If I’m thinking something mean about somebody else
It’s a sign
I need to be nicer to myself.
By: Allison Gems
Tag: poem
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You stand there
Staring at meAll day
Every day
from across the field,A mockery of a human being.
You think you can fool me
into thinking you’re something you’re not?The others stay away in fear
but
One day
– when you least expect it –
I will swoop inAnd peck your eyes out.
scarecrow.
By: Allison Gems
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Stay
Come for the art
Stay for the show
Leave a piece of my heart
And glow, baby, glow
By: Allison Gems
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Missing:
Did you ever feel like something was
missing?
Did you ever wonder if it was the
real
You?
By: Allison Gems
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Loneliness (she/her)
Loneliness sits with me on rainy days
In a chair by the window
Eyes like mist, clothed in gray
She blows on tea like a meditationSteadfast like winter
Form growing thinner
Sometimes she’s wisdom
Sometimes she’s fogLoneliness visits me at midnights
When I feel the deep purple ache
The orange bitternessA hush falls over the room
And like a dark blue cloud
She settles next to me
On the other side of the bed
An enigmatic presence
Quiet and knowingWhen I feel alone
Loneliness is thereSaying, notice me
Peaceful solitude
awaits.By: Allison Gems
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Working hard is not a virtue
It took
Years of narcissistic abuse
Relentless
Demands of perfection
Compulsory heterosexuality
Catholic education
Save the world expectations
Graduation into recession
Know what you want now
No room for doubt
No time for life experience
What makes you special, unique
The best!!!
When you’re dead, you can finally rest
(If you’ve earned it)Spending my 20s
Crying and screaming in the car
And not knowing why, when
I’m supposed to be happy, fulfilled and
Grateful all the timeIt took
An abusive relationship
Relentless
To-do lists for self-improvement
Blossoming brain lesions
Literally turning against myself on a
Cellular levelIt took
One election
A worldwide pandemic
Years of isolation
A school shooting
Algorithms breeding division
Media monetized by despair
RelentlessIt took
One
moreelection .
And
It took me a lifetime
To understand thatWorking hard is
Not
A virtue.***
I’ve been holding my breath
My entire life
The tiniest step away from demise
Living in constant terror
That making the smallest noise will
Unleash the beast
Of ultimate destruction
And it will be my fault.That it will be the mere fact of my existence
One small inhale
That will end the world
And that the beast is not responsible
But my need to breatheWorking hard
is not a virtue.By: Allison Gems
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The DJ is my only friend
They call me a late bloomer
And here I am,
Dancing under the full moon
Growing and glowing in the heat of JuneIt’s the late shift at the Factory
And I’m dancing alone at the queer joy party
The DJ is my only friend
And she doesn’t even know it yetSilver jewels drip down my neck
Spotlights sliding up the walls
And the kids sing, “Every night’s
another reason why I left it all”And I wonder,
Do you know I’m the main character tonight?
I’m directing a film inside my mind.And I wonder,
Do you know I’ve got nothing to lose?
Just old ideas and obsessive bluesThey call me a late bloomer
And here I am:Transforming in the shadows
Dancing with the moon
Buds are close to bursting
DJ, take away my blues.
By: Allison Gems
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Vlad
Sometimes I’m sad
Sometimes I’m mad
Sometimes I’m Vlad
When the moon’s too loud
And the shadows shout
Then the fangs come out
And I prowl the streets
And I dance to beats
Freaking out people that I meets
Then come home again
To velvet-lined bed
Where I rest my head
Till alarm wakes the dead(The dead is me.
I am vampire.)By: Allison Gems
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Maybe it’s not my fault (intergenerational healing)
I’m sorry they made you that way,
and
I’m sorry
you chose to stay that way.
By: Allison Gems
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The Feast
The dead are knocking at our door
They want to come to dinner
Some young and fine, at once divine
Some grizzled, grinning sinnersThey cry for roasted chickens
Tender, juicy, brown
Potatoes, pies and pork chops
They aren’t backing downWe begin to feel quite sorry
For these things we just called beasts
They once were human just like us
Why not an undead feast?We greet them all with open arms —
But by then it is too late
For no roast chicken can compare
To fresh brain on a plateBy: Allison Gems
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A Prayer
I am a perfect Me.
I am exactly who I’m supposed to be.I am the role model I need.
I can be who I need someone to be.God, help me see what you want me to see.
Help me feel connected to myself.By: Allison Gems
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Love Poem to Bill Hader
You can do everything —
Slacker lifeguard who can’t swim
Sweet sports doctor who can’t resist
An Uptown Girl during operation
Mad scientist whose food storms
Sweep the nation.
You play Jim Carrey on Saturday Night
Turn Fear into something more than fright
But my favorite role — though you can’t be pinned —
is a suicidal Skeleton Twin.Your love for your sister, teacher and fish
Your Halloween dress, your one shattered wish
Shining bright in the bar, dancing slow, feeling wild
Red lips and fake tits
Like when you were a child —
You cast aside the words that wound you
Slicing deep like knives
You knew what she meant
And jumped in the pool
To save one, and then two of your lives.Rock on, Bill Hader
You’ve got the full-spectrum heart —
Invite us to laugh in the sunshine
Then prod us down into the dark.By: Allison Gems
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Alien Space Travel
Here’s a stupid poem
About a stupid place
On a stupid planet
In outer spaceThe day has come
When aliens leave
To seek their fortunes
And sights unseenAnd do our little travelers
Take spaceships? No!
They fly down rivers
On happy hipposThey soar down swamps
On alligators
They see new cars
And say, see you later!The little ones climb on dragonflies
The elders hop on butterflies…And as for the Alien King and Queen:
They’re in a hot pink limousine
By: Allison Gems
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A Love Poem for Me
Somewhere in this world there is
A place where you belong
Where everything you do is write
And moonlight is your songWhere seas lie still like blue-green glass
And grass grows soft and wild
Where time is kind and Love divine
Becomes a reborn childBy: Allison Gems
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Midnight Bus Ride
At night
I am sitting in the back of a bus
Staring down the dark narrow center
While shadows slide against the floor.
It’s a bumpy ride, but I feel calm —
Like something could slither next to me,
Whisper dark things in my ear,
And I would know
Exactly
What to do.
By: Allison Gems
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Make ‘Em Pay
I like the chip on your shoulder
I like the howl in your voice
Just the right imperfections.Your opinions carry a little more weight
You’re dropping your vowels and I’m taking the bait
I can almost feel your teeth
on my shoulder bladesIt’s my velvet you’re snagging
My focus you’re dragging
What I’m saying is you’re resonatingThat ever-present almost touch,
little
– aching –
space
Between our fingersSomeone should paint us on the ceiling
Revel in this glorious agony we’ve createdLet’s make the tourists pay.
By: Allison Gems
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Listening to music late at night
I want to hear my name in your mouth
Say it.
— Just —
Say it.
By: Allison Gems
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The girls in the margins of my notebooks
The girls in the margins of my notebooks
Have eyelashes like flames
Hooked noses
Eyeliner
Dimples
Big, curvaceous lips.Some have freckles
Others, piercings
A few with teeth.Some have necks
Chokers and shoulders
Cleavage and diamondsBut all of them
Stare at me
With the same hand drawn eyes
That say,I
Know
You.By: Allison Gems
Allison Gems 