A siren call beckoned me
Through waves of endless murky blues
And over crashes of distant storms
Sweet and deadly like belladonna in ambrosia

Milk and honey dripped from her lips
As she cried out to me for a reply
Soft like silk carved into marble stone,
Strong like magic from the aisle of Aeaea

I was tempted, nearly ensnared
By that beauty somewhere near
If I followed that voice out to sea
I knew she would be the last thing I'd see

How could I do that to my Penelope?

So the siren sang her enrapturing tune
And I tied myself to the body of the mast
I would not be lured to my doom
Elysium will have to wait, I'm coming home

We were a photograph once
Not torn, not blurred or smudged
We were altogether pictures
Put into broken frames

We were creatures crouching
In dark corners
Trying to remember
How it felt to be whole;
Human, connected

We are the fragmented remnants
Of stolen things, of broken things
But I still like taking our picture out
From time to time
Just to remember that
It was real

We were there at the start

I can feel the blood
Running through my veins
The soul that sits
Somewhere deep within me
I can think clear
I can breathe easy
I can calm myself again

The anxious feelings
Like a shaken beehive
Buzzing and stinging
Beneath my flesh and bone
Have stilled and silenced,
Relief and respite return

My eyes are searching
For nothing in particular
And yet everything they catch
Feels like a piece
Of some long lost sanctuary
I didn't know I needed

It's a liminal space
Where the only proof there is
That time is passing
Is the sun rising and setting
The colors changing in the clouds

A liminal space whose soundtrack
Is the sounds of the cicadas
Squirrels jumping through the trees
Distant fireworks from a nearby attraction
And the busy quiet that always follows
The liveliness of the wilderness

A lull washes over everything in this place
With a hand on the cool metal of the rail
And the paint chipping off under your fingers
An absence of anything profound
Simply just one more balcony
Amidst a million others just the same

Where do I begin
To clean my heart of you?
Should I scrub each vessel
Douse my veins in bleach
To finally be rid of it all?

Every time I think I've moved on
You say just enough words
To pull me right back in
I want to know
Can I get clean again
Or will I forever be addicted
To a love that no longer exists?

I walk through this world blindfolded
Echolocating my way with just your heartbeat
Each pulse guiding me through blurry lines
Making the world around me clear as crystal
I trust alone in the visibility each beat gives me

And though your heartbeat fades so soft
I follow the breadcrumbs you leave me
Ultrasound and hardly there at all, perhaps a dream
I'll still find you in this endless pitch black sky

I'm like a vampire, or perhaps more like a fruit bat
What I crave is something sweeter than blood
Only you would do, my favorite chalice
My thirst consumes me, such hunger becomes me
With no true beginning and no true end

I glide across the starlight, seeking you out
With my echoes in the dark
The sound of your heart, brighter than any flame
Lighting my way, and like a moth I follow
On gilded wings to you I soar

But all fires burn out
No matter how eternal their light seems
And all moths return to dust
No matter how immortal their dreams

I'll trust only
In my echoes in the dark

Poem by: Layla Smith (Pyrrhathepoet)

i loved you with all my wildfire heart
but our forest has burned to the ground
there's nothing left in the dust
nothing left in the ashes—
but look if you must

I don't remember what it felt like to be in love
I don't remember what it felt like to be loved either
I used to stay up all night dreaming about us
About this perfectly imperfect life we could've had
I used to cry myself to sleep wishing you loved me

I imagined waking up next to you in the mornings
How I would leave poetry on your pillow
Telling you I loved you at every chance I'd get
I dreamt of loving you as deeply as I could

And now I dream of a world without you
Digging the depths of my heart for reasons
To love yourself, anything to make you stay

I dream of losing you how I never thought I would
While parts of me still burn for you so bright

Death knells are chasing away my wedding bells