I am a witch burning at her social stake
Who has spent too long just striving to breathe
And so I’ve managed to teach myself
Some people can’t be trusted
Can’t be trusted at all
I’m done letting myself waste time with all this hurting
So I’m finished with all this blindly optimistic trusting
Instead, I think it’s time to show them what a real witch is.

I am a witch burning at her social stake
Who has spent too long dodging the pitchforks
And so I’ve managed to get good and things
Like running, and hiding,
Reading people and situations
I’m done letting myself hide from the light
So I’m finished with this blindly fearful trust
Instead, I think it’s time I took over my life.

No more fear and no more trust.
If I’m supposed to be a witch,
I will be a witch for them,
And however I want to,
I will show them what burning is.

It was just a
“Nice to meet you”
But for once it felt genuine
It was just a
“Came for a quick hello”
But I thought it made me something
Now you’re trying on
“Good night baby”
Like I keep trying on dresses you’ll like

We were just kids
Still innocents
Getting dangerously close
To what’s realer than we know
We could hear laughter bouncing off the walls
When guns screamed out and friends began to fall
We didn’t know what we were doing
We never found where we were going
We were just kids,
No innocence.

What is a misery that cannot be seen, heard, or explained
What is a misery far too painful for human expression
What is a misery that drives to the ends of the earth everyday
What is a misery that immobilizes indefinitely
What is a misery that surges beyond words or gestures, beyond explanation or comprehension
What is a misery at all, in fact
What is a misery but a misery?

What is luck
How do you define that little word
How do you put meaning behind the overused snippet
How do you answer when someone asks what luck is

Perhaps the illustrious Lady Luck is a driving force pushing success to your corner
Perhaps she is simply a grace some people are naturally blessed with
Perhaps she’s a devil hiding in a bottle that calls you to fill and empty it just one more time

Or is she merely a little angel lurking in the imagination
Whispering tales of her own fabled glory in your ear
Does she swim like a mermaid through the blood
Settle in the bones with a poisonous push of influence
Is she a banshee with an opposite effect:
Her coming bodes well and her leaving foretells misfortune

Or is Lady Luck simply the embodiment of good fortune in and of its humble self to be true?

What is luck?
Is it represented by gold?
Is it symbolized by wealth?
Is it showcased by power?

Or is luck evidence of something so far greater?
Is it the presence of love?
Is it the coming of hope?
Is it the return of joy?

Is luck responsible for all that is good?
Does she turn gray clouds white and cease the thunder
Does she shine some favor on the poor man’s lottery ticket
Does she bring an arm of justice or a leg of courage

But can luck right this world’s assorted wrongs
And guide things towards going right more often
Or are we just fools

Are we placing the credit for our goodness and rights on a mysterious undefinable force
Simply so that we can deflect the blame for our evils and wrongs when the timing should prove convenient

What is luck but a sly sweet presence in the imagination
What is luck but friend and foe alike guiding and beseeching the mind
Can anyone answer with certainty and consistency when asked: what is luck, truly

BRMD

Romance loves to sing
Drowsy head, folded wing
Among green leaves they shake
Within shadowy lake
To me
Hath been most familiar
Taught me
My very earliest word
In wildwood did I lie
A child-
A most knowing eye
Eternal years,
So shake the very Heaven on high
As they thunder by
No time for idle cares
Gazing on the unquiet sky
An hour with calmer wings
My spirit flings
Forbidden things!
My heart would feel
A crime
Unless it trembled
With the strings

Another woman has been sleeping in my bed
Her fragrance lingers in the air
Pillows the scent of her hair
Her essence is here and lively, blood red
I wish I could find out her name
I wish I could put out her flame
--
She rests peacefully
Throughout the night
Every night.
She rests peacefully
Though the day
Every day.
Nothing can disturb her peace anymore
All the pain and suffering are light years behind her,
Never to touch her again.
And she will be in peace forever
Just as they all said to her that fateful day
Rest in Peace, they told her; So she shall.

If you think nothing is impossible you’re wrong
If you think it can’t happen to you you’re wrong
If you think for one second
That a suburb and a happy family
Can keep you protected
You are wrong
Simply:
Life is a game
And you’re out real quick
If you don’t know how to play
Complexly:
You will learn
What the real version of reality
Looks like when you’re wrong.

I yearn to be close to him
I feel a deep tide of something
When he sits next to me
Something like joy or contentment
It’s relief but not exactly peace
Because still I may yearn for more
Something I cannot ever touch
But can always gaze upon afar
So I shall never know satisfaction
And I may just yearn forevermore

I feel his touch on my skin
In tantalizing fragments of an innocent moment
A moment I don’t know if we’ll ever see
But maybe part of me really wants to
And I want to explore, just to see what could be
Regardless of what we think should be
I want to know what could happen If I was a little bolder
And he was just a little more receptive
Or God was looking down on this moment and thinking
“Yes.”

You wouldn’t think our interactions would be positive, but oh,
Yes.
So many times a minute when we're together:
Yes.
Yes, to the way he understands the part of me I hide.
Yes, to the way we touch each other sometimes,
Skin flashing on skin
And a quietly oppressed mind penetrating like kind.
And us both saying to each other
“Yes.”

Yes, my darling. Yes.

I want to know you like the path to the Heavens that pulls me toward all things good and bright
I want to feel you like the kind of passion that burns and devours soul after soul in all-consuming fire
I want to touch you like these shaking fingers have never experienced anything from your world
I want to hold you like that breath that will remain with me even when it’s long gone like you
I want to have you like we can make ourselves believe there is nothing to life but you and me
I want to breathe you like my lungs are giving out but holding on all at once
I want to do you like a narcotic I’ll overdose on before anyone even knows I’m over my head
I want to love you in that indescribable way everyone calls ‘true’, a way I’ve never known love before
I want you.