The orange.
The peel.
The rind.
The bitterness of words,
You left unsaid.
You said you were tired,
You said she was right.
You kept writing,
Like it would save him.
Like it could change things.
Like it would make him learn.
Like it could make him
Care about you.
Care about the things she said,
Care about the things she did,
Care about choosing,
Choosing you.
You wanted him to peel the orange,
But we both know,
By now they're out of season.
May 14
May 14, 2026 at 3:33 PM UTC
You are the glint off every trophy,
The shine of a job well done.
You sparkle with every victory,
Dazzle with each congratulations.
With each dart of your eyes
The iris shrinks.
Your heart squeezes with each breath,
Like a timer, ticking,
counting down.
Counting down until,
A crack.
Counting down until,
A splinter.
Counting down until,
A breakthrough.
The walls pull in to meet your eyes,
The room is shrinking impossibly small,
The only thing left are words you don't believe,
And trophies you wish you didn't win.
May 14
May 14, 2026 at 3:21 PM UTC
There is a place, far from heaven,
With a throne engraved with your name.
Farther down, far away, buried tight in my memory,
A throne of nails and pins, needles, used to hold me snug to the paper,
A careful display of your power.
You talk about me like I'm not there, like I'm nothing without you.
You wrap my bruises in "I love you" like it sutures my wounds.
You press "I'm sorry" to my lips, wishfully hoping I lose my voice.
Your "didn't mean it"'s stack up like unfinished homework on my desk, nameplate copper and oxidized with my exhaustion.
You say "I love you",
And somehow,
Some way,
I always find myself believing you.
Apr 29
Apr 29, 2026 at 4:11 PM UTC
With my back to the ground, I like to count the stars.
1, 2, 3,
My bones press heavy into the ground beneath me.
44, 45, 46
My eyes close. The image of the sky burns behind them.
150, 151, 152,
The cold night air seeps between the muscle and bone of my arms and legs, separating the flesh from my body.
1033, 1034, 1035,
My eyes won't open.
My hand stills and my breath hitches,
I listen to the trees sway.
Crickets chirp.
As I hear the world move on past me for the last time, I think to myself.
There are too many stars to count.
Apr 24
Apr 24, 2026 at 3:20 PM UTC
I sat, feet curled under my knees, weighed with what felt like the world on my shoulders.
Pressed and wrapped and knotted somewhere deep in my gut that I couldn't unravel.
I tore through the tissue surrounding my bones like wrapping on a gift that wasn't for me, ripping and prodding at the cogs and gears that fit between the muscle.
I sat, fingers wringing a cloth that was never there.
Anxiously waiting at a door I knew was bolted shut, a door closed on me
that I knew wouldn't open.
Waiting as the patience dripped out of my chest with the pain of a broken rib, spilling onto the floor around my feet despite my efforts to push it back in past my lungs.
I sat, in a puddle of my own guilt, looking up at you with the heaviest heart,
And you smiled.
You smiled and you crouched down, and took my hands.
I watched as you picked me up like you were carrying a box of glass, you held me like you knew it would cut and didn't care.
I pressed my cuts and my bruises into you and you loved them more than you ever loved before, you fell in love with the broken parts of me.
You fell in love with the gears, and the cloth, and the door, and the bones, and the knees I sat on, staring at you since the day we met.
Apr 21
Apr 21, 2026 at 2:30 PM UTC