Teen Ink

Advanced Search Results

• Poetry > Free Verse
  Pawn Shop Rental

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  She traded in her new iPhone for an old pogo stick And hopped down the street from the pawn shop She swapped her red three-inch heels for converses With scuff marks made by the smiles of memories That weren’t hers, but paralleled her daydreams of Bouncing down the color chalked sidewalks aga...
• Poetry > Ballad
  Thimbles

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  She keeps her one-eyed, one-buttoned doll under her bed, Right next to the box of bouncy balls, jacks, and thimbles, Still hoping that she will find her Peter Pan by her window, So she stares at the seventh star every night before she Puts her music box beneath her bed and then spins on Her tip...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  Memories are only Ghosts

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  Memories are only ghosts wearing bed sheets, Pretending that they can still keep me warm, But history pages aren’t enough to quilt into The quality of lullaby fingertips that tuck me Into the warmth of what is still tangible. What then am I to do with the loose-end frills Of bedside manners...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  College Application

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  Dear colleges, you may now submit your applications, The deadline ends when I decide it will end, Your essay will be judged on your lack of conformity, Your transcript will only be taken as a suggestion on How high school has failed to show how much you Can understand, but only what you can me...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  Fleeting and Fleeing into November Leaves

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  Time is fleeting and fleeing Like the broken flakes of autumn Leaves in the November wind, Further dwindling to simple pieces Of debris that clutter and cluster in The pockets of young men and Old men alike, with their forever Fleeting and fleeing lives, Like the flakes of skin that swim A...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  One Man's Organ

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  Cut out my tongue and silence my voice box, I was never one to bleed through the organ, But these windpipes have mastered every note Of sympathetic disposition that words can No longer keep trapped behind the ivory keys Of my lying teeth that tell my eye lashes to listen To the rage that my ea...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  Humans and Nature

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  Quacks are the hopes that are warped And forced down the throat of reality Until reality sets in and someone Chokes on something that was never Really there to swallow in the first place. I am a duck; I quack a lot. Webs are lies spun from well planned Manipulations that entice sweet flies ...
• Poetry > Ballad
  High School Cliche

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  Make me a high school cliché; Won’t you make me your sweetheart? Because you're already my Midnight driving, old-school Diner milkshake with two straws, White wall tires on a thunderbird, 1 a.m. backstreet racing rush In my shy and rosy cheeks, Courtyard harmonica and acoustic Playi...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  My Poems

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  Sometimes I read my own poetry to remind myself how I felt, All the highs, all the lows, all the wins, and all the losses. It isn't always what I say, what dramatic descriptions I Scribble between the blue lines that have structured Every fleeting thought and emotion alike in their sinceri...
• Fiction > Realistic Fiction
  Once Upon a Grey Morning

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  The train tracks overhead hammered from eardrum to eardrum in a roaring beat of self- pity. The sun was new and the clouds hung in clusters of grey autumn skies throughout the city as the lake that lied beyond stared back with its rough tides; there were few boats out there, the winds were too stro...
• Fiction > Realistic Fiction
  A Face as Long as the Years

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  The yellow light broke down through the dust-sheeted blinds in streams that crashed upon the cluttered floor of empty Heineken bottles and broke off of the glass in an ironic prism upon the dark grey walls. Gravity tugged at the cheese and all of its contents as half of the pizza slept halfway off ...
• Fiction > Realistic Fiction
  A Memory from Okinawa, Japan: One Last Wake

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  As the five minutes of the one o’clock showers dwindles into their usual mist of a June born on the back of dead coral, I followed my bicycle as the hill pedaled us back to the cul-de-sac at the bottom. I rode my momentum into the doorway and pulled my lead feet up the stairs, past the dehumidifi...
• Poetry > Ballad
  If the Sunshine were Sprinkes

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  If the sunshine were sprinkles, I’d put them in our milkshakes, And we could watch them melt, Pull out our crazy straws, And race you to the first brain freeze. If the sunrays were knives, I’d cut you a slice of birthday cake, Because it’s always someone's birthday, And it'...
• Poetry > Ballad
  Pennies

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  She never asked me to buy her much, But took what little pennies I had, And made wishes out of their indecision Of heads or tails, as they flutter reflections Down into the dark center where dreams Turn into water that we pull up by the buckets, Only to find that she is sitting where The wate...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  Bathtub

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  My greatest ideas always came to me in the bathtub, Yellow ducks, floating pirate ships, and blowing bubbles. Long live the captain and his sharpied-in beard With his Lego shipmates of racecar drivers and pilots! All hail their noble quest for their booty of chocolate dablooms! Ah! Their gallan...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  Light Bulbs

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  One-hundred and forty-four light bulbs, all off, Twelve rows by twelve bulbs of dim dreams, Where have the children gone with their songs? The scarecrow stands outside with its hay intact; Where have the thoughts of better times gone? I see only crows in the tears of lonely youth; When will th...
• Poetry > Ballad
  My Heart is the Only One Who Could Explain It

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  I have twenty-seven hour glasses, But there will never be enough time In the day for me to say how your Grin makes me smile, how your smile Is the solemn lantern in this abandoned Town that we have all to ourselves. How your eyelashes battered and sparkled And lit the hormones seeping from o...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  Green Wax

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  There’s a flame at the center of this green-waxed bottle, Slowly peeling away the labels, melting down the boarder, Its protection gradually sliding down the side, drop by drop. No need for a refill; you can’t drown this new breed of old light, Your poison is fuel to the flame, burning away ...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  A New World

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  Shattered light bulbs and flickering fluorescents, Twirling twilights dwindling to the jolting flashes Of this swallowing eclipse that’s diluting the sky; Hope comes in the purple envelope of black pages, White letters, and sealed with the kiss of green lipstick. The moon comes at noon to sha...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  Top of the World

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  Keep me on the tips of my toes, Never let me drop from this high, This new peak of rocketing thrill. Never let it valley into flat-footed Walking along a flat mind set; I'd rather balance myself on a ball, This world is mine to run along. Come dancing with me on your tips, And see how the wo...
• Poetry > Ballad
  Don't Control Your Emotions

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  Don't control your emotions, understand them, Let them fill you up, then use them to your advantage. So come and batter this white canvas black, Beat away its blank innocence with your raged brush. Slow, deep strokes for when it brewed in your blood, Splashing streams of free-flying drops for w...
• Poetry > Ballad
  The One Who Keeps My Secrets

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  His nose pressed-up against and fogging The evening window of an autumn night; His eyes set on the road for hours, Watching the cars drive time along; His shoulders slouched and shrunken, He holds himself against the window pane. His long ears take-in all of my nonsense; He just sits and list...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  All The Cups

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  red cups blue cups empty cups no cups for me I am the awkward kid with the soda can I am the guy who won't let you call your Ex I am the guy who won't let you take her upstairs I am the guy who drives you home every weekend I am the guy who sneaks you into ...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  I Want

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  I want to fill these empty seats in this silent theatre With clapping fans screaming my name at the end Of every poem, every emotion, every turn of phrase, Filled with people who all know my name, my work, With people who don't think I'm completely insane, But see who I am through my ...
• Poetry > Free Verse
  The Town

  

  By custosimago, Kensington, MD

  There is a town out there with my name on it, And it has the most beautiful skyline, One made of actual powder blue and whispering white. It has beautiful parks with endless wildlife, Frolicking squirrels, singing birds, and smiling people, All come to play a little game of frisbee. Architectu...