Joshua Thomas Lawton Poetry

Joshua Thomas Lawton Poetry My poems are very dear to me. I hope you like them as much as the feeling I had when writing them.

07/22/2026

City lights kill stars.
You were one of them.
You had a matchbox cool
That made felonies attractive.

You had arson in your eyes,
Propane on your breath,
And scars like constellations
Who’s origins you’ll never tell.

I was enthralled by the grit of it.
The meticulous depravity,
The witty misanthropy;
You were s*x in
A gas station bathroom
Just before you robbed it.

A cinematically reckless
Disregard, and hips
That could
Hold up the world.

You were a porcupine hug,
A hair shirt Inside out,
And I was a flagellant
For you.

Never confuse excitement
For love.

07/15/2026

“Blue Ridge”

These are the oldest
Mountains on earth.
Worn down by time,
They’ve lost
No grandeur.

I admire them
Like a puppy,
Hoping some day
They might admire me.

I have no qualities
A mountain might
Admire, no
Stunning vistas
Or changing colors.

I am a wholly
Unremarkable man,
But I’ve also
Been worn down
By time.

Maybe that’s enough
To be noticed,
Even for one
Small moment,
And share a likeness
With something
Great.

07/15/2026

I stand, arms raised,
Outraged.

We both talk
To the same moon,
We just have different
Things to say.

You plant tiny flowers
In her dust,
Thankful for
Abundance,
Connectivity.

I rail against
My own story
Like I’m looking
For something
To blame.

Tonight she
Dangles in the sky
Fire-engine red.
Blood moon.

The kind of moon
I understand.
Violent.
Vengeful.

Tonight we don’t
Have to talk,
And I don’t want
To argue anyway.

Last time
We spoke it was:

When things
Went wrong,
The opportunities
I had
To change them;
When I began
To feel this way.

The woman
I could never have,
The farm I couldn’t keep,
The books
I never wrote.

You soak up
Her colors and
Deposit them
In your coffers
Along with your
Best moments.

I’m here alone
On this bridge
Over the river,
More years
Behind me than
In front,
With screws in
My spine and
Chemicals
Roiling around
My brain,
Wondering if
She’s waning,

Desperate for
Her to remain
Full.

07/15/2026

“Tattoos”
I trace the stories of your life across your skin with the tips of my fingers; each indelible moment written in black ink. A lifetime of accrual to say things too complicated for conversation, the list of difficult or magical moments alive in their telling. The value of those moments was coupled with the pain of tiny needles buzzing across your body. There’s so much you don’t have to say anymore, so much to interpret as I watch you stretch out in our bed. I was there for some of them, others were years before we met. Regardless of when you got them, your skin has become a poem in itself.

07/12/2026

Just a thought for today.

You brought me a basket
Of persimmons
Laced with rose petals
And the whole world
Stopped.
What magnificent colors.
Just when hope
Had left me,
And loneliness seemed
The way of the world,
Fruit and flowers
Made me look to
The sky and
Remember
Everything is not
As it seems,
And nothing
Is lost.
Thank you
For being beautiful.

07/11/2026

I opened a box
Of old photos
And you sprang out
Like a cat who
Hadn’t eaten
In days.

I had forgotten
You were in there.

All in yellow,
Youth shining
Like a comet
From the center
Of your heart.

That was before
The needles.
that was before
Business deals
In parking garages
Or in the backs of
Sedans,

When all we
Needed was
To catch a ride
To the next city,
The next concert,
The next national park.

When things were
Simple.
When having
Nothing was
The greatest gift
We’d ever received.

When we made
Each other feel
Safe.

When sadness
Tried to break down
The door, but couldn’t.

It couldn’t because
Of our dizzy, primal
Love.

It came with a caveat-
Once a week
We would fight like
Two confused people
Trying
Like hell
To forget themselves.
To give over
To oblivion
And destroy
All the good
We had gathered-

And we had so much.

We thought
The nineties
Would last forever,
That youth was
Eternal,
That love conquered
All.

But we were wrong.

We drifted.
You went the wrong way.
I’m not sure where I went.

I rummaged through
That box,
Hoping for
More proof that
You existed,
But I had to settle
For that one photo,
All in yellow,
With a comet
Shooting
Straight from
The center
Of your heart.

07/11/2026

“Just looking”

As I look out
Upon the goodness
Of the world,
I’m distracted.
White noise
Everywhere,
Red stains
Everywhere-
Nonetheless this
Mountain doesn’t
Move.

It will stand
Long after its
Trees have been taken,
Or its insides
Gutted,
Or its peak settled
By people seeking
Luxury.

As I look out
Upon the goodness
Of the world,
I know that
Long after the soldiers
Have gone,
And the stains
Washed,
And the villages rebuilt,
Children will
Come back to
These same streets
And dance,
With laughter
Ringing all around.

As I look out
Upon the goodness
Of the world,
Pillars of smoke
Obscure my view.
And as I choke
On the foul air,
I know that someday,
After all of us are gone,
When the last tree
Is taken,
And the last coal mine
Is picked clean,
And all the guns
Buried-

The beauty of the world
Will persist.

As I look out upon
The mistakes of
Human kind,
The violence
And wreckage,
The wanton destruction,
The desire for
More shiny things,
I know that
In the end
I will have done
My part
The best I can.

As look out
Upon the goodness
Of the world,
I think to myself,
“Nothing lasts forever.”

07/11/2026

What is Joy?
Joy is singing badly
In the kitchen
No matter how
Lonely you are.
It’s remembering
Ice cream trucks
On the beach.
Joy is a fierce
And rising wind
With opening skies,
Holding your arms
Above your head as
The first drops fall.
It’s the low rumble
Of highway tractors
In the dark,
It’s a flavor you’ve
Never tasted,
Or birds you’ve never seen.
Joy can be
A foreign face,
Lit by the same fire
That burns inside of you.
Take it
When yon can get it,
It’s a rare and valuable
Commodity.

07/06/2026

Last night moved
Like a lazy river;
Rippling, shimmering,
Whispering.
Cicadas sang the blues.
Tree frogs played
Call and response
Like bayou Cajuns
With tambourines.
Shrill, rhythmic,
Symphonic.
All the world
Makes music,
Everything, everyone,
Everywhere.
If you listen,
You understand
That songs are
All we have.
Take note
Of the rhythms
Within you-

And your song
Will be
The sound that
Shakes the world.

07/06/2026

“Home”

I stood with my feet sinking into the marsh as the tides came and went. While looking at the sky, I was overcome by a wave of stillness. This was the peace I’d been searching for. The silence was punctuated only by the far-off cry of gulls, the white noise of the open ocean from the beach, and the low hum of a forgiving breeze. I waited a lifetime, one of chaos and despair, to return to this place, and when I arrived I was greeted like a lost child. I was lulled into trance by the embrace of the world, small and delicate as I had been during my first days here. This place remembered me, held me, and in that moment I found it had been in the deepest parts of me all along. All I needed to find this peace was to return to the place that birthed me. All distractions fell away. Tragedy was taken out into the depths by whitecaps, and confusion was simplified by water touching sand. I found a softness. I felt a letting go. I found belonging right where I left it,
There, with my feet sinking into the marsh, as the tides came and went.

Address

Asheville, NC

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