Six poems by Graham Pough

Response to Nothing pleases me

It seems to me
That as well
Nothing pleases me
Numbness gets inside
Infiltrates and seizes me
Monotonous and thoughtless
At what stage was I taught this?
At what age had I caught this?
I’m a leopard gone spotless
Lost my purpose
Like a clown without a circus
The feelings truly wordless
Melted shut are my burnt lips
I fear they’ll close forever
Kind of like an airline
In eternal stormy weather
Thoughts recede like a hairline
I’m useless
Sitting with my thoughts but I’m clueless
Searching for true bliss
Wishing I didn’t give two shits

Roses Are Dead

Roses are red
And violets are blue
Don’t bother guessing
Who this poem is to
Roses are red
But lately I’m blue
I feel like I’m dead
Cause I can't be with you
My face turning red
And violets are blue
These thoughts in my head
Just don’t know what to do
Roses are red
And violets are blue
But the only flower I ever cared about is you
Roses are red
My skin’s turning blue
Words left unsaid
Suffocate me they do
Many poems I read
And violets are blue
Maybe it was the meds
But you seemed to like me too
Roses are red
And violets are blue

My heart it is shred
And my tears have no hue
Roses are red
And sometimes they’re thorny
When I am with you
I get super horny
My love is above
And hallmark card corny
I get that life ain’t all rainbows
Like a package of skittles
But I know where the pain goes
There’s a crack in the middle
But hi….
I like like you
For your high I.Q.
You’re sweeter than Haichu
I thought I’d write you a haiku
“Guess What, I love you
All I want is ‘W’
Divided by two”
REJECTION
I choose not to respect
The hallmark effect
Because something artificial
Makes emotions superficial
But my love is my pitfall
My heart has been tossed
More than a pinball
My mind has been lost
Like the leaves in mid fall
And I pay the cost
Protect myself with a brick wall
Building brick by brick
Ever since I was a kid
Days spent home from school
Cause I was lovesick
Stuck in bed with a heartache
Feeling all of my parts shake
No cure like the common cold
And it spreads like a cancer
Through life I was always told
The rehearsed answers
There’s other wish in the sea
But the only fish I’m swimming with
He looks just like me
Alone in the ocean
Stuck going through the motions
The product of division
You can call me the quotient
Cause I'm the result

Of compliments divided by insult
And I’m always less than one
The personification
Of this messed up love equation
Let’s rise up as a nation
And say no to the sensation
Of being in preschool
And losing the girl you liked
Cause some tool
Had a flashier trike
Of guys going on a date
Expecting to get laid
Because of how nice their suit was
Or how much they paid
Of kids sitting alone
In their basements depressed
Cause the girl on the phone
Simply isn’t impressed
This poem is for the kids
Who instead of getting flirty
During the dirty thirty
Stayed in the dorm
Cause they were thought of as nerdy
The kids who wanted more inside
Than their right hands could provide
For the kids you hear about in songs
The ones who only went to prom
With their friends or their moms
Who know as much about opposite sex
As they do about ancient Egyptian texts
Nothing.
They sit around wishing they were loving
Wishing that their heart strings would play something

Nevermore

Write a poem, I have no inkling
I just don’t care anymore
Silently my mind is ringing
My eyes sag to the floor
Scared of what the world is bringing
What it has in store
To my childhood I’m clinging
Why I’m not quite sure
Scared of what the world is bringing
What it has in store
Like the fabled raven singing
My youth is nevermore

Media

Media limits our perspective
It’s like a mental contraceptive
So we don’t question who’s elected
But think we are protected
Mind control once was voodoo
But now it’s a simple process
Of YouTube, fox, and Hulu
They see right through you
Because they decide
The revolution won’t be televised
What stories need to be revised
Whose minds they must desensitize
Whose brains should be circumcised
One nation under god
Just sit and watch your TV
But when it’s watching you back
Don’t come crying to me
This system is flawed
But it’s hard to see
Cause when freedoms outlawed
Only outlaws are free
So, Ladies and Gentlemen
Wake up we’re living in
A scary new millennium
Where kids are snorting Ritalin
Cause the colleges they’re getting in
Decide who are the better men
Divide us based on melanin
And draws a crowd like Wimbledon
But no one’s proud of simpletons
Ignore the wise and wrinkling
They’re telling lies and sprinkling
Sweet fallacies like cinnamon
The magazines are written in
What clothes you should be fitting in
This boat that we are sitting in
Slowly it is sinking in
Cold facts we’ll soon be drinking in
Minds pumping with adrenaline
Times are harder than cement but
Currency laments
You shove dollars down your throat
Til your shit makes cents

I am a rat

I am a rat
Because I’m worthless
Small, with no purpose
Dirty on the surface
Rough hands to work with
I got a life made of trash
While I live off the scraps
Try and chase the cheese
Has got me stuck in the mouse traps
Get too close, the bar snaps
I preach against cats
You may say my mind is backwards
Cause I reach for the rats

I am a rat
But fat cats grow lazy
And send pigs to chase me
Hold me down and mace me
Beat me up and taze me
Yet I’m the one who’s crazy
INSANE
Someone better strap me to my bed frame
Doctors playing head games
Finding thoughts the meds drain
Leave me with a dead brain
But a soul like a red flame
As time flies by
My tale grows longer
Ever expanding
The more things I conquer
I drag it behind me, as I grow stronger

I’m a rat
Cause all I want is that cheese
Since I was a kid
Stuck chasing a dream
That’s fake like cheese whiz
Like balls off a bat
We’re all over the place
I feel like I’m more in the rat
Than the human race
I choose my fate
But feel myself losing grace
When I can’t wait
To get to the food on my plate

Who I am

I’m the sad son of a capitalist
Who’s searching for my happiness
In a society written
By politicians and Catholics
Who create their own editions
Of how we formulate opinions
We carry them to the grave and pass them on to our children
I live in a society
Where politicians lie to me
The hierarchy’s depriving me of honesty
And honestly I want to see
What’s calling me
But it dawns on me like Ptolemy
The universe will never do exactly what it promised me.