Voodoo Doll and Other Poems

By Haley Hall

Voodoo Doll

A stringy smile and button eyes as cold as your own
Every time I hurt,
you can too.

I stitched the mouth closed
Silencing you like you did me

The red pins give me the power I’ve been longing for
The power you hold
The power I deserve

I place one in your heart
Like you did to me,
Remember?

Concentrating on my desires
Concentrating on my intentions 
Petitioning the spirits to act on my behalf

Unbothered by karmic backlash 
I’m only settling the score

I hold you tight
Caressing your cloth exterior 
Before I cast the ultimate unforgivable spell

The Color Red

It was my lipstick 
It was valentines day, 
gifts, physical touch,
Love
It was warmth 
and comfort
It was Netflix and date nights and
your protection
It was my love language
It was your jersey
and those shoes I bought you 
I was safe

Before It was hell 
agony, disappointment,
Fear
Now It is stop signs 
And stop lights and
For God’s sake stop it 
There is blood on your hands
blood on the shoes I bought you
I am not safe

it was fire with sparks
and now it is fire with flames
It is always red
One way or another 
It is always red 

Mourning the Living

Longing for someone who no longer exists
Is like steering a ship that has already sunk

Pointless

Trying again 
like carefully placing your heart in hands already cold

Hopeless

Preparing for the worst and expecting it too

The arbitrary action of allowing abuse

It's too far gone 
like receiving an invitation once the party is over

Useless

Where they were good intentioned
They are now malice

Where they were honest 
They are now vengeful

Where they were pure
They are now broken

That person is dead

Their vessel is still moving
But that person will never be back

Like the guilt of the soul survivor in the
most fatal crash

I am in mourning

But I died with them

One Moment

I think back to one moment 
during the summer before we died
It plays in slow motion 
through my head 
on repeat

The memory keeps me warm through the winter 

It was a bright day in June
I was riding passenger seat of your car
like a scene 
straight out of a Taylor Swift song

You looked over at me 
with those eyes that’ll make 
a stranger stop and stare
The type of eyes that 
make you feel important 
that you’re the thing
they chose to look at

I could spend a day
counting the shades of green in those eyes
A green so deep it had me regretting
ever having another favorite color

The sun hit your skin 
and reminded me I’m alive
It kissed you so right 
I was almost jealous of it 
Your tanned skin was a blanket 
And your freckles were 
pillows placed perfectly 
on your cheeks

Dirty blonde hair 
but there was nothing dirty
about that blonde
It was perfect
The light ran through it 
The way I wish my fingers still could

Your hand was on the steering wheel
so strong but so gentle
The type of calloused hands 
that have no business 
being as soft as they are 

The tattoos wrote a book on your arms
that I would spend my lifetime reading
If you’d let me 

You’d talk to me so kindly
with the type of voice 
that could put goosebumps
on even the warmest of skin 

Speaking words through those lips
crafted by the hands of God himself
The type of lips you want to
prevent from ever forming a frown
The same lips that somehow
Formed the words goodbye

Like us, 
That moment was short lived 
But like us,
It will live on forever 
in my head

The memory keeps me warm through the winter 

I Slept So Good With You That Night

I didn't sweat
I didn’t move  

Your twitching didn't even wake me 
not even once

arising in the same position I fell to sleep in
your snoring must’ve been so faint

Because I slept so good with you that night

We said our goodbyes in the morning
Just like every other time

little did I know it’d be the last 
Who would have thought it’d be the last

Considering I slept so good with you that night

You’d tell me you loved me on my way out
Then never speak to me again

How was I supposed to see it coming?
Your twitching didn’t even wake me
not even once

I slept so good with you that night

Haley Hall is a junior at Michigan State University, majoring in Psychology and minoring in English. She has had a love for poetry ever since getting drawn in by the works of Edgar Allen Poe in her sixth grade English class