She looks good in blue.

The blues you leave behind when you leave her, the shape of a belt along her back, a blue reminder of who's who to her.

She looks good in blue, when she's in your shirt, navy or flannel or sky blue, pulled off your back to wrap her in your scent.

She looks good in blue, when you're gone, and she misses you, melancholy honey that drops off her tongue and on to a page, while the ocean drips on to the latest shirt she kept.

Beautiful only when she’s splayed out on the blue sheets you ruin her on, time and time again.

She looks best underneath you, blue no longer.

Last night I had a dream.

It was quick and to the point.

A flash of steel.

A clean slice.

And, just like that, it was done.

A vertical line

On my arm.

From

Elbow to wrist.

I lifted my head

Quickly.

Wide eyed.

And crazed.

You were shocked

As you met my gaze.

The blood

Shed

Rapids.

It gushed, in rivers.

And

Just like that

I was dead.

I don’t always close my eyes when I kiss you

Sometimes I keep them open

Stare at the poster of Guernica behind your bed

Wonder what that dead soldier means

I always let you fall asleep first

Well

My arm falls asleep first

Then you fall asleep

And I shift to the opposite side of the bed

I’m afraid that if I hold you

You’ll feel what I feel whenever I close my eyes

I also get hot easily

I worry that depression might be contagious

Love isn’t a vaccination against it

At best, love is a mosquito net

With a few rips in it

So I build walls around myself

And hope that the germ theory applies to depression

That keeping myself at a distance

Will keep you healthy

Happy

I know what that dead soldier means now

I wrote a paper on it

Thanks for reading! If you liked this, consider following my Instagram @authortravisliebert or checking out my books on Amazon at the link in my bio :)

Nobody loves me

And I cannot love myself

Perhaps I’m simply ill

And illness can be helped

But that’s not the way it feels

That’s not the way it seems

I’ll say farewell to this loveless world

And then I’ll take my leave

Please follow @genjipoetry on instagram for more poetry like this. Additionally, check out my website, travisliebert.wordpress.com

...

your hands on my back drive me crazy, the smell of your skin as I inhale deeply

I bit your shoulder and feel you smile

I want you more with every kiss, every gentle whisper takes me higher

I feel your fingers trace down my skin, circling until they reach my breasts

I sigh surprised, already in another world... in my little piece of heaven

my eyes open, so I can see your face

you stare at me and my heart starts to hammer in my chest

threatening to explode if you stop... 'don't stop' I whisper and your smile deepens

your eyes fogged with desire, the heat spreading... I can't think straight no more

I let you lead 'tell me what to do'... you lean in and grab me tighter 'be mine'

I feel weak but manage to whisper back just one word... 'more'

My biggest fear is that I'm just like everyone else.

I've always wanted to be different.

I wanted to the the chosen one, the hero from an ancient prophecy, the only one who could inexplicably save the day.

Unfortunately, real life isn't like that.

I tried to resist as long as I could. I tried to somehow be different, more unique than all my peers. But all I was doing was sealing my own fate.

I realized soon that everyone else had been doing the same. We were all moving through life convinced that we were going to be someone, someone special. But of course not everyone who wants to be can be special. That would dilute the very meaning of the word.

I wasn't even different when realizing this. My peers realized this at the same time I did, and we all glanced at each others suspiciously, suddenly realizing these were the people who were going to be our competition in our never-ending quest to be remembered and admired.

I regret that part of my life immensly. I never talk about it any more because I'm so ashamed. I clung on to childhood hopes and dreams for far longer than one should. And sure, this may just be me being cynical (and ulitmately, still like everyone else), but I've come to terms with it now. If I die in obscurity, then so be it. I was only prologing the inevitable and worrying about the future, when I could be concentrating on the present.

Everyone dies

But not everyone lives

You can't avoid death

So don't avoid life

Either

Love completely

Live fully

Die happy

-Genji

(Follow my instagram @genjipoetry for more)

Depression

That foul beast

Which scuttles out

From within my psyche

And no exterminator

No therapy

No drugs

Can kill it

So I only hope

To scare it

To terrify it

To chase it

Back into whatever

Putrid hole

From which it clambered

And hope it never realizes

That it’s the real monster

And I’m the one

That’s scared

-Genji

Follow @genjipoetry on instagram for more :)

Words

Were not enough

To express my feelings for you

So I turned to poetry

Fuck

I’m either a bad poet

Or my feelings for you

Are too complex

To ever be confined

To words

Or paper

Or ink

Or even poetry

-Genji