I tripped and fell one day,
over a broken heart where it lay in shades of grey.
So consumed was I in my own dismay
that I did not see it,
though it could see me.

It had been cast aside....
or more likely, it had been set free.
Perhaps it's scars were the fee,
jagged as they were.

I mulled over the thought
as I nursed my broken pride.
I dusted off my jeans and picked up that heart,
cradled it tenderly, offered it a ride....

"Where will you go" I asked,
"I'll take you there if I can.
Though the journey may be long,
for I am just a man"....

It spoke to me then,
so clear and sincere
"I care not where I go,
though may it be away from here.
My master before you was cruel and a knave!
In this briefest of kind acts
I feel I've been saved.
Will you be my new master?"...
"Words of disaster, hush now" I say,
for I am not king
nor prince,
and you are no slave" I replied...
The heart cried.

"Thank you kind sir
for your warmth and the ride,
am I heavy?" it asked...
"No" I lied...

for it's burden was great
and had been carried for years,
this crushing weight seemed too much
for only one to bear.

"It's cold out here" I said,
"have you nothing to wear?"

"Nothing" it said
"for I have been laid bare...
and left alone in the dirt".

"Then please you take my shirt,
may it cover your hurts
if only for a while,
I'll tender your wounds
mile after mile
until you heal".

"Who are you"? It asked of me
"are you even real"?....

"I am no one" I said,
"though you know me to be real,
for we are the same."

'I have not a game,
nor a name,
nor a plan."

I am no one" I said,
"for I am just a man".....

A little hob gobby stood by a sign
I'm a green goblin
Learned and wise
Bring me your poems
To criticise
He smiled and put his glasses on
Don't know if he liked it
I didn't stay long

Pay a farthing, earn a groat
You'll be a winner if I like what you wrote
He read one line and said go away
Unless you want me to spoil your day
I carried on, tears in my eyes
Tears of laughter, undone were his flies

If you can spare a poem or three
I would be eternally grateful to thee
It's put to good use
I am no liar
Too old to cut wood
I need fuel for the fire

Voice of an angel through purified air
How can I pay you for beauty so rare?
I cannot take payment for what I don't see
Take it good sir, to you it is free

A little tired, dragging my heels
Fed up with bargaining, bartering deals
I found a hollow of moss soft and deep
Laid down my head, surrendered to sleep

Dripping, from an open wound
Wounds, that they would say are self inflicted
But we all know it was because of them
They who would not listen, and could not understand
Who made you feel worthless, like a mistake

Wishing I was dead, just to make them happy
For, if every time I speak I worsen my situation
The Silence death brings would surely please them
Cut off from the world, with only my thoughts
This makes perfect sense, to take my own life

Yet my heart, he refuses to stop beating
No matter how many times I try, my brain will not cease to function
In this I am a failure, as in all other things
Yet if you knew, this time you would be glad I failed
But I can not tell you, for you don't understand

What?
Oh right, nothing
I am bleeding?
Strange, I don't remember how that started
My heart is broken?
Strange, my mind registers it
But I do not feel it
Self hatred? Oh, yeah, that
I know the concept, and my mind knows it should apply to me right now
But, funny, it doesn't

The tracks
in my veins
are violets,
lavender scars
pushing up
from underneath
porcelain skin

These angled bones
are fists, I'm
brushing the dirt
from my palms
after I've spent a night
buried in the garden
that grows
in your bed

Red blood kisses
burn against
my snowflake mouth,
each one different
never the same --

Hips blades of grass
darting through my thighs,
beanstalk limbs
shooting up from
the ground,
no one can tell me
when they'll stop

If it doesn't rain
soon, they'll stop
sprouting for good,
a stunted twelve-year-old's body
hanging in the balance
of years left unmarked
in the crater of my belly

Child's fingers
pause
against
the window,
waiting
for the sun
to fade