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Dear Moon,
You yearn for the love of the sun,
changing your presence.
Why do you run?
Hiding yourself so others can shine;
gleaming only in darkness ever so divine.
You look for strength in the waves
Never still, just twenty seven days.
Breaking yourself for the heartbreaking fact that you are constantly wondering if you will stay intact.

Eclipse. Twice a year you have the chance
to meet your love and have a dance. Eclipse.
Deep within the galaxies, dreaming of living your fantasies.
Desolate darkness. The sun is away,
lighting her fire in the month of May.
Burning so bright, but there’s nothing else to say.

She waits to see you glisten, to watch and even listen.
Curses herself for her fatal passions of a love too strong that has no ration.
But your love is forbidden. Why do you race?
Dear Moon, is it worth the chase?
 Feb 2020 Claire Hanratty
Nicole
crying hopelessly by the beach
before i truly knew what sadness felt like
you rest your head on my shoulder when we got home and i didn’t move an inch in that dimly lit room

trying not to breathe, i felt like the keeper of your sleep
how sweet it was to have someone like me

in the morning we gardened as a family
throwing the ball for our dog, running inside and outside not minding too much about the sharp stones underneath our bare feet
for once i was a part of something, a mismatched family one day to fall apart

but we didn’t know that yet as we walked through the graveyard -
pink skies overhead guarding the dead
we walked our dog through here again and again
down through the emerald forest,
collecting twigs and flying on rope swings and through the enchanting trees we would soar
as we walked on towards the sea what would we have thought
if one of us just said ‘in the end we won’t have this anymore’
I love him
I tell myself
I know that
We will be together forever
I don’t believe that
We could be separated
My thoughts tell me that
He’s the love of my life
Sometimes my heart lies and says
I could live an eternity
Without him
Like my friends say
“We’re perfect for each other”
And you can’t tell me
He’s not the one.

Now read from bottom to top.
Hi
Years ago
We stayed up till
3 am talking,
And today
I don’t even know
How to say hi,
In my garden, there are cigarette corpses
None of which were ever yours.
Were they yours, I’d have grieved as
Their fires collapsed and their breath grew meagre,
Until the last of you upon them dwindled in winks of ash.

In my wardrobe, there is a shirt
Which I’m not sure is mine or yours.
Were it yours, you’d want it on your back
And not draping you across my mornings as I dress,
Yet I fear I’d miss the smudges you put in my dawns.

In my pocket, there is a note
Unaddressed but undoubtedly mine.
Were it yours, it wouldn’t be written
In such naked ink,
It'd be dormant in that head of yours.

In my mind, there are the ghosts
Of kisses unaware and helpless smiles.
Were they yours too, your jumper would still
Be woven with absinthe, and your arms with mine.
No more than ghosts; they breathe down my neck.

Do they breathe down yours?
One I wrote out of a painful love
i’d rather write about the freckles on your back than think about all of the ways in which you quite possibly don’t love me.

i feel sick at the very thought of you picking me apart the way you did; fingers grabbing and stroking in a catastrophic symphony of skin and vulnerability.

let’s read between each other’s lines; share my sentences and punctuate my paragraphs with your mouth; because i can breathe easier on the mornings where i wake up wrapped around you.

because my moods change like the ******* seasons and the spinning in my head doesn’t want to stop.
                                         you tell me that i should probably get a therapist because no one that thinks about all the ways in which they could **** themselves has an ounce of mental stability.
                                          i tell you that i have been to four.
                                          names faded into a blur with hazy snippets of conversation remaining.
20mg.
                    30mg.
you tell me that trust issues and scars aren’t endearing and i tell you that neither is counting up the potential number of pills needed to dissolve your body into the living room carpet.

let me sink inside your skin and make a home in your flesh;
i tell you about the nights where i lay awake in the bath turning the water red.
                       tragic, isn’t it.

you tell me that this isn’t how my head should work and i tell you that i already know. everything you could possibly tell me i already know.
i know that 400 calories a day isn’t normal, and my hands shouldn’t shake all the time.
                                             i know.
please let me stitch myself into you, even just for a while; until i no longer feel dizzy and my world stops spinning.
i don’t need you to tell me that it will be okay, because honestly i don’t think it will be and, that in itself, is okay.
                                                                ­                 let me stitch myself into you, because my own skin can’t take it anymore.

let me call you back when my voice stops wobbling and my vision straightens out, but honestly, i’m terrified that it never will. what if this is it. headaches and tears and shaking and blood.
                                             and the debilitating, gut-wrenching feeling of pure and euphoric emptiness.

                                              tragic, isn’t it.
 Mar 2018 Claire Hanratty
Marty
Vege
 Mar 2018 Claire Hanratty
Marty
In the window stands a man, who neither looks in nor out. Upon his chest the weight of the world but, nothing does he feel. The sun upon his face but, the blood runs cold. Her disdain for life and love forces razors into every breathe. Wind blown passion scatters amongst the rocks. Tempestuous flowers lining the path, starving for the water that extends the grief. Tomorrow lives not, yet yesterday never dies. Her warmth and passion lights the fires in the arms that belong not. The velvety green oceans of lust peer into a dessert of agony and pain. Wantononly departing in an iniquitous journey. This pain was not asked for, but your leisurely stroll through the starry night, put the gun in his hand. The knees throb as they quiver opon the cold rock. Gentle breeze parts the hair. Salty oceans topple over the falls. Choking and stifling on the horrific nightmares prevents the end even for a moment. The pain has become a drug, and the arms open wide. Painful contentment now allows a glorious agony that some call sleep. Can this be the end of love?
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