Buddy Wakefield > Quotes

“We can stick anything into the fog
and make it look like a ghost
but tonight
let us not become tragedies.
We are not funeral homes
with propane tanks in our windows,
lookin’ like cemeteries.
Cemeteries are just the Earth’s way of not letting go.
Let go.

Tonight
let’s turn our silly wrists so far backwards
the razor blades in our pencil tips
can’t get a good angle on all that beauty inside.
Step into this
with your airplane parts.
Move forward
and repeat after me with your heart:

“I no longer need you to fuck me as hard as I hated myself.”

Make love to me
like you know I am better
than the worst thing I ever did.
Go slow.
I’m new to this.
But I have seen nearly every city from a rooftop
without jumping.
I have realized

that the moon
did not have to be full for us to love it,
that we are not tragedies
stranded here beneath it,
that if my heart
really broke
every time I fell from love
I’d be able to offer you confetti by now.

But hearts don’t break,
y’all,
they bruise and get better.
We were never tragedies.
We were emergencies.
You call 9 – 1 – 1.
Tell them I’m having a fantastic time.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“I should have told You
before talking in terms of Forever
that any given day wears me out and works me sour,
that there are nights when the sky is so clear
I stand obnoxious underneath it
begging for the stars to shoot at me
just so I can feel at Home.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Live for a Living

“This is an apology letter to the both of us for how long it took me to let things go.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“This is an apology letter to the both of us
for how long it took me to let things go.
It was not my intention to make such a
production of the emptiness between us
playing tuba on the tombstone of a soprano
to try and keep some dead singer’s perspective alive.
It’s just that I coulda swore you had sung me a love song back there
and that you meant it
but I guess sometimes people just chew with their mouth open
so I ate ear plugs alive with my throat
hoping they’d get lodged deep enough inside the empty spots
that I wouldn’t have to hear you leaving”
― Buddy Wakefield

“I am standing like shoe polish on an overstocked shelf hoping that one day someone will pick me to make things better.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Live for a Living

“Listen, I’m not entirely comfortable being human.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“I have realized that the moon
did not have to be full for us to love it.
That we are not tragedies
stranded here beneath it.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Gentleman Practice

“I no longer need you to fuck me as hard as I hated myself.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Gentleman Practice

“Listen, I know there were days you wanted to die

when the sky was so clear
you’d stand obnoxious underneath it
begging for stars to shoot you
just so you could feel at home.

I know about the ways you misplaced all the right words,
stockpiled every important social cue you ever missed
from the first time you learned you were wrong,
waited to make it right
once everyone stopped watching.

I know you let them beat up your beauty in bed
because redemption was still alive in you, howling relentless, gathering strength.
Felt like ecstasy when they pounded it out of you in the hard dark.
Those days of dead weather
got all strung together
and they spoke for you,
wore you down to telling everyone here it was a good life
so you could run back into the wails of your windfight.

I know the parts of your past that haunt you the most
are the days you weren’t being yourself,
and I know that’s why most of your past haunts you.
There were so many who found you out,
and they were right.
You were good.

So
un-
numb.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“On the face of her phone
Wileen programs a message to herself
so that when the alarm clock rings
the screen flashes:
EVERY DAY IS ONE DAY LESS.
EVERY DAY IS ONE DAY LESS.

For some people
happiness
it's just a reduction in suffering.

Jordan.
Jordan tattoos the words
FORGIVE ME
in thick black letters
down the inside of his arm
so that when he looks at his wrist
he will remember not to hate himself so much.

What he keeps forgetting
is that there is life after survival.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“And I know I’m not perfect. But I believe I was meant to be.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“Tell me my heart beats a war drum
that my eyes are not just armies
but my spine
is a harpoon.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“Step into this experience
with the goose bumps
in your heartbeat”
― Buddy Wakefield

“There are massive stacks of bad choices in my backyard.
Haven't finished cleaning the place up
but I'm workin' on it
and clearly I have not yet reached enlightenment
for more than a fleeting moment
but I'm tryin'
and I found somethin' here I want ya to have.
It's not much
just a story
but it's all I've got
so take it.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Gentleman Practice

“Everyone has some they can't contain.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“If we were created in God’s image, then when God was a child he smushed fire ants with his fingertips and avoided tough questions.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Gentleman Practice

“Lord, let me write,
leave me autistic and typing
until my windows bust into a thousand silver doves
and I know the poem is done.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Live for a Living

“Well this is me without my prozac, and this is me just shy of nicotine, and mother fuckers, it’s my second time to fail anger management class.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“Dear Angry Older People, over 21-ish, anyone who considers themselves an adult, still bitter: Next time you're wondering what wrong with kids today, you might wanna check the examples you've been giving us to work with. Because if you ever want to make sense of us, you’ve got to make sense to us, without telling us you’re too old to walk that far. You’ve got to try to understand why we like looking like rag dolls, why we like looking like the way we feel, and why we keep our senses floored when it’s you behind the wheel. And if you ever really do want to understand why we seem so angry, well for one, you told us we could be anything we wanted to be, but right now, we’re a little busy dodging bombs.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“It’s just that I coulda swore you had sung me a love song back there
and that you meant it
but I guess sometimes people just chew with their mouth open”
― Buddy Wakefield

“Make love to me
like you know I am better than the worst thing I ever did.
Go slow.
I’m new to this.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Gentleman Practice

“I’m no longer interested in watching you rise from the falls you keep taking in vain just for a reason to stand.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Live For A Living

“Let your head climb back down through your throat and into your body so it can see just how good you look when you're not compared to anything.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“I'm gonna roll outta here one day, I just might not get to drive”
― Buddy Wakefield

“I’ve seen fish hooked who keep more patience in their worst gill than some of you have in your best moods. If you were a sandwich at McDonalds, they’d call you the McGrump.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“And if we really do get what we give,
then I give up,
so I can get up”
― Buddy Wakefield

“I keep forgetting to put focus on my to-do list.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Live For A Living

“In the dream I was onstage and there were thousands of you goin’ bananas for me, all laughing and clapping, celebrating your brains out, not because I was somethin’ else up there, but because you were just so happy I was finally starting to get it.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“Make love to me
like you know I am better than the worst thing I ever did.”
― Buddy Wakefield

“They both just wish they would’ve known a little sooner about this life

that every loss doesn’t have to cost so much,

doesn’t have to hit so heavy,

doesn’t have to get so dirty.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Gentleman Practice