I sat on a stoop
and smoked my last cigarette
and thought of making love with you
as the wind played dancing games
with the night’s forgotten litter.

My hands fumble to find the switch
A change from light to dark
To drown my trembling imperfections out in a numbing abyss
A blinding black blur that calls the demons out from under the bed skirt
Where they’ve been playing with dust and fraying my trust and squeezing my brain and pressing my pain
And laughing
Oh how they laugh at me
With their pointy teeth slapping the air that denies my breath
I beg them to leave
Let me sleep! I say.
But they tickle my ear with their fiery tongues  
And jump like a bounce house on top of my lungs
My body keels over and I pull my chest close
Prepare to deflect the next daunting dose
My hands clutch crush and my knuckles weep white
A basket of bones by my skin’s sorry sight
That hangs like a wet carpet outside to dry
Old and forgotten by a golden goodbye
But the sun forgot how to simmer and shine
And the air carries a vapor heavy with signs
That point down to the ground but I know there is more
They call me to a place that is far past the floor
Yes darkness drums dream demons for in it all I see
Is my soul’s own inferno forever beckoning me

Hipsters with hats to hide their ordinary minds
Young men in button-down shirts spouting political prophecies to prove a point
Too cut and dry to see there’s more to it all than a dot at the end of a line.
Because lines are endless and so is time
But they wouldn’t know because their grand silver watches pull their puppet strings
So they run just to hide from their tick-tocking pride
A pocket of bombs to blow up their lies
And just as they’re reaching their cubicle crate
White Rabbit runs by them to tell them they’re late

His eyes
Pressed into her with the pull of polarity
A haunting indication of an impossibility too beautiful to protest
He looks
With a longing he has hidden deep in his sock drawer
So no one can tell him he’s wrong or irrational
A locket only to be worn round his pulsating mind’s mannequin
But she wears on her sleeve what he’s trying to leave
And dressed like a nightingale
In feathers so free
Her eyes with a fire that waves like the sea
Closer they crawl
Past night’s shadowed humans getting drunk off doubt and betting on beauty
Past the scratches on stools once straddled by sorrow
And Isolation, his lover
Who lost her last words somewhere under the covers
That they shook out in morning
To shake off the mourning
But the streets crave a sweep
For the ashes are thick and catch on their tongue
Reminding the runaways to stop feeling young
And as they both draw so near
With the friction of fear
And the whip of a wish
And a harsh hit of hope
For the call of a kiss
Her hairs stand on stilts at the nape of her neck
An impatient frenzy that’s waiting on deck
But the lights left her lonely
A bubble-bruised brain
And he left her only
The promise of pain
As he grabbed another hand and rushed out the door
She smiled a sadness that left her lips sore
And gathered her hollows
And the last of her trust
And took to the streets with the ashes and dust

Had a one-night stand with Euphoria
Didn’t hear from him again
But I kept his shirt as a reminder
That when my heart beats quick
It’ll race like a rocket
Straight to the moon
But just as soon
It simmers and slows
So I catch it and lock it
But the trusty trees and foamy seas
Passing strangers who share the breeze
Carbon-copied my cage’s keys
And I don’t know how
And I don’t know when
But it won’t be long
Til I catch it again

Happiness is something pure,
She says, furrowing her brow
Steadily sweeping the stardust from the bottom of her shoes
Bones like blades bursting through her milky translucent skin as if to scream
“Hello world, I’m here! Look at me.”
They clank and clutter the confines of her cage
A gentle burn to quench her thirst
The girl with the crescent moon tear

Friday night and her feet move slow
Trying to decide which direction to go
Looks to the sky then down to her hands
That fold into fists as she quietly stands
And sleep will be lonely
Her heart a strange tick
In darkness she dances
And breaks her last wick
Now nothing is lit and no one can see
Her sad secret shadow drag through the street
But morning will come
And on a day bright and clear
You’ll see her, the girl with the crescent moon tear

You’ve got the lighter bags
Satchels of shame you slung over your shoulder
Then walked on
Well I’m far behind with weights of a different kind
And a suitcase of sorrow
And a duffel of doubt
And I’ve lost the words I long to shout
My mouth moves slow and mad
I’ve lost the legs that ache for adventure
And the skip inside that I once had
So I slip myself into one long lag
One sad song, one harsh drag
A caterpillar cocoon’s bundle of doom
Wrapped in a heart soon to break BOOM
Then I’ll be fine cause I’ll be gone
And you’ll wipe your head with your sighing palm
But thank the constellations
For the biting revelation
We’re just one eroding equation
Of empty elation and pretty persuasion
And my bags of demons shall remain
Under my eyes in a dark blue stain
And your bags of troubles will still remain light
Tossed over your shoulder in the cool of the night