"Every Last Word" Poems
This is a collection of the poems from the novel Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone.
Neujay by Sydney
ENTRY
My teeth pierce your bumpy flesh.
Oil, sweet, slipping over my tongue
Sliding down my throat.
DECISIONS
Barbecue or sweet and sour?
Mustard or honey?
I close my eyes
Let fate decide.
Tip, dip, lift
Barbecue.
ADMIRATION
Gold, pink
Crispy, salty.
What the hell are you made of?
Untitled by AJ Olsen
So long, Lazy Ray.
Were you a crack you'd be tempting to look through.
Were you my coat on a cold day,
You'd lose track of the ways you were worn.
And it's true.
I haven't got a clue.
How to love you.
Like sunlight dancing on my skin,
You'll still be in my mind.
So I'm only gonna say,
So long, Lazy Ray.
The Drop by Sam McAllister
Standing on the platform.
Sun sinking into my skin.
This water will cover me like a blanket.
And I'll be safe again.
Over You by Chelsea
It only took two hundred and forty days
seven hours
twenty-six minutes
and eighteen seconds
But I can finally say it:
I'm over you.
I no longer think about
the way your hips move when you walk
the way your lips move when you read
the way you always took your glove off
before you held my hand so you could
feel me.
I've completely forgotten about
texts in the middle of the night, saying you
love me, miss me
inside jokes no one else thinks are funny
songs that made you want to pull your car
over and kiss me immediately.
I can't remember
how your voice sounds
how your mouth tastes
how your bedroom looks when the sun first
comes up.
I can't recall
exactly what you said that day
what I was wearing
how long it took me to start crying
It only took two hundred and forty days
seven hours
twenty-six minutes
and eighteen seconds
to wipe you from my memory.
But if you said you wanted me again
today
or tomorrow
or two hundred and forty days
seven hours
twenty-six minutes
and eighteen seconds from now,
I'm sure it would all come back to me.
As If by Abigail
Shy, insecure,
afraid to speak up?
"Act as if," they say.
Act as if you're not.
Stand tall when you walk.
Project your voice when you talk.
Raise your hand in class.
Act as if.
Speak your mind. Cut your hair.
Be the part. Look the part.
You can do this.
Act as if.
If you really knew me,
If you could see inside,
You'd find shy and insecure and afraid.
Acting as if.
Ironic, isn't it?
The only time I'm not
Acting "as if"?
When I'm on a stage.
Building Better Walls by Sam McAllister
All these words
On these walls.
Beautiful, inspired, funny,
Because they're yours.
Words terrify me.
To hear, speak,
To think about.
Wish they didn't.
I stay quiet.
Keeping words in
Where they fester
and control me.
I'm here now.
Letting them out.
Freeing my words
Building better walls.
On My Way to You by Emily
I drag my feet on my way to you.
Way over there.
Too far away.
Skin. Thin, practically translucent.
Eyes. Sunken. Skeletal. Bruised.
Tubes. Colorless and everywhere.
You. Not you.
Gone. Not gone.
Not yet.
Hand. Warm. Slack.
But still familiar.
So familiar.
I shouldn't have dragged my feet.
Pretzel Logic by Sydney
At Auntie Anne's, I always ask for
soft, sugary, slippery sweet
pretzels. Perfectly prepped and pinched,
rolled into rings and ribbons,
twisted into tantalizing tastes that tease my
tongue and
deliciously, delightfully destroy my diet.
Untitled by Sydney
I'm not allowed to want you,
And you're not allowed to want me.
So I'll just wait here patiently,
Hoping you'll break the rules.
Untitled by Sam McAllister
I like it when you're here.
Everything is quiet.
Peaceful.
So silent, I almost feel sane.
You take my mind off my mind.
Stay.
Just one more page.
Please?
Wondering by AJ Olsen
After you left
I stared at the driveway
Feeling its emptiness
Wondering if you'd return.
After you left
I thought about your questions
Wishing I hadn't been so blunt
Wondering if I scared you away.
After you left
I remembered how you felt in my arms.
How you fit so perfectly there. Like my guitar.
Wondering if I should have kissed you when I
had the chance.
After you left
I sat in my room
Remembering all the things you said, and
Wondering about all the things you didn't.
After you left
I sat in silence.
Missing you in a way I didn't quite understand.
Wondering if you'd ever come back.
Every Last Word by Caroline Madsen
These walls heard
me when no
one else could.
They gave my
words a home,
kept them safe.
Cheered, cried, listened.
Changed my life
for the better.
It wasn't enough.
But they heard
every last word.
Untitled by Sam McAllister
You're still here
stitched into me, like threads in a sweater
Feeding me words
that break me down and piece me back
together, all at once.
Tightening your grip,
reminding me that I'm not alone.
I never was.
None of us ever are.
You are still here
stitched into the words on these walls.
Every last one.
