The thought of you makes my stomach curdle,
How you used, broke, and left me.
And made me feel it was my fault.

The Thought of you changes my world,
Til I’m beaten and defeated,
Not worth a grain of salt.

The branches lead out from here.
The branches lead out from everywhere,
Entangling in a beauty that few see.
Flowing from branch to branch, root to root.
Entwining and holding and slipping and grasping.
Trying to make a bind that’s everlasting.

The branches get torn, cut, burned.
Leaving that slow branch to yearn.
As much as others try to steal,
As much as they try to keep away.
There’s something the vindictive always miss,
The gentle brush of a kiss,
As roots feel out blindly in the dark.

Nothing can stop the need to feel
The need to seek out under earth,
To drink, to eat, to breathe, to hold.
To grip the dirt between your toes.
A connection that isn’t seen,
So it’s never broken.
The emotion flowing from another’s eyes
That isn’t spoken.

But always felt.

With a rusty pick in hand,
I’m searching for the black.
To keep your rage fueled and fed,
But when I struck Gold,
I didn’t want you back.
But my lust for that metal,
Went further than I ever could.
It grasped that dry, eaten handle,
And sent me to a death trap.

With my lungs screaming more,
Contracting strings in my back,
A swinging axe in the dark,
I’m nothing but a snack.
But I want to breathe again,
Before these walls chew me in.
This is where you end,
This is where I begin.

A piece of you for a piece of me?
Ink spills my soul on a paper sheet.
And it’s all yours.
Won’t you send a part of you?
Art colored in hues of truth,
Depicted in Black and White.
A piece I can keep.