Amelie Ison

I may not be your cup of tea
But I am your tenth shot of tequila.
We are made to be together
One way or another.
...

The silhouettes are all that remain:
There is nothing left of them
But the memories that have faded over the years.
From generation to generation,
...

There is a crow that always follows me:
A master of shadow—
His dark black wings full of mystery and evil;
His cunning dots for eyes.
...

Well, all the yellow paint that you consume
Will not paint happiness inside you.
A splash of paint on your internal organs
Will not brighten up you like it brightens up your walls,
...

-For Burns

Hanging from its branches,
The tree bears them like glorious fruits—
...

-For Hades, the crow

We put you up high so the cats can't get you,
But it is futile: you will die anyway.
...

I watched a dog sweep across the land where no man stands;
So delicate in his every step—
He manoeuvred across it with a strange familiarity:
The mud to him was not a problem,
...

-To my friends (who are not poets)

How can you not be a poet?
Let me understand:
...

A poem is someone's soul on paper:
It emits a feeling,

Perhaps of great rage or warmth or sadness—
...

Man cannot surpass dying—
He cannot live past his own death.
Power fades and falls. Like the tide,
...

I know what they are doing,
As they carry me to the car—
I have thought many times upon this moment;
As I know you have too.
...

Our silent heroes:

The animals who served us
...

If I were a lamb,
I would be a favourite of the priest's.

I, being so docile and so sweet,
...

I have taken pictures
Of a perfect summer's day;
Flowers, alive and new, in spring;
An elephant, majestic and proud, staring at me.
...

Tell me, dog with the big teeth,
What do you see past that muzzle of yours?
What do you hear through the whispers of those that go by?
You crave to feel human touch—
...

-For Achilles and Patroclus, reunited in death


Alone, walks a soul upon the earth.
...

I think sometimes of the life there once was:
Of a time when birds sang throughout the woods
And insects flitted between the flowers.
...

-To all those who died believing they were failures

Madman, fool, fraud, disgrace:
Curse your insolent mind and set alight your life's work—
...

Stuff me in dresses all that you want—
the same way you'd put a collar on a wolf, and tighten it like a noose,
then drag it around while it tries to escape: an object for your admiration.
...

We don't know each other
but we know the rain:
we know the sound it makes
as the raindrops hit the ground;
...