jdubqca

poetry by j matthew waters

Archive for the tag “identity”

01 Apr 2025
2 Comments

Handout


I used to put my money
where my mouth is
but once it all
eventually ran its course
I found myself
back in the soup line

Back when it was raining
I’d offer an umbrella
but those times have long
since vanished
and now I find myself
soaked from head to toe

Never once did I believe
I’d ever live in the future
but here I am again
a man without a country
image in dirty windowpane
barely recognizable


april two thousand twenty-five
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , ,
07 Mar 2025
2 Comments

death of an ego


whatever identity
I may have had
has been stripped clean
by forces of my own witting
and I find myself
attempting to reinvent
the man I was meant to be


march two thousand twenty-five
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Micropoetry, Poetry and tagged , , ,
11 Feb 2025

Folklore


Muscle memory
gets me from point A to point B
permitting the retelling
of the same stories
and every now & again
to a brand new audience

I once got lost
in the streets of Japan
unable to find my way back
home for a number of years

Those who knew me best
thought I’d either gained a new
identity or died somewhere
with all the others
in Hiroshima or Nagasaki

Little did they know when I
emerged out of the shadows
[sometime back in forty-nine]
my old war stories somehow
took on new meaning


february two thousand twenty-five
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in History, Poetry, War Poems and tagged , , , | Leave a comment
21 Oct 2024

idiosyncrasy


when was the last time
you were yourself
can you recall the moment
one instance that says
oh yeah
that’s the epitome of me

how about when you were
three years old
ten or twenty or fifty
can you pinpoint the common
denominator
the trait or idiosyncrasy
that annoying little habit
can you name it
—put it into a sentence

some people say
they’re not the same person
they once were
but these people are liars
and probably have been
throughout
their entire lifetimes


october two thousand twenty-four
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , | Leave a comment
13 Oct 2024
2 Comments

Radiation Queen


The King says she’s mad at the world
but chances are it’s just him

Afterall how much ego can one take
after decades of conditioning
how much strength can you muster
as your body continues
to betray you

He says she’s mad at the world
but when I visited her
she was telling stories
& laughing
sometimes at herself
sometimes at friends dead or alive
but most times at a world
continually testing her resolve


october two thousand twenty-four
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , ,
05 Oct 2024
3 Comments

in due time


I’m not pretending
to be anyone
except myself
which may or may
not change
from time to
time

some say
I’m some sort of
chameleon
depending on
the time of day
or week or month
or quarter
depending on how
the moon
shapes
my thoughts

I stopped reading
the obits
years ago
figure if there’s anyone
dead that I
should know about
somehow I’ll
find out
in due time


october two thousand twenty-four
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , ,
08 Sep 2024

splitting personalities


I find myself out of touch
with the god within
an entity I thought
I knew so well

maybe he’s evolved
into someone else
or reverted back
to a former self
I’ve long forgotten

whatever the case
I feel compelled
to remove him
from my head
before he decides
to take over my body


september two thousand twenty-four
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , , | Leave a comment
01 Sep 2024

the boy prince & the wizard’s wife


chances are you would find
her in the cookery
usually a big black pot
on the largest stovetop burner
control knob set to simmer

on this day she would turn
me into a frog or toad
or maybe it was a salamander
my self-imposed mission
to set out alone in the cold cold world
to see if was possible
for anyone to love me


september two thousand twenty-four
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , , | Leave a comment
17 May 2024

feeling comfy in your own skin


he wore green pants
—and no it wasn’t saint paddy’s day

he wore green pants
and he’s not even irish
he just likes the way they look

one day he told his girlfriend
maybe I’ll put on green pants
every morning from here on out

she agreed they looked good on him

he was never envious
or money hungry
didn’t care for pea soup
or mowing the lawn
but he liked to wear green pants
and that became his true identity


may two thousand twenty-four
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , | Leave a comment
09 Dec 2021
5 Comments

identity breakthrough


forget about playing nicely
everyone’s had enough

first they took away the sandboxes
kindergarten will be next

go & figure things out on your own
and report back in a few years
   so we can evaluate how badly
you’ve been doing

the world is a gradual change
(not to be confused with progress)
with every step taken
two are typically reversed
and with every year of living
numerous degrees of separation
are shifted one way or the other

reaching the point of no return
is a common occurrence this day & age
which is one reason why
(if you think about it)
there are stretches of time
you’ve no idea who you really are





december two thousand twenty-one
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , ,
21 Oct 2021

making do with new used


it’s easy to get things started
when you got nothing to lose
when the better of you
checked out years ago
the new you
still trying to attain an identity

retooling versus relearning
is the way to go
introducing new skill sets
crafting brand new lies from
fact & fiction
sprinkling in a gram of truth

what I wouldn’t give
to simply be myself again
uncloaked from mystery
dying to obtain a flare
for the post dramatic
for no particular reason





october two thousand twenty-one
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , | Leave a comment

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