Inspiration
Posted by Justin Reilly | Filed under Poetry, Print
I met a Queen once
she had a smile that reeked of
“i’ve been there before”
and “it’s been awhile since we’ve met”
so lets take a moment to get re-acquainted
The last time we cuddled like this
we were merely thoughts
muddled between heavy breathing and “i love you’s”
playing hopscotch in heaven
i remember letting you win
knowing it would come in handy 22 yrs later
the funny thing is
you grinned
like you already knew how to make me feel like a king
I was shy for 9 months
i have a feeling you never were
everything about your breath
reminds me of the bright side of my heart
that I always tend to forget too easily
like some drunken bartender who misplaces his keys
there’s a North Star in your fingertips
I was in a hole once
more like a crater
The deepest crevice this side of heartbreak
and you candle-wax blew me a safety net
even before you knew i was drowning
there’s something epic
in that lifeguard red soul of yours
something that deserves more than words
you deserve a sonnet
spit over a shooting star
a song so beautiful
only Queens were afforded the chance to listen
but we both know
you would find someway
to let everyone in on the secret
you are everything subtle
and everything grand
a bright light under bushel basket
who waits patiently
knowing one day the world will be ready enough to see her shine
there is more than just wonder in your spine
more than just swagger in your hips
there’s a universe in your ribcage
that I’m just learning exists
a world of relief under your skin
and
the
jukebox in my chest
playing songs i’ve never heard before
and making me feel nostalgic about places
I’ve never been
A few months ago
i would have never dreamt of being
in a Greek god fairytale
A Promethean fire of a cipher
an adoration battle
between your eyes and my soul
The way you always seem to win
there something to be said for the way you glow
and the transparency of my skin
when you smile
even remotely in my direction
i light up
like red white and blue
rocket pops
in the middle of july
God has blessed me with a modern day miracle
in the sanctity of your eyes
The Mount Olympus in your voice
reminds me of everything coveted
and everything beautiful about “free will” and choice
You are the woman i’ve written about for almost a decade
a sat-fire in the dusk
a prayer that i have been blessed enough to touch
Your a soft whisper in a mother’s bedtime story
the footnote to my heart beat, the breath on my breast
a queen in waiting
a temple surrounded by holy water in your chest
you are everything i have prayed for
and everything I didn’t know i could have
you are the punchline
the climax
in every poem
I have ever written
And I am forever grateful
that God blessed me with the chance
to meet
My inspiration
Chess Match Aftermath
Posted by Justin Reilly | Filed under Announcements
“till the end, I will love you till the end, I will love you…till My end….will I?”
I remember the first time you winked at me
Looked a like a pair of school children
Holding hands, perched a top your eye lids
I’ve never seen unity like this in pupils
never seen rain drops form lip to lip around an eye lash
as if to say
all those “what should have been’s” and “could have been’s”
lost meaning a long time ago
I’m here now
Here to show you what love smells like
Open your nostrils
Let me in
You see…I’ve been in the kitchen a long time now
Cooking up nostalgia and something that tastes like chicken
You gotta learn somehow right?
I have a trial and errored soul
A heart with stretch marks
A tattered rib cage full of wingless butterflies
I thought it counted being beautiful on the inside
That there is nothing I couldn’t stomach
My stomach
Loved that joke
And you were patient
A child waiting for his grandfather to find the keys
A battered wife
At a women’s shelter
God
Waiting for Adam and Eve to fuck up
Inevitable and yet strangely apologetic
I must have looked like the 5 yr old standing over the anthill
Burn marks don’t heal as easily if you only have one limb to lean on
Lean on me
Lean on us
Lean on an intertwined limbed conversation in the park on that Sunday
A baseball game in the middle of the summer
The first time I told you how mike died
August couldn’t have come soon enough
And our fall left us with the leaves
Left you bitter as a sailors wife, widowed on Christmas
And rightly so
The wind in your hair, never seemed so refreshing
Until I’m standing on a light house
Trying to throw poems into the dark
What if I was never coming back?
What if the only thing we remembered?
Was the first time we made love?
Can an orgasm
Mend a broken heart
One night stands of sweat
Dripping in between bricks like mortar
There is nothing strong here
Nothing worth singing about
Just crippled hands amidst a missed step or two
Falling
Never seemed so easy
Write me a poem
On the back
Of the only picture we ever took
Something fiery and short
And sign it sincerely
The last girl
He will ever yell at
Ps Sometimes I do miss you, even if I swear on my life that I never do
I pray these ice chips in my chest
Find somewhere else to dwell
Or crystallize
Into something a little more beautiful than a heart beat
I don’t have room enough for the cold
And I know you
You don’t want to be in this chess match aftermath
Anymore than I do
But sometimes Kings and Queens
Just wait the entire game to be taken
And maybe that’s the point
Love is worth waiting for
And beauty worth fighting for
We earn every badge
Every scar
Every love tap
None of this was meant to happen
And yet
Everything
Everything happens for a reason
There is a rainbow smile in our drag race chaos
We just have to stop the motor long enough to breathe it in
Let it linger on our lips
Like God is our Dentist
Placing Relief flavored fluoride on our gums
Flossing with Grace
There’s nothing to be afraid of Young Queen
Smile
Like you did
On the first day we met
3:13
Posted by Justin Reilly | Filed under Poetry, Print
like blind men smile
and mothers of crippled children hum
we laugh
soliloquies into the darkness
dark comedic self revelations
we were never sure if our vocal cords could handle
ink and paper
something like stone and chisel
we wouldn’t write our names on anything
that wasn’t permanent
so we left out the vowels
left out anything that reminded us of the past
rocked 80s bandannas and ask her 2 “Be my girl”
so we looked like the New Kids on the block
isn’t that what journals are for
locked stories of pain
and disappointment
I was a poor English student
but when I found out
boredom and heart break
were synonyms
I must have cried for at least 30 sec
before my ADD kicked in
there is something
about watching
flame and ink
make love
that liberates your soul
leaves a mushroom cloud incense
of everything we hate in the mirror
lingering
and kissing
our foreheads
baptismal writes of Passages
we scribbled
on rainy days
The kind of umbrella
wishful thinking
that children breathe
and adults only ever exhale
is there anything about this
that we still love
anything not yet written
unbirthed
raw
and erotic
that we haven’t yet tried
or are we just spitting in the wind
hoping our words won’t
one day hit us in the face
bare knuckle reminders
of everything we wish
we could forgive
and wash our hands of
a kind of Pontius Pilate complex
we always envied
or coveted
but blood seems to wash off easier
than heartbreak does
My Mother
Posted by Justin Reilly | Filed under Poetry, Video
