u/Nervous_Ad6050

Haunted houses belong

In carnival tents

Dressed in red

Shadows up ahead

.

A butcher’s basement

Fog machines hiss

Slabs of raw flesh

Bulge through the mesh

.

Scratch this idea.

Let’s make it clear:

My haunted house

Is far from here

.

My haunted house

Tucked in a cul de sac

An average neighbourhood

Easy to overlook

.

A puppet on strings

I hang by a thread

Cling to the whispers

Of things they’ve said

.

The curtain of false security

Drops almost instantly

A safe haven

Is not as it seems

.

My haunted house

Gathers its victims

Snatches their youth

‘Keep yourself hidden’

.

Mother and father

Husband and wife

Cursed with a child

Resent its life

.

I creep downstairs

The floorboards scream

Holding my breath

Sole lingers above

The very last step

.

Eyes down

No smiling

Don’t frown

.

Too late now

.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/s/sAIjKCEl1D

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/s/bIyuYZ6EPB

Hope is a flightless bird

Who is none the wiser

To why he can’t fly

.

Hope is a blind man

Who believes he can see

.

Hope is a 40-hour week

.

Hope is an everlasting candle

That’s never lit,

It never burns

It’s eternal wick

.

Prepare yourself for disappointment

.

Prepare yourself for the worst

This way

At least the blow is cushioned

.

Set your hopes low

Have low hopes

.

You can’t expect others

To treat you

The way you’d treat them

That’s what causes

True heartbreak

.

Hope is the

Root

Of an inevitable

Downfall

.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/s/bIyuYZ6EPB

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/s/6DxsywEQUQ

I’m the girl with baggage

The kind that keeps me up at night

I’m the girl who’s damaged

And not just on the inside

.

I’m scared and hurt and jealous

.

And kind

.

A softness lives

Behind these eyes

.

My stitched up grin

Eternally bright

It ‘lights up the room’

I live in fight or flight.

.

Bloodshot eyes in a darkened room

Tell myself ‘Take a tissue’—I do

But show my cries—

That’s attention-seeking too

.

I wear my scars just fine

Stand tall, with pride

Every inch of pain -

I take in my stride

.

I’m fierce and bold and strong

.

And traumatised

.

My trauma is permanent

Stuck in my bloodline

.

I’m the girl with pretty eyelashes

That flutter like butterflies

I’m the girl who’s healing

And not just on the outside…

.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/s/4wG37V4VdV

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/s/yX7iy47Z93