How do you grieve for the living?
Knowing that they live under the same sky?
See both the sun and stars shine?
Looks at the world differently than you do.

How do you grieve for those that have lost their way?
The ones that never wanted to stay?
Those that made homes out of your souls?
Those who slipped and fell?
The ones with their wings clipped?

There's an ache in your heart that makes it hollow.
Where that person used to be.
You walk the hallways of the house,
Reliving every memory.
Every hazy daydream.
Every Late-night conversation.
Every fight and fallout.

How do you continue on?
When pieces of themselves are scattered.
On the floor like a jigsaw puzzle.
Only you can't put the pieces back together again.

Each piece is a reminder of the way you laughed.
Each piece is a day you hold on to.
Each piece was a thought they had once.
Each piece is now a little bent and broken too.

How do you undo this kind of damage?
When it was never yours to fix in the first place.
How do you grieve for the living?
As their name gets stuck in your throat.
As you think you see them in strangers on street corners.
Capture a whiff of their scent.
The colour of their hair.
An outfit they would have picked.

Everybody talks about the dead with such respect.
What about those that have slipped through the cracks?
Became somebody nobody no longer wants to know.
With nobody to be there when they cried.
What happens to these lost souls?

Misfits?
Troublemakers?
Escape Artists?
Criminals?

All are just labels.
As you try to tear them off.
Showing society who they once were,

Nobody cares.
Nobody listens.
Nobody wants to know.
Nobody but you.
Can see their potential.

How do you continue living?
When you're not grieving for the dead?
But somebody else instead?

All alone.
Breathless and confused.
Looking at a photograph.
Of a person you once knew.

~
Unusual and cloudless

This slippery world

Today is still contagious

Here is heat, here is rain

Here is love, regardless

Shadows in the scaffolding

Look like a broken alphabet

The sun in its anger

Just won't set

Life and how to do it

Perfectly absent
~

They say you can tell,
A lot about a man.

Based on the company he keeps.
If it's sour or if it's sweet.

You can tell a lot about a man.
Based on what he has in his wallet.

Maybe it's a note or two.
Something sentimental.
Or really rather special.

I've met many men you see.
Still I have not met all.

Some are kind and  clear.
Like water or fresh air.

Others are clever like a snake.
Twisting around your mind.

You can tell a lot about a man.
By the company he keeps.

By the wallet he holds.
By the light in his eyes.

Still with all of this.
You'll never truly know a man.

Until you look at the girl,
He's in love with.
Then do me a favour.

Go talk to her instead.

She'll tell you everything.
You ever needed to know.

Sometimes there isn't a reason why.
Sometimes you just have to sit in the pain.
Let it wash over you like rain.

Sometimes the villain wins.
With no justice in sight.

It's hard to watch a person that hurt you.
Get everything you want.

Sometimes people are people.
With their own flaws and faults.

Some are bad.
Some are good.
Sone stand in between.

You never know which one you'll meet.
Till they show the running colours underneath.
That you wish you would have never seen.

Some goodbyes are sweet.
Wishing you well.
Others are bitter.

Leaving scars in your memory.
Sometimes just sometimes.
People are people.
They can't help who they are.

Sometimes you can try to change.
To rearrange them.

Sometimes you just can't.

This house has never known silence.

Mostly the walls bounce.
With the sound of  her voice.

My mother has never been,
An even tempered woman.

Sure there are some days that her voice.
It is soft and sweet sounding like honey.

Those are the days everything goes her way.
Those are the days when her wallet is full.
Those are the days the drug fuels her addiction.

This house has never known silence.
If there is peace I have little hope.
I'll ever find it.

They'll call her ruin.
They'll call her shame.

They'll never call her,
by her name.

Once the deed is done.
Her world it shakes.

As all her secrets.
Are laid out bare.

There is no hiding.
This ruined girl.

They'd call her pretty.
They'd call her smart.
They'd call her art.

Till she fell in love
Then fell apart.

The man he ran.
Like most men do.

Escaping the wreckage.
Of his youth.

The ruined girl,
was left alone.

Becoming a cautionary tale.
Of women's woes.

Whispering through history.
"Be careful with whom you love."

In another universe.
Things would be so new.

There wouldn't be a me.
Without having a you.

We'd have the things we crave.
Our stomachs would be full.

There would be so much laughter.
There would be so much chatter.

Your smile would've never dimmed.
Your eyes would've never darkned.

We'd be a family.

There would be a fully set table.
There would be a fully set house.

Nothing would ever be fixed.
As nothing would be broken.

You would have stayed you.
I would have stayed me.

Now we are worlds apart.
Now we are left alone.

All I have are memories.
Even in time they fade.

There is no alternate universe.
And it's killing me everyday.

We will always be sisters.
We will never be the same.

My heart will always ache.