You stretch arguments along the lifelines of my patience
Plant eager excuses on my collarbones of doubt
Feed me watered-down wine of ever-pending promises
That my trust-tangled stomach can never hold down

Your touch singes holes in my dress of protection
Burns through the layers of my shock-salted skin
Your eyes tell a tale of belligerent disarmament
My judgement messed up by your lopsided grin

Your glance of missed chances pierces my instinct
Sees right through the weakness of my fast-fading self
My senses confused by the lure of your fragrance
Susceptible bait for your trickery of scent

My nails scratch your back for a grip of intention
I stitch up your contour, unravelling my own
Tearing up scars that I once thought well-covered
Slowly you’re ******* the marrow from my bones

Smiling you cushion the blows of your winged words
But the humdrum still bruises my lured lazy limbs
Your smoke-flavoured lips taste of death and destruction
But still my parched mouth follows your every whim

Holding on, hands grappling
Wrapping arms around air
Fleeting, leaving
Urges, lurking
Out of reach
Bubble burst
Glass shattered
Chances lost
Among the ashes of
Could-have-been-but-wasn’ts
Last convulsions
Pulsing
Through my fingers
Lingering loud

It hatched, the egg
Last time I was left
With a yokey substance
That only landed me
A hangover worse than
Ever imagined
Last week, though
Oktoberfest
Best idea ever
As the ***** wore off
The notion rose
To a higher plan
Whenever I am drunk again
I should remember
To never
Get out of bed
In the morning

I sit down and smell innocence
Sunday afternoon, playing
Hide-and-seek on bikes,
Climbing over heaps and piles
Of extended-backyard-adventures
My friend looks at me scared
Worried about crashing mid-air
I only think of home
Sticky black poison that
Almost strangled me to death
Once, when life was simpler
Despite all that I smile
At diesel and benzene
Exhaust smog and fumes
Turn blue skies even brighter
High on childhood dreams
If only I inhale, deep enough
A scent that takes me back
Over miles of detachment
And oceans of growing up
A memory fuming of
Family and safety,
Only needing a engine
To move forward in life

Winds march over boulevards
As winding as his wanderings
Leafs leave branches barren
To make the grey skies seen
Clouds cry bitter raindrops
Soaking sour solitude
The puddles promise solace
To drown in to his waist
Torso left to nature’s whims
And storms to wear him out
Car alarms laugh in his face
Howling mockeries his way
Loudly, thunders call him
To give in to the fogs and mist
Life was never as redundant
As in autumn’s heady lists

Coffee meats my weariness in
All-out open battle
Plays at swords with drowsy dreams
Preying on fatigue
Under foamy life traps
Caffeine lurks ahead
Closing in on oblivious bliss
It pulls me back to consciousness
Now my only hope for sleep is
On spiking my cappuccino

His blood ran down the fogged mirror.
Even after the final breath had escaped,
life hung around, wounded but out there,
counting how many heartbeats it takes to forgive.
Hair stuck to faces. His, hers.
Unsaying the words was of no use now.
Vows to save lives they had spoken,
but only one of them had kept that word.
She had known he’d be the one to follow through,
moved as he was by the pain of another,
strong as he was to disregard his own.
His parts would be carved out, divided,
to give another sight in eyes, air in lungs, blood in veins.
He must not have considered
he’d give her heart up for donation too.
That by saving all these strangers,
he’d **** the very person
whose vow was only ever meant
to just keep him alive.
He’d live on in others, mothers, fathers,
who’d pass on the breath he’d so selflessly shared.
She took her hands from the glass,
wiped his blood from her skin,
looked up in the mirror and ****** that final breath of his in.
His organs might be taken to give another hope.
But the air from his lungs was hers to breathe,
his life to live on in her.
Her heart might never again be beating,
and her life might be spent walking among dead.
But at least she’d find him there,
where he’d prepared the way.