The oracles don't whisper to the living
They chant in vapour
In marrow
In echoes only heard when the self has softened
You must forget your shape
To bear their song
And become smoke to listen
I walked barefoot on salted glass
Between two moons, arguing softly
A crow watched me with seven eyes
And every blink re-wrote my spine
I asked for peace
It offered vision
I asked for answers
It offered mirrors too honest to survive
The oracles don't whisper to the living
They speak in rust
In moth wings
In teeth lost to grief
Their tongues run rivers underground
And you will drown before you understand
I saw a god blink once
And galaxies collapsed inward
Distracted, not cruel
The veil is not a curtain
But a membrane of remembering
I pressed my face through it
And came back less human
More true
The oracles wove their riddles
In the seams of my ribs
Now I hum when it rains
And dream in reverse
The oracles don't whisper to the living
They wait
And when your voice becomes dust
They will answer in wind and meaning
Not words or mercy
If you hear them
You are no longer asking
You are becoming what you once feared to know

I built a home in your silence
Hung hope like art in the dark
You watched me drown in your absence
Called it growth while you tore me apart
I begged with hands that bled for you
But you pulled away like I stained your skin
No love left to give
No breath to steal
You left me lit
Watched me peel
Made a ghost and blamed the flame
Now say my name as you feel shame
You carved me
Hollow
Wide
Deep
Then turned your back like pain comes cheap
You call that space?
I call it spit
Fed me fire I won't forget
No love left to give
No skin to save
You left me lit in your quiet grave
Made the mess and left me raw
I'm the scar you can't outdraw
Never flinched while I collapsed
Not a word as my hands unclasped
You left the match and watched me burn
Don't you dare pretend you hurt
No love left to fake
No grace to give
You left me lit
I learned to live
Not for you
Not for them
For the silence you condemned

I stand there waiting
Reheating the same thing I made yesterday
Cold center
Burnt edge
The world peels in soft strips
Same siren
Same neighbor arguing with the wind
Same breath caught in my teeth
This is what survival looks like
When it isn’t brave
Persistent
No fire
No grand unraveling
Just a flickering light I still haven’t replaced
And the knowledge that it will never be
The right time to change the bulb

Shallow end of a pond
Spinning slowly
Another body and I'm sorry
It's the most gut-wrenching
Sad
Raw
Depressing
Cliché
Cliché
Cliché
It's the most gut-wrenching time
Of the year
It's the blood in the air
Getting colder
And I've fallen
And I'm calling
It's the most gut-wrenching
Sad
Raw
Depressing
Cliché
Cliché
Cliché
It's the most gut-wrenching time
Of the year

Ticking clocks paint the air with time
Zippers drag slow with a mellow chime
Graffiti walls whisper in neon hues
Skateboards cruise under psychedelic blues
Theremin cries like a ghost in the night
Squeaky floors sing in a flickering light
Dulcimers hum a kaleidoscopic trance
City bones shake with its cosmic dance
Dreams drip down in tie-dye streams
Stardust heavy like shattered beams
Baby scratches echo
The bass unfolds
The universe spins in colours untold
Moon winks as the streets come alive
Vibrations hum through technicoloured eyes
Broken tiles sing beneath our feet
Melodies thrive where chaos meets
Time slows down in this painted maze
Eyes wide open in a lucid haze
Clock hands melt feral and free
A symphony born in graffiti debris

I keep the flood in a teaspoon
Stir slow
Don’t spill
My throat learned how to
Knot itself into napkins
Folded
Unused
Beautiful
You blinked and the room dimmed
Just enough for me to
Pack the sun away
I speak in mist
Maybe
Never rain
Your name still fits
But only on the inside of my wrist
Where nobody looks
I walk lighter now
No grace
Just
Less of me left to carry
If I’m quiet enough you might
Stay
So I practice being nothing
Loudly

I bit the sun
And it tasted like tinfoil
Every shadow has eyes now
And they all blink out of sync
My name doesn’t fit right in my mouth
It writhes
Too many teeth
I watch the wallpaper breathe
And pretend it isn’t speaking
But it is
It always is
You said “calm down”
Like I wasn’t already holding the ceiling in place
With a splintered jaw and
A scream I forgot how to aim
I pour milk over static
Call it breakfast
Swallow whole days
The clocks tick sideways
The floor sighs
Everything feels staged
But no one gave me lines
I clap when the lights flicker
Just in case it’s the end
Or the beginning
Hard to tell
My hands aren’t mine anymore
They just follow the hum