ᴵ the wind kissed your hair
just like sakura petals
I can't look away

ᴵᴵ sakuras fall five
centimeters per second
I'm falling faster

ᴵᴵᴵ you're a sakura
and I'm a cobblestone path
waiting for autumn

ᴵⱽ I left home armored
and soon I will be back home
as a sakura⠀

桜

the watch on his wrist
says it's time to go — but his
hands say one more time

I always liked storms
so I chased after you, and
danced under your rain

who's to say my life
isn't full at twenty-nine —
to each cup its own

what am I good for
if I'm lost — adrift like a
cloud that holds no rain ☁︎

let me
want your future —
   one that's
   certain and sturdy
and need your now —
   where we're
   calm and quiet

where waking up
   doesn't hurt
   anymore
   because it's
   no longer
   just
   a dream

perhaps life is the
spouse and rest is the lover —
my head is our bed

BLUE BIRD: if you can't
in one hundred and forty
characters, then don't

some nights I wish you'd
just knock — it's not just my door
I'll let you in through

just because they gave
more than you did
doesn't mean they gave
their all — like you did

eight hours of sleep
eight to work and to hustle
eight to love yourself

perpendicular
short hand at 3, I waited
now there's just 1 hand

look into my eyes
and you'll see how silently
I'm screaming right now

To Cristoforo,

It's often silent — but it's there,
the cannons aimed above our heads
under their white flags and olive branch.

Love,
LL

owning a pencil
must come with a sharpener
or skills, and a blade

we buy things with cash
to win people's hearts, kindness
is the ¢urrency

you'll understand when
you're a parent — is a bad
way of parenting

you took your shirt off
on your back was half a wing
inked — like my longing

your bare chest sculpted
my eyes — hammer and chisel
a thief you welcomed

your lips hugged the cig
tasting its soul — why am I
jealous of a stick

on my knees — in a
way, praying that you won't take
your hand off my nape

his LIPS — pressed to my
      nape — bear witness to    the SHAPE
                                        of my EXISTENCE

skin — your skin — excites
the hell out of me like it's
fine art on the street

I have grown restless
thinking how you don't find rest
in me anymore

waves rush towards her
sand slipping between her toes
I am letting go

that guy who runs through
temples but stays in place — is
life an illusion

I don't tell you things
because explaining in length
things long brewing's like
standing at the floodgates of
a river as it empties

teach me how to look
at you like I know exact-
ly what we'll do next

you make the sun rise
so I look across the sea
the sun sets on me

To MB,

I'll love you forever, even from afar.
Just think of the sun.

Always doesn't have to be near
just a secret, because we're both
married.

Love,
SP

deep voice drew me in —
close enough to inhale his
secondhand stories

Dear lover,

I've been feeding the white wolf
while the black wolf sleeps.
The sun sets, and I sleep alone.

If I feed the black wolf
while the white wolf dreams,
would I find you at sunset,
at the end of this red string?

Love,
LL

W,

When I talk about my past lovers,
it's only with the intention of making you jealous.

Love,
ML

To JC,

I had no one to tell these things before:

When I found myself lost in this world
because we weren't together,
I caught it wandering in another.

One where you walked on solid clouds,
and I left the comforts of a solid ground.

I didn't want to leave
because you were there
and we were together,

but bells ring, days end,
so I came down.

My feet touched the ground.

Love,
ML

if I can only
be happy for you and not
happy with you — f***

oh how intimate
his fingers comb my hair, to
trace lines on my nape
and see things I'll never SEE
like the inside of my ear

you only water
the plants when you need them to
flower and bear fruit

you, who asked me if
I already brushed my teeth —
I said I'd prove it
when you come closer and taste
the mint from my very tongue

tonight I'm awake
so I can spend tomorrow
feeling so sleepy

leaves fall like ashes
touching the ground like tancho
flowers spring from it

Dear Finch; Connor;

I'm not sorry you did it
but I'm sorry we failed you.

Sincerely,
LL

I fall fast as if
a star from a dream, did you
see — the TRAIL of LIGHT

I smile just enough
and I talk just enough to
keep the questions out

two sticks — you lit one
offered me your cig — wished you
meant         your bed             instead

I chase with my eyes
what my hands cannot touch — I'm
left empty-handed

my brain's a chem lab
and the chemist is asleep
— HELP THERE IS A FIRE!

my head hurts so bad
tired of explaining myself
thought you'd understand