Off Rhythm
She's fucking with my mind
I can’t sleep
The vision of you and me
Is too imbedded in my memory
The sight of you has me
Off kilter
Your touch
The feeling of your hands on my chest
Drifting down to my waist
Your movements slow and deliberate
Is fucking with my mental
Your kiss
All over my lips
So wet
So soft
So tempting you are
Occupying my mind
My thoughts
I can’t
Focus
Visions of you on top of me
Looking down on me
Riding me
Owning me
“It’s yours baby”
You are…
On my mind in every way
The way that you look at me and say my name
Grinding slow on me
Tell me to say your name
You control the pacing
The breathing
The fucking
I’m distracted in your memories
I can’t stay on task
Every shadow that moves in the darkness
Is a vision of you
Laid out bare and spread open
As I stare at you
As you move
Begging for me to taste you
So I do
Tongue on lips
Saliva mixed with your wetness
Clit engorged
I suck it softly
Kiss it intensely
“This pussy is yours baby”
I’m lost in these moments
Your voice
Has me confused on what you do to me
Something is off
My poise
My swag
My rhythm is out of control
Your eyes
The intensity in your stare
As if you are seeing a me that I’m unaware existed
Your moans
Your groans…
My name is your pleasure
And this we is your treasure
The fuck…
I can’t think
I can’t see straight
I can’t concentrate
You have taken me into this space
Consuming my all of you
By you
For you
In this room
I can’t…
Sleep
🎧 From my lips to your ears…
🎤 Spit and Ink: A Live Poetry Exchange (Open Mic)
Co-hosted by The Speechless Poet & Melissa “justME” Ellis
Next event: June 23 at 8PM EST
All poets of all genres and experience are welcome.
Come for the poetry. Stay for the AfterWORDS!
AfterWORDS: Off Rhythm
The Insomnia Frame
“I can’t sleep”
“I can’t focus”
“I can’t stay on task”
I generally can’t sleep when a poem is fresh on my mind or a thought has been sparked. This one started from a conversation about the best time to record a piece. And the answer kept coming back to the witching hour. That window when you feel the most vulnerable, the most present, the most connected to whatever is moving inside you.
When you’re in your own head and if you actually listen, the work tends to write itself. That’s why the poem opens and closes on the same line. I can’t sleep.
Everything that lives between those two moments is what the mind does when it refuses to quiet down. A loop of memory and desire playing on repeat until the sun comes up.
Off Rhythm as Theme and Title
“So tempting you are / Occupying my mind / My thoughts / I can’t / Focus”
The title came from a song on the Poerotica playlist. Melissa “justME” Ellis instructed me to sit with the idea of being “off rhythm” or “off kilter,” so I asked myself what does it feel like to be off kilter? Out of rhythm? Pulled completely off your game by someone you want?
I started writing toward that feeling. What it sounds like. What it does to you:
“My poise / My swag / My rhythm is out of control”
All the things that usually anchor you, gone, because someone has gotten that far under your skin.
The Fragmented Structure
The short lines and broken phrases weren’t an accident. They are the point. The words begin but there’s no ending. They’re disjointed. Connected but not at the same time. That’s exactly what it feels like to want someone so badly you can’t hold a complete thought:
“I can’t / Focus / I can’t think / I can’t see straight / I can’t concentrate”
The structure mirrors the mental state: distracted, scattered, unable to stay on task. The poem doesn’t just describe an inability to concentrate. It performs it.
Memory vs. Presence
I’m so focused on being in her presence that even when she’s gone, she still exists in the space. Every nerve ending reaches out to feel what she makes me feel. It’s as if she’s contained in the air surrounding me and still demands all my focus:
“Every shadow that moves in the darkness / Is a vision of you”
She doesn’t have to be in the room. She’s already everywhere.
The Power Dynamic
My poems almost always give the control back to the lover. Every action, every movement, every expression I make is because I know that’s what satisfies her. And that means she is always the one in control of how I respond to her. That dynamic lives in the refrains:
“It’s yours baby … this pussy is yours baby … you control the pacing / The breathing / The fucking”
Even in her pleasure, she’s the one speaking, claiming, directing. I’m just present and willing. And that’s exactly where I want to be.
Why This Belongs in Poerotica
Poerotica has always been about desire that refuses to stay quiet. And sometimes that means desire that won’t even let you rest. This poem lives in the same family as Sleepless Nights and Dreamscape: pieces where wanting someone becomes a physical state, where memory takes up residence in the body and won’t leave.
But Off Rhythm adds something specific. It’s about losing your composure. Your poise, your swag, the very rhythm that defines how you move through the world. Because someone has gotten that far under your skin. That vulnerability is the point.
A lot of my work puts me in a place of attentiveness and intention. This poem is the opposite: me undone, distracted, unable to think straight because the want is louder than my focus.
Poerotica isn’t only about confidence and command. It’s about honesty. Sometimes desire makes you sharp and present. Sometimes it scrambles you completely. Both are true. Both deserve a poem.
Your Thoughts
Have you ever been so consumed by someone that you couldn’t focus, couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t sleep? Where their memory took over a room they weren’t even in? What does it feel like when desire pulls you that far off your rhythm?
Drop a comment. Let’s talk about the people who scramble our focus.
If you enjoyed this, you might also like:
Sleepless Nights - When the mind won’t rest and desire won’t quit
Dreamscape - Living inside a memory that feels more real than the room you’re in
Withdrawals - On what happens when that consuming presence disappears
Oh Speechless. this is exquisite... i'm thick with arousal.. hated to feel this end. have you ever considered writing erotic scenes? just curious.. just a bad girl's greedy dream.. your poetry is magnificent as it is of course.. gorgeous xxx
You outdid yourself!!! It is everything that I knew it would be. I really appreciate you taking the prompt and giving it life! ❤️🎤🖤✍🏽💚