The Changing Tide

The Changing Tide

I’ve swum out too far.
You paddle
in the shallows
oblivious to my peril.

Muscles aching,
burning breath
I stretch my capacity to reach
an unfamiliar shore.

Emerging,
dripping sea water,
I shield my eyes with my hand,
and scan the empty shore I’ve left behind.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Tired

Tired

So tired
of apologizing
for being,
for taking
up your space.

Fuck you
for being
so selfish.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Nothing

Nothing

shimmering in
all your glossiness
weightless
insubstantial
no pain
no gain

hovering on
another’s vapor
vapidly
rapidly
never settling

you are doomed
my darling
to an eternal hunt
for nothing

an empty bubble
a big fat zero
nothing lost
nothing gained

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Denial

Denial

My back is to the candle,
I'm faced the other way.
The human heart can stand anything,
if it looks the other way.

Misfortune cannot break me.
I’ll seek another way.
I won't see the shit that happens,
I'll exist another day.

The coldness is unending
living life outside the fray.
When all is said and done though,
I’ll have lived my life my way.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

(P) Alliteration

(P) Alliteration

pale, pink, plastic
placed persistently

presumes to placate

pretends to pacify
a painful

pitter-patter

pump

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Beauty

Beauty

Beauty without the beloved
is like a sword
through the heart.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Stuck

Stuck

Like a cartoon light bulb
turning on above my head,
it occurs to me
that I no longer need you.

But the moment passes
on squeaking, wobbling wheels
of a dessert cart
and I am stuck...

Stuck in viscous
chocolate syrup and
a strawberry torte

heart.

Lindsay Riggs Brown