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Give them to me.
All the pieces of your broken heart.
Give them to me.

I'll take them.

All the rough-hewn misshapen bits of your shattered dreams.


Give them to me.
I will take them.

Give them to me.


They are wanted here.


All the parts of your misspent childhood. All the regrets of ticking seconds behind you.

Give them to me.

And we will build a cathedral. A stained glass window of who we are as tall and as beautiful as it should be.

Let me have them.

And we will make a mosaic that stretches as wide as the sky. Showing every color your heart gained from the bits and pieces left on the ground.

I will take them.

And forge a sculpture of how beautiful the ideas are that we cast out in our failings and we will cast it in our failings.

Let me have them.

And we will ***** a monument of all the small things in the shape that you remember them.
Towering. Looming. Striking. Beautiful.

Let me have them so we might bind the words said and regretted, (or worse) left unsaid in leather and call it scripture.

Our Psalms. Our Proverbs:

“The tip of my finger dangles like my tongue. Wanting to touch something beautiful.”

“If it were not for him, it would have been us.”

“You were all my brightest colors.”

“I wish I were more like you.”

“I wish I were less like me.”

“I am sped.”


And we will read them at dawn like litany.

Stretching our voices to the corners of the universe. Asking for the wishes you make when you are scared. Or alone. Or both.

That we may take them.

And make a blanket.

A blanket to cover our childhood and let it rest at last.

I will take them.

All the parts you no longer want.

Give them to me.

Because they are what make us beautiful.

Give them to me.

That I may forge them into pitch and feathers and craft mighty wings.

That I may take flight from your worry. And soar on the updraft of your misconception.

Give them to me.
I will take them.

Because I would rather burn like Icarus than to have never dared to fly.
This was a birthday gift to myself. I am giving it to you.
WRITE your wishes
  on the door
  and come in.
  
Stand outside
  in the pools of the harvest moon.
  
Bring in
  the handshake of the pumpkins.
  
There's a wish
  for every hazel nut?
There's a hope
  for every corn shock?
There's a kiss
  for every clumsy climbing shadow?
  
Clover and the bumblebees once,
high winds and November rain now.
  
Buy shoes
  for rough weather in November.
Buy shirts
  to sleep outdoors when May comes.
  
  Buy me
something useless to remember you by.
  Send me
a sumach leaf from an Illinois hill.
  
  In the faces marching in the firelog flickers,
In the fire music of wood singing to winter,
Make my face march through the purple and ashes.
Make me one of the fire singers to winter.
The other day
I happened to see a friend
who had passed away.
It was not until I saw him
had I realized,
I no longer cared for him.
I had been busy living
and after all these years
he was still the same.
How does one explain
to a dead friend
that people change?
 Jan 2016 Evelyn Halstead
Aditi
You don't look for me
In familiar faces all around you.
You don't think about me every time you see a sunset and wonder
How endings can be beautiful too
You don't look at the night sky and miss the constellations on my lips.

I wish you did
But then I know you don't.


You would not let me carve a cavity out of you
On a cold January night
And watch me leave in mid June,
When it's warm enough for me to fly
And you would not
Like the way I set fire on every home I have ever entered
Or how my touch would give you chills across your sweaty spine


And God, how I hoped you would,
But I know you don't.




You no longer walk that extra mile
To catch the sunrise in my smile
You  no longer stay up
Till the storm inside me subsides
You no longer want to end the day
By resting in the black of my eyes
You no longer name
The galaxies on my skin



And hence, I think it is time to make a change.


Because I hope you did but
I know you don't

And i know away from this pain,
A new horizon awaits.
My words became
Roses
And made bouquets
To brighten her room
Beautiful red roses
Without any wilted petals
Of sorrow or fear
I left them laying
Strewn carelessly
About her bed
And left the crying
For the cold hallways
2014

— The End —