How can anybody
Doubt
The beauty in your flaws?

I took a walk through the crevices of my mind
That made my stomach churn
And my eyes wander

let me ask you something raw and real
Like what it's like underneath your fingertips
And between your bones,
Where you're cut so deep
You begin to find the parts inside
You didn't know belonged to you

Being told I'm pretty
Has ceased to be a compliment to me.
I've gotten it a thousand times.
I know, I know.
It's been told by his fingertips
As they dance along my stomach,
As they trace my hips:
Holding and keeping,
Grasping firmly,
Not letting go.
I know that I am pretty.
Trust me,
I know.

You were
          born
You
And nothing has
          Changed

We're all wondering where we went wrong,
Thumbing through our files
And putting old records on.

Did we spend too much time on the road?
Are the lines we dread the ones we wrote?
Would it have been easier if we had considered
Growing old?

No love is little,
even if it was short lived.

Tell me how pretty I look
In my little red dress.
Tell me I am as bold and brilliant
As the Crimson on my skin.

Tell me you think about me at 2 p.m.,
When your shift is almost up
And you want to make plans.

Tell me the greatest sight
You ever hope to see
Is a small bump
Developing above my hips.

I don't want to play pretend

I want to feel
Something
Without feeling
You

When I ask you how you sleep at night,
I'm really hoping you sleep alright.
When I ask you how you live with yourself,
I'm really asking what it's like to do everything right.
And when I say
"I never want to see your face again",
I'm thinking
'When can I see you next?'
I can't get these thoughts of you
Out of my head.

I am the parts of me nobody sees.
I am sleepy eyes
And little words I try to make sense of,
I am trying to make sense of God
I am late nights
I am alone

I'm trying to find the words
          To make you see
You're everything
          I'll never be

She sat and held my hands,
Promising she would always be there.
But she wasn't.
No one ever is until they understand the hurt
The stabbing I feel in my chest
The chest that extends beyond the surface he craves
To a heart no bitter friendship could ever mend

she's off limits
but im easy
that's why you want her
that's why you touch me.
it almost worked.
Don't pressure me.

I'm alright
I'm alright
I'm just fine;
Spinning madly through time

You were always my favourite
I knew how you wanted to kiss me
And be with me
I felt each flare you sent ablaze into the night sky
I felt it sting me and I felt the burn
As tears crept from my eyes
There's so much about you
That I never wanted to lose;
So much so that I nearly let you
Break my knees so I'd never be free
Even tangled in your snare I asked to stay
I just wanted to stay
I only wanted to stay

I can still remember the smell of your hair
Juniper and cypress
I loved you to death

If I feel the dread sink any lower in my stomach,
I might shipwreck,
Still so dizzy from the mess he left

He requires less sleep than I,
Brighter Eyes
And at the very least,
I kept myself alive to meet him.