The girl with the heart that was once full of fire,
now burned to a black soul of charcoal.

And with a chain around her neck that said dream,
she set out trying to gain something she had lost along time ago.

And she hoped with all of her burned soul and tattered mind,
this missing piece she had yet to find,
would silence her screams and her heart, redefine.

I lost my heart deep in the blackened blue
skies, sliced, dead muscles under sullen eyes,
slouched back beyond bleeding, shattered hips
in flawed hallucinations, hard dragging
silences sunk in shadows, homeless equations
evaporating in a sea of dying screams,
muted gray rivers, stranded choking consonants,
a bladed crime amplifying in ******* rhymes,
steel azure eyes searching in pain, brick cracking anger,
a harboring bruise masked in ****** syllables,
amber sparking dimensions, scarlet crammed
surfaces caged in chaos, trembling, starving,
swallowing mouth, a hall of congested negatives,
slung around in rough-edged caves, all swollen
and numb, sun-drenched and scorned, a brutal
death of a poet stabbed.

I still find the the ache in new places
In the memory of still water
In the tinge of early autumn
And in the west of day
It sits in my soup
In the dulled stare
I packed my faculties
Looking for somewhere
that doesn't hurt.
I still find the the ache in new places
that know not of my grief.

spinning where the halt of your lurching heart is a musical
surging in the mundane litany of our personas
suffering the same madness that soothes the savage disconnection
of perpetual mortality…. sleeping at the center of wakeful
bedazzled by the prominence of cashew moons and the promise
of absolute doom…. but not without a word in edgewise.
in the margins of an unpublished book.

glowworms on holiday mock the cave on your back
and all the blind crickets
can see right
through you.

Tension collects at the temples of my mind
Even though all day I've been in bed
I have yet to be fed..
All I can do is dread..

My mouth is clenched tight
My eyes sunken sad
My cheeks sag down my face
My heart hardly keeps it together

My stomach rumbles
My lips get chapped.
Slowly cracking
I feel so sad.

It feels like the tightness in my throat is here to stay
when negative men always find a way
to my vulnerable heart and nurturing soul

Losing my mind…
I'm filled with regrets
Fueled by a tsunami of rage

Who am I really mad at?
Myself or the Game?
It's not worth the sorrow, if there might not be a tomorrow.

Blocked
I've tried everything to break through
You think I'm lost
Confused
That I don't know who I am

I know exactly who I am
Warrior
Lover
Shaman
In that order I classify myself

Time has shaped me
Has it shaped you?
I can't get a read on your soul
Have you found it yet?

The sword
The bow
The mouth
All are deadly when wielded by one who knows

Waking nightmares
Memories of lives past
Blood, and glory

I know who I am
Stop calling me broken
I'm not

Empathy removed concern
as it walked out of the room
drop by drop
the edges of love blurred

everything looks like pain
as rocks turn tumbleweeds
basking in the warmth
of unspoken words

left in despair
dragged under the beast
blindsided by action
inaction and retrospect

no part of love is hate
no part of love is hate
no part of love is hate

deleted from afterthoughts
all that's left is black-filled space
where there was once no question
that love exists

i.

melted ice cream afternoons
bogged down

rising from asphalt
in magical mist
that transforms
the day into
a test of endurance

even dusk offers
no solace
in frozen watermelon bliss


ii.

smoke permeates fabric
hair and every surface
with peace and grit
wafting over
the crispy
edges of predawn

begging sleep
to the most stubborn
insomniac

rotisserie style dreams
till morning


iii.

there's less death today
waiting in line
in candy store nightmares
begging silence
from the jubilant

but the sky turned up
a dream state

in that beguiling beauty
is brilliance


iv.

in shadows
the earth falls silent

rustling through
tall tales
the moon births

images in hidden corners

evening strolls
turn adventures

and every day
burns quick
to be reborn slowly


v.

the weight of hell
in short tempered bites
**** will with a proficiency
unseen outside
a viper's silent hunt

ready for war
with fists losing
responsibility

breaking triple digit
pressure


vi.

Incessant banging through walls built faster than I am strong enough to demolish, cradling lace so it won't rip on my forked tongue. There is only so much care left to handle perception just trying to breathe through a smile.