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Sooty

A poem about love

By Silver DauxPublished about a year ago 1 min read
Sooty
Photo by Jacqueline Day on Unsplash

I live alone

In the shadowed breaths

Plaguing my head

And the whiskey stains

Rubbing sharp fingers

Across the soft parts

Still left in my soul.

.

There aren't many pieces

Still inside of me

That burn from the liquor

But those sooty fingerprints

Where Night itself

Used to touch me,

Those still ache.

.

The alcohol touches them,

Runs a reverent tongue

Over the raw skin

And makes me burn

With the knowledge

That this is going away too,

Just like you.

.

Like the tendrils of night

Shifting and turning to mist,

A fog settling in the dug graves

Of my soul.

Empty for now,

Waiting for when

It becomes too much.

.

And what?

And I throw you out

With the Monday morning

Trashcan full to the brim

With snotty tissues

And dreams

That clog up my lungs.

.

Don't worry.

I'll pick you out of the trash

Before the sanitation officer

Shows up anyway.

I can't expel the toxicity,

The agony of this feeling,

Because then it's gone.

.

I will do anything

To cling to this dream,

This vanishing space

Where what was could be,

Where what died in my arms

Still has its faint and pretty

Heartbeat.

heartbreaksad poetrylove poems

About the Creator

Silver Daux

Shadowed souls, cursed magic, poetry that tangles itself in your soul and yanks out the ugly darkness from within. Maybe there's something broken in me, but it's in you too.

Ah, also:

Tiktok/Insta: harbingerofsnake

Reader insights

Nice work

Very well written. Keep up the good work!

Top insight

  1. Heartfelt and relatable

    The story invoked strong personal emotions

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Comments (11)

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  • The Invisible Writerabout a year ago

    Silver nobody writes scorned love like you. Visceral work

  • Cindy Calderabout a year ago

    Ah, but the anguish is so tangible it nearly leaps off the page. This poem is superb in its imagery and creative weave of words. So well done.

  • Poppy about a year ago

    I'm so jealous of your writer's voice! You have this incredible ability to write beautifully unique and captivating poetry! This is breathtaking.

  • D.K. Shepardabout a year ago

    This is a wrecking ball of a poem! I am emotionally demolished!

  • Iris Obscuraabout a year ago

    This stains—whiskey-breathed, silver-tongued, seeping into the soft parts where grief shouldn’t moan but does. Reverent tongue—that line licked its way into my ribs and stayed. And that last stanza? That’s necromancy, darling. The kind that doesn’t raise the dead, just keeps them from ever really leaving. Beautiful. Messy. Rotting just right.

  • R. B. Boothabout a year ago

    Great as always

  • Paul Stewartabout a year ago

    Sheesh. the bar always feels impossibly raised whenever you put poems together. Sincerely, this is just a jaw drop. Like Caroline said...too many great lines. The bit "Where Night itself used to touch me" and the use of really quite unattractive things like trash and snotty tissues, in a poem that feels so based on the loss of something important and beautiful, is quite a jarring, but very clever contrast. Sorta like the sensual and the beautiful with the sordid and the disgusting. I'll stop now lol. Love this a lot, though.

  • D. J. Reddallabout a year ago

    Your persona is very well acquainted with loss.

  • Caroline Janeabout a year ago

    So many fabulous lines in this! I feel touched by night just from reading it. Fab metaphor.

  • Cathy holmesabout a year ago

    Damn, girl. You did it again, you brilliant creature. Love this!

  • Kelli Sheckler-Amsdenabout a year ago

    Sooty fingerprints. Gorgeous

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