step one* // live in denial for most of your life. tuck yourself into closets and cupboards and slow-cooking pots of rice until all you have left to offer her is your warming breath

step two // warm her hands with your breath. tell her she's worth more than *that guy, than the number on the scale, than her grades, than anything in the world

step three // don't think about kissing her when her lips are bitten with worry. don't think about kissing her when you're tired and it's two a.m. and god, she looks so beautiful today. don't kiss her. don't kiss her

step four // let your breaths fill the closets again. you are eternal, you are infinite, you are alone, but you still have her

step five // write her a poem. metaphorize your heart of glass. verbally trace her hipbones. tell her she is a constellation.

step six // "accidentally" give her the poem. laugh it off when she says that poetry's not her thing, anyway.

step seven // only cry when you are alone.

step eight // bare your skeletons to her unflinching mouth. it's cold and dark where she comes from, too

step nine // when she tells you she loves you, let her. hold onto her tight enough to shatter your ribcage.

step ten // let her tear the breath from your lungs-it's all you had left, anyway.

I shed egos
like a snake sheds its skin.
Forever changing.
Forever growing.
Forever running from the broken whimpers of last nights wishes.
I will always be that lonely spirit.
You never wanted haunting your life.

Sing to me softly,
For it's been a long journey,
Full of harsh noises that have come to corrupt my once pure eardrums.

Sing to me sweetly,
For the air here is not clean,
Full of subtance that has managed to pollute my no longer ****** lungs.

Sing to me gently,
For holes have weathered my façade,
Full of craters like the ones on the moon, however, mine are quite earth bound.

And finally, sing me to sleep.
Shut my eyes; let my mind run blank.
And when I wake up and enter the state where I'll have no recollection of who or where I am,
Keep me there.

All is paper thin
These temporary feelings
Nothing built to last

Up until my insomnia meets me
I lied when I said I forgot
I was scared what you'd think
If I said that  I love you a lot

People have only cared for minutes
Leaving me to care for days
When I look at you all I can think
Is please don't go away

I can see me in your eyes
I dream of dreaming with you
I can trace your scars with mine
My thoughts are bleeding through:

My Talia, I know what it's like to not be seen;
what it's like to be alone in a crowded room.
For you, my star, I want you to know:
that no one shines as bright as you.

I can taste you moving on my skin.
My gasp is air you sustain.
hand in hand, under an umbrella
with you, I am safe.

Of course,
They're green.
Green like the vines that wrap your image around my mind.
And I won't even put up a fight,
For I'm absolutely infatuated with even the mere thought of you.
Of course,
They're green.
Green like the color that is finally returning after a cold, grey winter.
And your smile thaws these freezer-burned feelings that I've longed to feel, and long forgotten.