of who I was when my time comes to pass.

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  WORDS LIKE DAGGERS

  A Poetry Collection

  * * * * *

  Steve Wands

  * * * * *

  Words Like Daggers is c 2010 Steve Wands

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be replicated or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical. Including: photocopying, recording, or by any information storage & retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or author.

  Book Design and Layout by Apparatus Revolution.

  Published by Apparatus Revolution in conjunction with Createspace.

  www.stevewands.blogspot.com

  www.staydeadrev.com

  www.pleasestaydead.blogspot.com

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  WORDS LIKE DAGGERS

  A Poetry Collection

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  COFFINS FOR MEMORIES

  Warm-hearted friends depart on journeys to the abyss

  To haunts I cannot travel, to times that have passed by

  The dirt and debris of our past times kicks up

  Leaving eyes with something in them, dirt we say

  Photographs crammed in shoeboxes under the bed

  Coffins for memories, the obligatory 'remember when'

  Oblige the nostalgic, drive by memory lane

  Let's not forget: we're still alive

  The good-times well doesn't have to run dry

  We make the good times

  There's just not enough time

  PRETTY DISASTER, PRETTY DISASTROUS

  There's no better truths than the lies we tell ourselves

  It's not all for nothing, there's something more

  Call me liar, call me savior---whatever makes it real.

  We're all little nothings trying to be something

  Spin me a spider-web of lies and leave me as bait for the beast

  Whatever it takes to get you through the night

  I feel like something when you smile at me

  Maybe to you I'm somebody, maybe you're what makes me real

  My anchor to the world, when you go I'm going with you

  I'd follow you to hell and back, a one way trip? You bet

  Goodbye daylight, hello darkness

  Spinning out of control

  I look into your eyes

  I know what I have to do

  Whatever it takes

  Whatever makes it real

  If I'm dreaming, don't let me wake

  If I'm dreaming, kill me quickly

  I'm still waiting to rise, before I can fall

  Gotta have it, man I need it, don't you want it

  You're my obsession

  THE DEVIL YOU KNOW DOESN'T KNOW YOU LIKE I DO

  In a civilized society we rape, we murder, and we laugh about it

  We pillage and plunder, fires burn as the earth pulls us under

  Gloat about your actions

  Take pleasure in pain

  Walk hand in hand

  As vengeance follows

  The fires burn, but not as hot as the flames of vengeful retribution

  Swallow hard and walk tall, walk around with your head held high

  Your end is nigh

  Revenge taken

  Your end is nigh

  Who's laughing now

  SLEEP NOW

  Vivid dreams of little deceits, tiny tremors that travel under the sheets free to roam along the pillow talk and the blanket screams. Fingers turn into claws; a gentle touch turns into a knife in the middle of the road causing a car crash of nerves. People are screaming and looking for help--it's a pile-up reaching for the sky. Eyelids tremble, sown together with sleepy silky threads as black as ink and as soft as lashes.

  FIRST BLOOD/FIRST LOVE

  I'm hanging on by a thread

  On dreams better left for dead

  Don't burst my bubble

  Or I'm headed for trouble

  How am I supposed to feel

  What am I supposed to say

  That I feel just fine,

  And that everything's okay?

  IT'S ALL A BLUR

  Tiny eyes set deep inside the folds of skin that make up a brow

  Furrowed in anguish and self-loathing, as usual

  Eyes beadier than ever, wet like oil and void of color

  The mirror betrays, hallucinatory nightmare images of an old angry bastard staring back

  Time, you bitch, stop screwing with mind

  This isn't me and that sure as hell can't be you

  It feels like we just met, and yet here we are

  Lost kids at the beach staring into a void where the ocean and skyline smother each other under the glimmering broken glass shards of moonlight

  Time erodes like hollow laughter at the theatre

  To cave in our souls in the wet death of avalanche

  Freezing the evidence that no one cares to find

  It's no crime, it's just the nature of it all

  We're all just lost kids in the pajama-skins of old folks

  Nostalgia is a mistress, Time is a bitch

  And life is a short sentence with poor grammar

  I HAVEN'T HAD MY COFFEE YET

  Save it kid, no one wants to hear the bullshit;

  That cacophony that fills the halls and takes the elevator all the way up only to burst like a broken water pipe and rain all over my God blessed parade.

  What's the matter? Some dame broke your heart or are you just so used to spilling your guts to any Joe with a cup in his hands and a pair of open ears?

  Both? Well, that's funnie
st joke I've heard all day.

  Move along, do your thing and let me do mine.

  We don't have to bond. We don't have to be friends.

  Hell, we don't even have to like each other.

  It's okay, trust me, it happens, more than you know.

  DAMAGED GOODS

  Distance makes the heart grow fonder,

  but I'm not fond of you, never have and I never will

  Give me a reason to believe that you aren't worthless

  and I'll give you a reason that proves it doesn't matter

  You can't change what you are

  And what you are is no friend of mine, stop wasting my time, get on with your lifeless life and get the fuck out of mine

  LEGACY

  Swallow your pride

  Its okay to die a little inside

  A new day breaks off another dream

  Swallow it down

  The sand feels like shattered glass

  And you bleed into the ocean

  The tide drags it out, pulling it under

  Nothing remains, except for the shell

  Brittle, flaking remnant

  Picked up by curious hands

  A beautiful bit of decay

  Broken lives along the sands

  GHOST

  The words of a ghost echo in my ear, the words of the heartless, they do not move me

  My tired feet tread upon an earth as barren as your emotions, like blood from a stone

  Destroy the heartless, let them perish by the wayside, perceived strength is weakness

  On borrowed time you still find a way to escape and run from the things you think you love

  A coward you were, and a coward you are, so why not die like one too

  Become the memory that you wish you were, leave the impact you never could, just do something

  A coward dies a thousand deaths, and you're afraid of one

  THE RUINED ONES

  These words are wounds turned into scars

  I've peeled the scabs so they'd be sure to mark

  My skin in ways that won't come off

  As I go along down this dark road home

  Please, don't change, I like you the way you are

  With a heart hell bound from the start

  Unknowingly along for the ride

  With red rimmed tear filled eyes

  And mascara drips running down your thighs

  Please, don't change, I like you the way you are

  Too broken hearted to give a fuck

  Too asleep to ever wake up

  Too damned to repent

  And too careless to think of it

  LUST FOR LEVIATHAN

  Scarlet letters drip from the wall

  A message in blood meant for us all

  Headless bodies hang from the ceiling

  The terror leaves us wanting more

  Secret desires buried deep in the dirt

  The worms writhe among them

  Safe from the light but close to surfacing

  The serrated edges of an emotional climax

  Hold tight the blanket of innocence

  Hold tight...

  HARM'S WAY

  There's a hole in the earth

  And no amount of needlework can patch it

  Unnamable things tore their way in

  To pick fruit from the trees of life

  Just to watch us wither and die

  Our torment is their entertainment

  At least we feel alive

  Staring unto the unfathomable demons

  The things of nightmares

  The earth shudders, breaking

  Like rats we try to hide

  Like roaches we skitter

  Like screams we begin

  And abruptly end

  DISSOLVE

  Take this heart and break it

  Cast it to the ocean like the ash of the fallen

  Its dead, and broken

  The gears are rusted, the pump's too worn to work

  Give it life by bringing death

  If the earth won't keep it then the ocean must

  May the waves grant rebirth

  May the ocean depths stay forever deep

  BITTER END

  Save that last sip of cold coffee for later

  The world is coming to an end right now

  You'll thank me for it then, when you really need that last sip

  It'll be bitter, and stale, but it'll be wet

  It'll taste nothing like regret

  More like a swallow of salvation

  A brief escape into the world that was

  DREADED HEARTS YET CONTENT

  Like a kid relieved, the monsters aren't real

  But something lurks inside the head

  Behind the eyes, in the grooves of the brain

  Compulsion, a disheartening dread

  Desire dictates the architecture of the mind

  The unreal becomes real and the now becomes then

  Creatures populate the barren wastes

  The darker tastes are satiated for now

  All things lose their luster

  When the dark is no longer dark enough

  Will you travel the depths of depravity?

  Will you forsake humanity to become the monster?

  The days are short, and the nights a blur

  Love finds a way into the most hateful hearts

  With a foot in two different worlds, falling is eventual

  Land soft if you mean to save her the hurt

  REVENGE FILM PLOT LINES

  Vengeance hangs in the air

  Unmoved by the most gust-hardy of winds

  Conversations with a ghost will reveal

  Motives for mayhem the likes of which

  Twitch irritably on the mind's eye

  Claustrophobic passengers board

  The vessel of heartache and heartthrob

  Some carry knives, and others only fierce eyes

  Stares cut, and blades rust and go dull

  Hurt hits everyone, some saved by delay

  Others can see it coming but can't move away

  A force of nature takes man by storm

  The vengeful avenges, free to mourn

  The heartache never goes away

  Scars remain a stain across happy hearts

  That will always burn with rage

  Today is the day where nothing will change

  The scars will always be scars

  MURDEROUS MESSAGE

  There's a message in the mail room

  It's been there such a long time

  Waiting to be read

  The impatient ink turns red

  The words cryptic

  And the handwriting is eratic

  Like spotty audio cut by static

  It's from a man I don't know

  Who wants me to kill

  I feel him behind me

  And even once I take to the road

  Words written in blood

  A skin envelope

  The paper too

  My fingers itch

  I wish I wore gloves

  There's blood on my hands

  DEEP CUTS

  Touch this wound with dirty fingers, prod

  Prod deep like curious worms, or lovers

  Infect me, dissect me, do what you will

  At least do what you can

  Give me that charisma

  Let me steal that smile

  If I stay close maybe something will rub off

  Show me what you see

  Take me up on that natural high

  Let me bleed out across the sky

  SEASON'S END

  Summer's end is nigh, approaching like a race horse

  Its gallop a graceful fury fit for a photo-finish

  The insect-eaten greenery falls softly to the gutter