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“I opened my eyes to see the ugliness and beauty of humanity”

Braeden Michaels creates a curve in the poetic stratosphere revealing glimpses of the characters who walk amidst the life of newly-widowed Stella Walker. By exposing the flaws, scars, quirks, and the light we see in each other, this profound collection generates a fine line between friendships and acquaintances.

Within these pages, we are introduced to different shades of colorful characters in varying points of their lives. Every poem describes the hidden truths and realities of human attributes. Each perfectly imperfect person we meet is a representation of the people we run across in our individual journeys which then become stepping stones in our own growth.

Check out this book on Amazon!

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Cast the alabaster referendum
Spike the juice, transfix the vanishing liquid
Zoom the screenshots, taste the lip gloss
Scratch the two percent surface
Know nothing, keep the pulse on the dial

Seek optimism with self entitlement
Wrap your vertebrae around your cell phone
Dye the color of mass destruction
No dissection, analysis, or an ounce of depth
Know nothing, keep the finger on emptiness

Follow your ill advised democratic leader
Spit into the Declaration of Independence
Wash your jittery hands at the masquerade
Give Kim Kardashian a peck on the cheek
Know nothing, spell the word legislation

Walk the line between capitalism and socialism
Speak from one corner of your grand mouth
Run for mayor, sleep with the dirty sweetness
Dollars have value, integrity depreciates
Know nothing, move to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Parade around foreign affairs and zig zag policies
Trade agendas with corporations, chop down family shops
Spread the cancer with your thumb on reality TV
Download useless apps, swim into the word “myself”
Know nothing, wear the crown as you veto knowledge

Lack a vigorous backbone, ignore loans
Salivate over the disappearing social security checks
Pitch your ballot for the plagiarized speech
Steal from the rich, sit on your lazy throne
Know nothing, commit crimes and plead ridiculousness

Separate, divide, and do what you do best “Label”
Stare into the trends, curse at the economy
Blame the universe, unleash expletives at your choices
Embrace the seconds, neglect the forthcoming
Know nothing, glaze over conclusions and regurgitate

Wear the pin stripe suit like a hit man
Blend in with the smoke of politicians
Laugh in your three thousand square foot home
Drink the bitter honey on your porch
Know nothing, emulate the millions and toss your skull to the curb on presidential parkway

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Acquaintances and formalities

shook hands with the Devil’s tongue

Saliva drips down to the

center of honesty and disintegrated

Kindness only filled a shot glass

As gulps of uncertainty surrounded

glass scarecrows and empty vigilantes

Stale friendships vanish in the mist

Faded signs were torn down

Three bedroom houses decomposed

Laughter is a decaying tooth

As you turn on this fragmented road

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I’ve been chasing a sky of blurry lines
I’ve been chasing constellations with my eyes closed
I’ve been chasing misplaced trust with heartfelt lies
I’ve been chasing danger with silent explosives
I’ve been chasing peace with a vicious expression
I’ve been chasing filled pages in an empty book

If these decorated walls could shout
crumbled words would cut my open arms
If these rooms could plead guilty
my disease would cry indifference
And my inflicted patterns dwell on Silence Boulevard

On my knees with my hands clenched together
Reciting scripture and broken prayers
Begging “Take my pain away, tired of all the shadows of yesterday”

I’ve been chasing delusions with a vacant jar of pills
I’ve been chasing wisdom with limited experiences
I’ve been chasing a river of echoes with a pierced eardrum
I’ve been chasing a fantasy with numb fingertips
I’ve been chasing daylight on a dim path

If these decorated walls could shout
crumbled words would cut my open arms
If these rooms could plead guilty
my disease would cry indifference
And my inflicted patterns dwell on Silence Boulevard

On my knees with my hands clenched together
Reciting scripture and broken prayers
Begging “Take my pain away, tired of all the shadows of yesterday”

I’ve been chasing riddles with a cracked compass
I’ve been chasing affection with a crippled identity
I’ve been chasing sentiments with a star dripping resentment
I’ve been chasing sweetness with a bitter tongue
I’ve been chasing suspicion with an arrow
in my hand
I’ve been chasing time with drops of heartache

If these decorated walls could shout
crumbled words would cut my open arms
If these rooms could plead guilty
my disease would cry indifference
And my inflicted patterns dwell on Silence Boulevard

On my knees with my hands clenched together
Reciting scripture and broken prayers
Begging “Take my pain away, tired of all the shadows of yesterday”

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Madly in love with page seventy four of your memoir
Madly in love with your high pitched laugh
Madly in love with the sparkle in your smile
Madly in love with your trillion dollar eyes
Madly in love with the philosophy dripping from your mouth
Madly in love with your enthusiasm in your veins

And no matter where you are,
You are my home as I am yours
In the cul-de-sac of Whispering Way

Madly in love with your forgotten carousel
Madly in love with the sensitive barricade
Madly in love with your glass castles
Madly in love with the delicate blisters
Madly in love with your vivid imagination
Madly in love with the naked wisdom

And no matter where you are,
You are my home as I am yours
In the cul-de-sac of Whispering Way

Madly in love with your violent sky
Madly in love with the crying dreamland
Madly in love with your affection dressed in rainbows
Madly in love with the light and dark of your universe
Madly in love with your candles in your heart
Madly in love with the words you speak with sweetness

And no matter where you are,
You are my home as I am yours
In the cul-de-sac of Whispering Way

Madly in love with your hopes and the faith you hold
Madly in love with the world you caress with your fingertips
Madly in love with your precious truth and vicious convictions
Madly in love with the snow globe you hide
Madly in love with your future and past

And no matter where you are,
You are my home as I am yours
In the cul-de-sac of Whispering Way

Madly in love with the silence and the breathe of fresh air
Madly in love with your stellar evolution
Madly in love with the bricks we added to our foundation
Madly in love with your photographs of us
Madly in love with the everlasting radiance
Madly in love with your exclusive kindness

And no matter where you are,
You are my home as I am yours
In the cul-de-sac of Whispering Way

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Stella Walker’s Acquaintances Book Description:

Braeden Michaels creates a curve in the poetic stratosphere revealing glimpses of the characters who walk amidst the life of newly-widowed Stella Walker. By exposing the flaws, scars, quirks, and the light we see in each other, this profound collection generates a fine line between friendships and acquaintances.

Within these pages, we are introduced to different shades of colorful characters in varying points of their lives. Every poem describes the hidden truths and realities of human attributes. Each perfectly imperfect person we meet is a representation of the people we run across in our individual journeys which then become stepping stones in our own growth.

Release Date: 9/25

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Love was just an insignificant occupant making me gag
Love was just a bad joke I heard in another language I couldn’t comprehend
Love was just a citizen that held me down and raped my soul with a jagged knife
Love was just a stench I couldn’t wash out
Love was just a word created by Hallmark
Love was just four letters thrown together to serve a ridiculous purpose
Love was just a shadow so I can feel myself
Love was just a bruise on my shin to prove I exist
Love was just a song written by a billion dollar jester
Love was just a death wish waiting in the wings
Love was just a plant I didn’t water
Love was just a black eye with covered up lies
Love was just a watercolor I can’t see
Love was just mascara running down my face
Love was just a cloud of obscurity
Love was just a gram and a kilo of voids
Love was just a room of emptiness
Love was just a shattered mirror I look at every day
Love was just a pile of poems that made sense one day
Love was a just a pile of poems that I threw away the next day
Love was just an adolescent that claimed to know it all
Love was just an adult with an addiction that didn’t know a damn thing
Love was just a bomb that exploded on planes, in buildings, and in schools
Love was just a clan, cult, gang, a war of losses
Love was just a book that millions don’t read
Love was just a doctrine of stolen beliefs
Love was just a pile of divorce papers
Love was just a trigger pulled by one finger as the other four were staring at him
Love was just an overused word
Love was just ten minutes of causal sex
Love was just an irrational scream
Love was just the sun not seeing the moon
Love was just a down payment for an item I haven’t touched
Love was just a puzzle piece that doesn’t seem to fit anywhere

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Love me father for I have sinned
Love me for my teary eyed tragedies
Love me mother for I have misrepresented
Love me for my emerald skin

Drowning in my identity

Love me fireflies for I have wept in the dark
Love me for I have crippled my vitality
Love me acquaintances for my tainted tongue
Love me for my abandoned flames

Soaking in a lost curse

Love me companion for I have misplaced love
Love me for I have spoken to my villain
Love me obscurity for I have been misguided
Love me for I have crawled in my dismay

Drenched on my knees praying to god “Fix me”

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my ice skates on a wall
lustre of stumps washes his lavander horizon
he’s got a handsome face of a lousy kid
rooming-houses dirty fingers
whistled in the shadow
“Wait for me at the detour.”
river… snow… some one vague faded in a mirror
filigree of trade winds
clouds white as lace circling the pepper trees
the film is finished
memory died when their photos weather-worn points of
polluted water under the trees in the mist shadow of
boys by the daybreak in the peony fields cold lost
marbles in the room carnations three ampoules of
morphine little blue-eyes-twilight grins between his
legs yellow fingers blue stars erect boys of sleep
have frozen dreams for I am a teenager pass it on
flesh and bones withheld too long yes sir oui oui
Crapps’ last map… lake… a canoe… rose tornado in
the harvest brass echo tropical jeers from Panama
City night fences dead fingers you are in your own body
around and maybe a boy skin spreads to something
else on Long Island the dogs are quiet.