Want to keep friends?
Have none.

Tearing
     down
          all
                    the
wrong
     walls

Breathtaker

unknowingly
herself


to be capable of splitting atoms

          [of unrelinquished hearts]

of striking chords

          [of graveyard whispers]

of swimming endlessly

          [of setting suns]


Breathtaker

veiledly
herself


in imitation smiles

          [in huntress stripes]

in doe-eyed brilliance

          [in one thousand yards]

in cocktail laughter

          [in autumnal sighs]


Breathtaker

suffocating
us all

Her eyes
were the faded green
of summer leaving
for the fall

springtime artistry:

floral inkblots bleeding through

winter’s blank canvas

flask of kerosene

accompanied by matches

problems housed no more

She smiles in that hurt way,

with clasped hands resting

where I couldn’t go


She leans over and whispers,

ruby red syllables caressing my ear,

*“But you have to”.