I've lived for the taste of your
flesh, wet with desire
a mess between your legs,
lapped up like a dog
unworthy of worshiping you.

I have prayed at your temple
white cream formed from your lips
engorged
I enter you
and never
again
are my prayers returned.

I wrote you love poems
long before I met you

and I will

write you love poems
long after you are gone.

You appear like a ghost
haunting my mind
infecting my heart.
Are you even here,
or am I imagining your presence
like a husband pining
for a dead wife?

Were you ever here, really?
Did I have a life with you
or is that just a dream
I am remembering?

Clots of blood surface
saying we have nothing in common
but I know, really,
that they are only imagined
in a reality I could see past
but you couldn't.

So who are you?
Who am I without you?
I've been finally catching up
but you are long gone
and I never had a chance.

But I'm glad you
eased your concerns
by invading my
thoughts, presence, dreams...

At least you
got satisfaction.

Can you see yourself
the way the mascara runs
the wings splayed out
like an angel
naked
pale
leaning into her own
dissolution.

I would have moved the very crust of the Earth
to save you from myself.

I could only want one thing for you and that's
happiness, even if it's without me.

I can stare into this bottle of
whiskey in the jar
until the end isn't different
but we play pretend,
like it's okay it's not okay...
...okay.

And so I'll release you
but I may need to release myself
as well.

Everyone so lit up
drunk on drink
listless or the hope of a new year.

My mind is circling that black dot
growing larger by the minute.

It's cold, metal frame
eclipses all that remains.

I'm so tired
of laughing without the eyes
of crying without the tears
of wearing this mask
on top of a mask
just to keep
people
satisfied.