Phantom Flotsam
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phantomflotsam.bsky.social
Phantom Flotsam
@phantomflotsam.bsky.social
Lines, verses and stanzas from poems and songs I’ve written.

I also take photos: https://bsky.app/profile/phantomphotos.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 7:40 AM
No,
there’s nothing there
No matter how badly I wish there was.
I’m barely there myself
Even when I’m by myself.

#poetry
November 11, 2025 at 6:43 AM
I’ve been the court jester,
I’ve been the class clown,
I’ve been the kid on the carousel
everyone has forgotten about.
And sometimes
I’ve forgotten about myself.

But how could I not?
When my life has been lost
And rarely feels worth
ever being found?

#poetry
November 11, 2025 at 6:25 AM
Have you ever been so lonely
That you forgot what friends
were for?
Have you ever been so lonely,
That you forgot you were a friend once yourself?
Have you ever been so lonely,
You didn’t feel alive
but not quite a ghost?
Well, I have been this lonely
In space’s loneliness.

#poetry
November 11, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Where is someone,
who’s never quite belonged,
Supposed to go
In a place like this?
A place where some people
easily find each other,
And others
can lose themselves while searching?

#poetry
November 11, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Have you ever felt so alone
you made friends with someone
who was never born?
Have you ever felt like forgetting
who you are
So others could forget you too?

#poetry
November 11, 2025 at 6:06 AM
As the city thaws
The people thaw with it.
And the pent up sadness, anger,
and frustrations of winter
splatter over the summer asphalt
like hot vomit…

#poetry
November 11, 2025 at 5:42 AM
The people in this city are like cigarettes–
Waiting to be lit, smoked, burned out
and crushed by the heel of a stranger.

#poetry
November 11, 2025 at 5:35 AM
For a moment it felt like I was somewhere else,
For a moment it felt like I was someone else,
For a moment I didn’t feel anything at all
And it was nice.

#poetry
November 11, 2025 at 5:17 AM
When there is no more food to take off the plates of the poor
The rich will eat each other...
November 5, 2025 at 5:51 PM
When the wind whispers through open windows
lace curtains become ghosts on the run.
And as a stream of light passes through the glass
It turns specs of dust into stars
Never meant to last.

#poetry
October 7, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I can see you
But I can’t hear you;
You’re the silent film star of my world.

#poetry
October 7, 2025 at 8:38 PM
She doesn’t think about you
The way the wind doesn’t think about the trees;
The way rain never considers the lakes.

She doesn’t need you
The way the world doesn’t need us;
The way space doesn’t need the stars.
But it’s still so much prettier
The way things are.

#poetry
October 7, 2025 at 8:31 PM
My heart can sense the sinking of a ship.
But I’ve remained on shore,
far away from it.
It’s not that I’m afraid to sail
Or of the sea itself.
It’s that I’m afraid I won’t be invited aboard
To experience the beauty
of the raging storm.

#poetry
October 7, 2025 at 8:27 PM
I feel guilty knowing her name,
Feel guilty she knows mine,
Because we will never meet,
So long as the sea has its tide
And the sun and moon have their light.

#poetry
October 7, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Through an August haze
A red eye rose in pain
Over a slanted skyline and rotting roads of gray.
Across a broken bridge
Through cracked and crooked woods
At the shore of a lonely lake
Is where I had stood.

#poetry
August 8, 2025 at 6:07 PM
With tangled telephone poles
Impersonating trees.
With western buildings
Where woods once were.
The roads here make no sense,
Nothing is near, yet nothing is far,
Everything is marked by signs I can’t comprehend.
And it’s a lifetime away
from the closest friend.

#poetry
August 8, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Is this where it ends?
On this lonely road
With miles of ghosts
And not a single home.

Where the trees reach down
And the sky is always gray.
Where darkness holds the pulse
Of the heartache and the pain.
All for me.
All for me.

#poetry
August 8, 2025 at 5:52 PM
I'm surrounded by
a hundred shattered mirrors;
And all I see
Is what I am
what I could’ve been
And what I’ll never get the chance to be.

#poetry
August 8, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Well the years haven’t been too good to me.
I thought I mistreated them
But realized too late
That it wasn't really my fault.
Bad days and bad luck
Are all I’ve had.
Only been happy
when I’m feeling sad.

#poetry
August 8, 2025 at 5:39 PM
I saw a rusted steel silo
And knew it held secrets of mine.
If the sunlight hits it just right,
They will be revealed
And run wild through the fields.
But for now it’s settled in the shadows,
And I’ll watch it turn to rust,
Become nothing more than rubble
Covered in a ghostly layer of dust.
August 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Why is it that guys like I
Often find ourselves
on the wrong side of life?
Why is it that to women like you
We are just ghosts
That you can choose to see
or choose to see through?

#poetry
August 8, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Need to get all out
Without saying it too loud?
Well I’ve got the ears and mouth
To affirm your thoughts.
Need something moved from here to there
And back again?
Well I’ve got the hands.
I’ll be your temporary friend
And you can let me go
when you feel better again.

#poetry
August 8, 2025 at 4:23 PM
No one likes being alone
with their thoughts
But some nights for most
And most nights for some,
It’s all you’ve got.

#poetry
August 8, 2025 at 4:19 PM
I’m too lonely
for you to love me.
It wouldn’t be fair
To let you take a hold,
And feel what I have felt.
All that darkness,
With little light
and nothing else.
All my ghosts and I
Are in no position
To let love inside.
So goodbye
goodbye...

#poetry
July 28, 2025 at 6:58 PM