Less Than Dust | Teen Ink

Less Than Dust MAG

December 5, 2008
By ishouldbesolucky PLATINUM, Corvallis, Oregon
ishouldbesolucky PLATINUM, Corvallis, Oregon
22 articles 13 photos 0 comments

I would scream down ninety mountains to less than dust.
I would for you.
You who I do not entirely know
Nearly as well as anyone would ever guess,
I would scream down ninety mountains and several large foothills
If I thought it would change a damn thing.

I would write down every word I ever thought to learn.
For SATs or ACTs or GREs or ABCs or
Impressing those above and below me waiting to be impressed.
[So I thought.]
I would write down every word I knew twice,
In pencil,
If I thought that they would mean any more to you than my silence.

I would sing every song and dance every dance
And throw every projectile
And project my voice and project my name and project my thoughts and ideas onto a screen as empty as
These words.

I would.
There is nothing for me to swear on,
Nothing left to accept as holy.
But you can take my word as it is.
Because they are all I have
And even they are not truly my own.
And most likely never will be
[I will never manipulate anyone
The way you manipulate your words.]

I would scream down ninety mountains
But that would accomplish
Absolutely nothing
And half a pot of coffee.
Black.
No sugar.
Not at a time like this.

I have attended many years of public education
Which taught me that screaming down anything
Rarely amounts to much.
And but
I would happily defy these people with my wagons of teenage angst and my cannonballs of insecurities and flawless reasoning.



I would write you poetry day and night
And afternoons and dawn and other times the earth dissolves in
Shadows of incalculable measure
I would write you new mountains
Of sorrow and love and loss and gratitude and anger and
forgivenessandhumorandsunlightandtortureandrevengeandsolitude
But I know
Oh our forsaken God knows
That every word that pours from me
And falls
Through the veil, disappointed



Would only be erased later
Or worse yet
Ignored completely
By your synapses.

And what’s more
That leaves me with absolutely nothing.
And you with nothing but my poorly ­organized phrases
And we will both
Limp along the concrete concourse
Trudging toward the moth-eaten curtains
Of time we wasted
Screaming wordlessly at mountains.

Nevertheless
I would still scream them down
To dust and ashes and sand and fish and atoms

For you.



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This article has 18 comments.


on May. 5 2012 at 2:03 am
i_am_so_very_large_and_towering SILVER, Mililani, Hawaii
5 articles 1 photo 114 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?"

this is absolutely and wholly incredible in every possible way.

on Feb. 8 2011 at 12:14 pm
Mortie PLATINUM, Oak Run, California
31 articles 0 photos 74 comments

Favorite Quote:
Whats The Point?

i love this poem! one of my fovorites! this is RELLY REALLYREALLY good!!!!!!

on Sep. 18 2010 at 1:52 pm
sonnysulouff BRONZE, Clarendon Hills, Illinois
4 articles 0 photos 34 comments
Haha that's my favorite line as well :)

on Sep. 10 2010 at 8:50 pm
MaddieWo PLATINUM, Marstons Mills, Massachusetts
28 articles 0 photos 112 comments

Favorite Quote:
"If I'd a knowed more, I would a loved more." -Pilate Dead, Song of Solomon

"Black.
No sugar.
Not at a time like this"

Makes me laugh everytime. Maybe it's the way I read it, but I love it :D


on Jul. 11 2010 at 2:17 pm
irrara12 BRONZE, Columbia, Maryland
3 articles 2 photos 42 comments

Favorite Quote:
not all who wander are lost-jrr tolkien

This is so beautiful. 

LIKEwhoaa GOLD said...
on Dec. 13 2009 at 3:26 pm
LIKEwhoaa GOLD, Carrollton, Texas
13 articles 0 photos 126 comments

Favorite Quote:
The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
-Charles DuBois

you are sooooooo amazing. i love this poem, its on my favorites :)

<3

Jackque BRONZE said...
on Dec. 8 2009 at 5:43 pm
Jackque BRONZE, Sandy, Utah
4 articles 0 photos 26 comments
I only wish I had a fraction of your talent for writing. A-MAZ-ING poem, keep it up.

on Dec. 7 2009 at 10:47 pm
SerenityMine BRONZE, Not Saying, California
2 articles 0 photos 156 comments
This was really powerful and extremely well written. Keep writing please!

onlyiz said...
on Nov. 15 2009 at 9:21 pm
onlyiz, Boulder, Colorado
0 articles 1 photo 85 comments

Favorite Quote:
“You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” - Mark Twain

dear lord i think this might be the most significantly wonderful thing i have ever encountered. bravo.

on Nov. 5 2009 at 3:02 pm
AbbotRabbit GOLD, Abolana, District Of Columbia
11 articles 0 photos 1028 comments

Favorite Quote:
This poem has great flow and insight.
I really enjoyed it.
Lovely poem darling =]
-Please check out the works that I have posted on here it would be highly appreciated and I think you would greatly enjoy them, Thankk youz-
XxIll tell you Im an orphan after you meet myy familyXx

This poem has great flow and insight.

I really enjoyed it.

Lovely poem darling =]

-Please check out the works that I have posted on here it would be highly appreciated and I think you would greatly enjoy them, Thankk youz-

XxThe Whole Time You Were Talking I Didnt Hear A Single Word You Said B/C Th3 Whole Time You Were Talking I Was Picturing You DeadXx

eMs23 BRONZE said...
on Oct. 3 2009 at 7:21 pm
eMs23 BRONZE, Yuma, Arizona
2 articles 0 photos 36 comments
amazing! you are very talented and i like your style of writing! keep it up :)

on Oct. 3 2009 at 6:36 pm
awesomeaugust GOLD, Boston, Massachusetts
10 articles 0 photos 176 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground"
~Theordore Roosevelt

thank you so much for your comment on my story (defying love) i'm flattered that you like it esspecially if this is how you write. This poem izs really beautiful and I don't know if many people could keep me reading with a poem that long but you did- and I was intruiged until the very last word. Thank you for your writing- thank you for sharing you beautiful words with the world.

on Sep. 22 2009 at 3:49 pm
razorzRpainful BRONZE, Pennsauken, New Jersey
2 articles 1 photo 20 comments
amazing full and enjoyably long

so many words i never knew existed in there

that i googled while reading this..i would lov a man to scream down anything for me...♥

on Sep. 18 2009 at 8:16 pm
MeganAnne PLATINUM, Niskayuna, New York
24 articles 0 photos 157 comments

Favorite Quote:
All my life I've looked at words as if I were seeing them for the first time. ~Ernest Hemingway

beautiful. Positively everything an amazing poem could be.

Jennax3 SILVER said...
on Aug. 20 2009 at 6:14 pm
Jennax3 SILVER, Palos Verdes Estates, California
6 articles 0 photos 113 comments
This left me speechless. Basically, you are an amazingly talented writer that deserved to be published. WOW :]

Schubster said...
on Aug. 20 2009 at 1:40 pm
i love this poem :) definately one of my favorites on teenink! i like how you repeat the screaming-down-the-mountain-lines over and over again. great job? care to check out mine?~

on Aug. 20 2009 at 10:45 am
Eilina Sealtman SILVER, London, Other
7 articles 0 photos 15 comments
I can't get over this poem. It's amazing.

LIKEwhoaa GOLD said...
on Jul. 18 2009 at 10:43 pm
LIKEwhoaa GOLD, Carrollton, Texas
13 articles 0 photos 126 comments

Favorite Quote:
The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
-Charles DuBois

i love this poem. when i saw it in the magazine i read it over and over again, idk...i just like how some parts of it are matching and other parts arent...its beautiful:) GREAT job

<3