You gave me a bandage
A horrific bright pink,
For you noticed a stripe
Of red bleeding through
My long sleeved shirt.

I laughed it off and rolled my eyes
"My demon cat struck again"
And you laughed with me,
But you wont ever know
I never had a cat.

-ARI

I knew
Long before
He ever said a word
For my
Name no
Longer danced from his lips.

His hands
Too cold
For someone who loved him
As he
Gently touched
Fingers now clenching cheap whiskey.

I knew
Long before
He ever accepted the truth
For my
Kiss never
Made him smile like that.

-ARI

Men **** men
Then kiss the
Rosaries around
Their necks.

ARI

Seven years ago today
I was sitting in the dark
With my eyes squeezed shut
And my arms wrapped
Too tightly around my legs.

I rocked myself slowly
Hoping to calm the flames
Devouring my heart
And spreading too rapidly
Across my entire being.

My phone was left abandoned
On the kitchen table far from me
For I feared the next call
Would carry the news
That your heart no longer beats.

Seven years ago today
I was told your brain was dead;
Your body close to follow
And I cried for the next five days
Then you were gone.

I didn't cry for six years
For you took a piece of me
To your grave the day you died.
You died. I thought I died too.
But he brought me back to life.

I still miss you, my friend
I do believe I will miss you
For all the years I have left
Im sorry it took me so long
To listen to you, but I finally

Learned I am still alive.

-ARI

I was awakened by
Her wailing cries dripping
From the ceiling fan.

Gnarled fingernails unearthing
Every defect shadowed by
Cheaply colored cloth.

Her desolate eyes of malice
Bitterly waltzing across
My 'ever bone-weary limbs.

Maniacal grin gleefully thriving
On the heinous mutilation
Of my once unblemished soul.

Her exuberant howls mangling
My already asphyxiated mind
As my heart yearned for extrication.

Deafening silence devoured
The withdrawn girl until her lips
Forever cradled Anorexia's kiss.

-ARI

I tried
With all my heart
To weave together
A poem worthy of
The life of which
You have happily lived.

But I failed
For I do believe
There is not one
Living poet today capable
Of immortalizing such vibrancy
Within permanent black ink.

-ARI