Lipstick on His Collar

by Joanne Adylse Lynne

Published September 11, 2011

She finds
The lipstick on his collar
Dark red
Menacing
Smeared across the whiteness of his shirt

She smells the fragrance on his shirt
Seductive
Enchanting
Yet no less alien

She hears him
Crying out for another name in his dreams
Beautiful
Mesmerizing
Yet so haunting

She senses
His growing reticence
She sees
The palpable lie beneath those dark windows to his soul
When he says after dinner
"I have to get back to work."

She feels
The invisible layers of membrane between them
That her love can no longer permeate
Lying next to him
She knows that they are miles apart
Separated not by distance
But the lipstick on his collar

Comments & reviews · 22
Joanne Adylse Lynne commented Comment · Sep 25, 2011

Merci, everyone! I'll keep improving my writing. I believe I can still do better.

Keep writing as well, people!

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LindsayG
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LindsayG commented Comment · Sep 18, 2011

totally awesome poem!!!! I loved every bit of it!

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wasp92277
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wasp92277 commented Comment · Sep 14, 2011

short and still yet very entertaining
there is one thing i would add....a twist to your story in the poem....its to ordinary

Keep up the good work and never give up.

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AwesomeSocks
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AwesomeSocks wrote a review Review · Sep 14, 2011

This is both really sad and really good!
"The palpable lie beneath those dark windows to his soul" <-- I liked this line the best. It's very descriptive, I love it!
I thought it seemed a little weird with the uneven stanzas. Maybe it's just me :P This is poetry after all! :)
Overall I loved it! Keep writing :)

originalhobbit wrote a review Review · Sep 13, 2011

This was better than I thought it would be, a lot better.

I like that the theme was realization instead of jealousy and paranoia. Sometimes, the realization that someone has been lying to you hits you much harder than the lie itself, and I think that the poem really reflects that fact very well. I also like the imagery, the lipstick on the white collar, the membrane, etc.

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SteppinRazor
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SteppinRazor wrote a review Review · Sep 13, 2011

separated...by the other women. I hate affairs and how love isn't between two people anymore better yet love is finding it hard to survive now days. This just made me really pissed off, it feeds my despise-o-meter, it makes me want to..i don't know punch someone in the face. this reminds me of someone I know, I can't stand him this would be his theme song. Other then that I liked this it was full of angst for me I felt the loss she felt I felt anger although she wasn't most of all I felt the sorrow, the sadness the helplessness.

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Rocklobster
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Rocklobster commented Comment · Sep 12, 2011

Woah. This is deep. And amaaaaaazing. Very good. Great imagrey, I could see the whole thing in my mind, it was amazing. I love poems, and this one especially. Very good. Simple, yet complex. AWESOME.

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RubberDucky Comment
RubberDucky commented Comment · Sep 12, 2011

Good job!!! Loved the imagery!! Keep it up!!

paperbackheart wrote a review Review · Sep 12, 2011

Wow! This is really interesting. It is not simple at all in my opinion, but very easy to see. I thought I would see a lot more anger in this, but it looks more like the sinking realization of the male cheating on her. It's a very sad poem in my opinion.

The first thing that got me hooked was the first line. It really gave off that sort of suspense that just makes you want to read on. The lack of punctuation is one thing I noticed, but it did not throw me off since you breaked your lines so well. The flow is a bit choppy, so that is something to work on. The imagery is quite excellent and makes you feel that sinking feeling. The only thing that really bugged me was that the stanzas did not have the same amount of lines in each one. It's 5,4,5,6,7 and it really bothers me! I think it should all stick with 5 or whatever or increase by one in each stanza. Please work on that also or note it for future poems.

Overall this is a really great poem. Please keep writing amazing things like this. Thank you!

YouWishYouHadThis commented Comment · Sep 11, 2011

THIS IS AWESOME But Deep

travlingthejourney commented Comment · Sep 11, 2011

This poem is really good! it expresses so much emotion in so few words! excellent!

fruityfortissimo wrote a review Review · Sep 11, 2011

Wow this poem was really good! I loved the truth in your writing, yet the simplicity of it. The only thing was the flow was kind of off. But other people pointed that out so I won't be redundant! Keep it up!

Love, fruity! :)

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snickerdooly
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snickerdooly wrote a review Review · Sep 11, 2011

Edits are in red.
Comments in blue. :)

She finds
The lipstick on his collar
Dark red
Menacing
Smeared across the whiteness of his shirt This is a great into to the poem, with the perfect amount of supspense and information, making the reader want to keep reading, which is awesome!

She smells the fragrance on his shirt
Seductive
Enchanting
Yet no less alien This line was my favorite just because the reader is able to interpret it anyway they want and still understand it, in my opinion. :)

She hears him
Crying out for another name in his dreams
Beautiful
Mesmerizing
Yet so haunting

She senses
His growing reticence
She sees
The palpable lies beneath the dark windows of his soul
When he says after dinner
"I have to get back to work." This stanza seems a bit rough compared to the flow of the rest of the poem.

She feels
The invisible layers of membrane between them
That her love can no longer permeate
Lying next to him
She knows that they are miles apart
Separated not by distance
But bythe lipstick on his collar


Overall I loved this poem it flowed nicely though at some parts it was a bit rough, the few edits I made seemed to me to help the poem, but they are just suggestions, though most of them help the poem. Great job on the emotions and imagery you provided us. I also loved how the title tied in to the beginning and end of the poem, thanks for posting!
Peace,
Snickerdooly

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perdido
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perdido wrote a review Review · Sep 11, 2011

you don't need to modify shirt with "whiteness of." Also I didn't like the string of 'ing' words, and I didn't get the 'no less alien' line. 'Dark windows to to his soul' is pretty cliche and I'm sure you can think of something more novel. I don't know, you seemed to avoid a lot of the cliches that come with a cheating poem which is fantastic. You even describe his sleeping cries for another woman "beautiful." Usually I am 100% against using the word beautiful but here it is so enigmatic that it almost works. Maybe what you are describing here is true foolish love. I like that.

Also just another thing.. you don't need to capitalize the first letter of each line. In fact, don't.

Also during the membrane metaphor I think you should use a more specific thing than 'love.' SOMETHING isn't permeating, and maybe it is love, but what physically is she doing to express her love for him? That would make it stronger.

Also the miles apart thing was pretty cliche but perhaps excusable.

best,

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Ignatius5453
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Ignatius5453 commented Comment · Sep 11, 2011

It was awesome, like honestly awesome. I have absolutely no complaints or comments to make on it, so all I can say is just to keep up the good work and never ever stop writing! Awesome poem

fireheartedkaratepup wrote a review Review · Sep 11, 2011

Psssshhhh, don't worry so much about the punctuation in poems, duuuuudes. #reactiontoearlierreview

It is important, but the line breaks convey just as much as punctuation in a poem. /endrant

My first reaction to this? "YES! A new person in the featured section!" Seriously, there are some people who have some fairly dedicated stalkers followers here. It's almost ridiculous. :p

I thought the use of membrane was fine. What I did notice was that you had about one long line in each stanza (till the last one), and it was different for every stanza. It's ok, but it almost threw me when I went back over it, particularly because you started the first stanza with a really short line, and then started the second stanza with your long line.

As for the rest of the poem, no critiques. You've done wonderfully, m'dear.

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constantia
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constantia wrote a review Review · Sep 11, 2011

Oh crap. lol In all honesty. I went into this thinking it would have something to do with jealousy. And maybe it does, to some extent. But essentially, it's just about coming to a sad realization. And good golly gumdrops I love it. lol

I loved the metaphorical imagery in the last stanza. It was a refreshing way to end the poem, both literally and story-based.

Favorite line: "She senses / His growing reticence"

Joanne Adylse Lynne commented Comment · Sep 11, 2011

Merci, everyone! I'll keep improving my writing. =)

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kirstybree
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kirstybree wrote a review Review · Sep 11, 2011

Usually when I encounter poems without much punctuation I find it a bit confusing to pick up flow but not with this one. The simple format is clear and poignant. I also enjoyed the way you brought it all together with the repetition of your images. It was beautiful. The only thing that I noticed that kind of clashed with the tone/diction of the piece would be your use of the word "membrane" in the last stanza. To me it just sounds odd in the poem but this is just my opinion feel free to disregard it if you don't agree. But again nice job :)

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katngo73
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katngo73 commented Comment · Sep 11, 2011

This is a really good poem. I like it. It just shows so much in so little words!!! That's why I like it so much. I hope you can write awesome poems just like these, ok?


GREAT JOB AND KEEP WRITING!!!!!!!!!!!


~Kat

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lele253isme
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lele253isme commented Comment · Sep 11, 2011

Wow, this poem was really simple, but deep. And I really loved your imagery, you did a VERY good job writing this poem!!!



That's how we should measure our lives. Not in distance traveled, or time passed, or worlds conquered, but in moments... and the rush of joy—of grace—that exists within them.
— Megatron (Lost Light, by Roberts, Lawrence, Lafuente)