everything i touch, like cracks in a screen

by Dreamwalker

Published June 5, 2012

In poetry (relatively current)

i’m pretty good at breaking things
like the first pair of glasses i ever owned
(snapped in half, the way my shoe crushed
thin plastic frames and shards of
glass stuck to the rubber soles)
i broke all things vivid then
 
and these lines i’ve snapped in
half are segments of all i know
anecdotal soliloquy’s in thin phrases
mashed up words pulled though
a potato peeler till they fell
in ringlets on the page
 
each sound oddly starchy
and taste of deep-fried remorse
 
i think i break everything i touch
(like the cracks in the screen of my cellular device,
blinking fluorescent smears and
half-hearted apologies)
every spine i’ve cracked where the pages fell
or the brittle tears in my swollen cuticles
i’m untrustworthy as the clothes i’ve strangled
myself in hoping to hide all things
broken
 
but i’m pretty good at breaking things
even when i don’t mean to
Comments & reviews · 9
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henrywilliam Comment
henrywilliam commented Comment · Aug 23, 2014

hey, it woz the most amazing thing i have ever read.I love the plot,its incredible.I have actually thought about it and decided......mmh i just lOve your work.

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henrywilliam Comment
henrywilliam commented Comment · Aug 23, 2014

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jessiethought
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jessiethought wrote a review Review · Aug 20, 2014

The flow and emotion of this poem is excellent. Great imagery throughout! The voice of your narrator is coming through crystal clear, and, although some reviewers have said that the lack of punctuation and capitalization distracts from the poem, I don't have any problem with it. The lack of capitalization and punctuation give the narrator's voice a meandering, apologetic sort of tone.

There were only a couple confusing places for me.

i broke all things vivid then


I'm not sure what "all things vivid" means. You don't have to change anything, it's probably just a problem with my understanding of the poem, but maybe clarify that line?

i’m untrustworthy as the clothes i’ve strangled
myself in hoping to hide all things
broken


Throughout the whole poem, the voice of your narrator is clear, but these lines don't make a lot of sense to me. Maybe it's the lack of punctuation, or bad line breaks, or something like that. (Your line breaks act as a necessary form of punctuation in the poem.) These lines seem somewhat like nonsense to me, like the narrator is going crazy... was it your intent to be unclear and roundabout?

but i’m pretty good at breaking things
even when i don’t mean to


Maybe take out the word "but"? Maybe saying "but" would make sense to me if I understood the few lines above it, but right now the word seems unnecessary and confusing.

As skorlir already pointed out, "soliloquy's" should be "soliloquies."

But that is all I can nitpick in this poem! (And I usually have so much to critique, in everything. I'm kinda, er, long-winded.) Excellent, excellent poem! Definitely keep writing! :D I think I'm gonna go read some of your other poetry when I have time!

~ jessiethought ~

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skorlir
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skorlir commented Comment · Aug 20, 2014

Image

* soliloquies.

I was wondering if this would have to do with cell phones - and of course, it does. At first I read the title: "everything I touch, cracks like a screen." It still basically means the same thing. (Fragile, fragile screens.)

And it appears we have a necromancer among us. Ah well. Nice poem.

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Vivian
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Vivian commented Comment · Aug 20, 2014

Hey Dream the poem is great and I only have one mistake to point out. "mashed up words pulled though a potato peeler", the "though" should be "through". Now for everything else your wording was great, and there was a nice flow.

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anna91423
Review
anna91423 wrote a review Review · Jun 5, 2012

I loved this so much. I like how the sentences are just as broken as the things you're describing. I love the idea that she hides the fact that she is breaking under layers of clothes. I just loved it. It's so haunting... I'd can't wait to read more of you writing!

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TazmaniaGirl
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TazmaniaGirl wrote a review Review · Jun 5, 2012

Well Done!
This is great, and you should be proud.
There are a few words I do not undertstand, so I need to check a dictionary, but it's always good to use BIG words.
Make it more.. adulty.

Theres a lack of punctuation :
Full Stops,
Commas,
Capital letters, and there are also no things like ? and !
This always gives it expression, like if you were trying to make something sound exciting you'd do something like :
Come to our themepark, thre's an amazing half price sale!

Something like this.

But, don't let this stop you, I'm sure it won't and please,
WRITE MORE!

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angelhunter97
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angelhunter97 wrote a review Review · Jun 5, 2012

This is an amazing poem. I love how you incorporated your title into the poem itself, very clever. :) This is very deep and brilliant. I'm sure many can relate to this (I know I sure can) The imagery in this is fantastic. The only thing that bugs me is capitalization!

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River
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River wrote a review Review · Jun 5, 2012

I prefer to start with the negative and work my way up. The negative is that your lack of grammar distracts the reader from the poem itself. I know that there are technically no grammer rules in poetry (I capitalize the first letter of the first word of every new line), but you may want to at least capitalize your "i's" and ect. But apart from that, I loved the poem. It conveys both simplistic elements as well as more heavy ones. I think what you have here is raw talent that needs grammar. But the poem as a whole is quite good. Keep at it!



Carpe Diem
— Catullus