Teenagers

We lie in bed  with our arms around ourselves, 

cradling the mangled bodies of children

 who had the stars squeezed out of their eyes so that, still shining, they fell 

down our faces and got stuck there in the shapes 

of tears and little hairs and pimples.

 

For a while, 

if we shut our eyes tight, our bodies aren't so stretched 

and overgrown,

and there's a little more time to play before sunset.

wph

VT

17 years old

More by wph

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    Cameron Winter

    1)

    I think that when he looks at pianos, 

    The keys are stained and worn in 

    With grooves and dents,

    In the shapes of his fingerprints,

  • Poetry

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    The Eldest Game

    ghosts of peo / ple hiding in this house / they grew up in and left / hiding under tables in clo / sets long thin men pale pe / ople dark people all hidden / separately in the same room / waiting for the seeker to finis / h counting endlessly endl

  • Poetry

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    Portrait of a Man Looking Back

    He can see kids glowing in the kitchen, 
    Hands sticky with sweet gossip, 

    Bright, beautiful little selves smudged by the window that he, 
    A cracked old statue has broken his hands and fingers by banging on,