(For Donald Hall)

Have you heard about the boy who walked by
The black water? I won't say much more.
Let's wait a few years. It wanted to be entered.
Sometimes a man walks by a pond, and a hand
Reaches out and pulls him in.

There was no
Intention, exactly. The pond was lonely, or needed
Calcium, bones would do. What happened then?

It was a little like the night wind, which is soft,
And moves slowly, sighing like an old woman
In her kitchen late at night, moving pans
About, lighting a fire, making some food for the cat.

Not far from the dream is a reality of you and me
An Inertia of love a constant motion that goes on for eternity
Together we are forever lost in time, a ecstatic euphoria
We built a sanctuary with our body united as one, our own utopia
Never alone and lonely, fears and doubts has been casts away
A beautiful lie that we can't deny while the truth glimmers through the eye
Love is our domain, our territory...Our own kingdom to rule the ground where we stand
Something profound, essential like life itself where only two lovers would understand
That this very embrace in each others arms a home where we belong
We will never falter our love will go on, A love so strong will never go wrong

I see the galaxies that used to look upon simple things with beauty collapsing in your eyes
Now you just stare at the wall blankly wondering when it's all going to fall, hoping it crushes you under its weight
I miss how you used to look at me with star dust, we dreamed of a day that the sun would burn out so we could spend the night in each other's arms forever
Why am I trying to find you in the bottom of a drink, in the hands of a stranger, in the bed sheets that reek of cigarettes
I miss your floral scent and your alien eyes, you said we'd fly to Venus where everything was backwards, where we'd be able to stay together
Why did you let them chase you away from me
Why didn't you fight for us
Why didn't I
There was so much we could of done but you're afraid of zero gravity and I'm scared of suffocation
Did I suffocate you with my love when you made me feel like I was floating away
Now you wait for something to crush you and I drink to forget your name only to call it out to someone else
I want to go back to wishing on shooting stars and dreaming of a dark sun
I don't want these cracked ceilings and forgettable nights
I want Venus, where we're still together and galaxies are alive and well

you should’ve never unpacked your bags,
because it gave me this expectation that you were in this for the long run. i’m still running. i have swallowed so much blood that tastes like your regret from biting down my tongue to cage it behind my teeth from screaming about you to a world that wants my blood for ink.
i am more than a number, but 24 makes me feel better than 26, so i sit in jeans that leave red marks on my hips and make it hard to breathe, but see it’s two inches and
i am more than a number, but i know every test score i ever got and still remember fourth grade and question three and crying because suddenly my mistakes had weight and i couldn’t fix things by saying sorry and
i am more than a number, but i was always the middle child, always the not-quite one, not the best friend to anyone, just a girl with kind eyes and jeans that are a little bit too tight and
i am more than a number but to you i am seventeen, ten and three. and lets be clear; it’s the three that haunts me, because *** doesn’t matter and ‘girlfriend’ is just a label, but i wish i was the first girl you truly loved, and sometimes i still wish i was the last, but with you i fear i’ll forever be just another number.
i drove over 17 bridges the other day and next week i'll do it again and i think nobody gets what that means except maybe you.
i just tell them i love the scenery, that somebody must've made these trees blush just for me.
you know how i love to change the subject?
i bet they'd love the view. i bet you would too.
and all these metaphors for other things are beside the point.
this is a metaphor for why i don't wear my seatbelt, a metaphor for why whiskey knows me better than you could ever try to.
all the buildings seemed to sag yesterday and all the stars are doing that cliche thing where they talk quiet jet noise and some lumbering giant made everything shake.
not those hand metaphors, not another one of those & keep the sea to yourself,
i think it was a train, it's sound hugged the embankment for a moment and then trailed off into nowhere,
and that's kind of like me
how there's a town called 'rescue' close to my home and it's no coincidence that i've never been there.
i’m just flatlining now and hoping that you can look at the next girl the way i looked at you.