I feel like I am keeping Beasts in my chest
and they claw and cut
I can feel my insides, slippery with the blood they’ve chased loose
The space beneath my breast is becoming tighter and the weight of my torso as I lie on my bed is becoming heavier

I’m keeping the gates tied closed
and so I’m left with a rampage stuck in my heart
They’re eating me up from the inside out
soon I will be hollow

Whenever I open my mouth
I hear a blood curdling howl
To look into my own eyes is to see their imprisonment
But I will not let them go
They’re mine to keep

I love to watch your eyes
change color.
And I love to watch your face
change shape.
When I trace your lips with my fingertips and tell you
I think you’re like art
your smile proves me right.
Because when I tilt my head up to look at you
you make me feel like
I’m looking on at a scene that could hold itself in time.

I am exhausted
and all my thoughts sound the same
I want to be unconscious
and not even dream
I just want it to be quiet in my mind
if only for a single hour
My mind is only ever running in circles
and I try to rake up all the thoughts that are
Sharp and Loud far into the back of my mind
and wait for them to be something
Less,
less than a murmur
To pen out and address the stress of my thoughts makes me
afraid
that they may come to life,
spring from the page and topple me to the ground