We gather our bones and piece them together
in hopes that sleep will cast over us quicker.
Across the sheets of making noises-
a dance of silently lying to the other.
Swallow down the awkward conversation
with coffee questioned how I took it.
A handful of brown packets in attempt
to make this morning taste less bitter.

Someone align
the stars of my chest.
Help me know how
to get from point A to point B.
Put me out of the waiting motion sickness
lost in the midnight darkness-
I can’t find the way home
without your hands as the North Star.

Wide eyes when I enter
into the dim lit porch.
As usual you were hiding
in the corner drink in hand.
Was it the past
that broke your palms
so now you don’t extend them?
Cracked ribs
beneath the cotton you wear-
everyone lives in fear
of skinned knees and bruised elbows.
What would your skin
reveal if it was marked
with my red lipstick,
like the necks of bottles
or my morning cigarette.
From the lavender dreams I live in
dawn always shines the brightest
and reminds me
that I will never know how your vertebrates
came to be.

- C.K

Nicotine words slide from your
sly smile and cunning tongue
through gaps of my teeth
cutting my throat like fiberglass
as I swallow.

It's worth the high the pain will give me,
sinking into your sandstone trap.
Those nostalgic feelings
of maroon Mercedes rides to the liquor store
with the wondering eyes of an older guy.
I wish I had known you better.

That was three summers ago, and today
your name doesn't have the same
******* feeling when it's said.
Now old enough to buy my own poison
at the liquor store, its no longer
your lips that I purchase to
get drunk off of.

We are the universe, can't you see
that we only create black holes
and matters of dark energy?

Star-crossed lovers
that gave ourselves
false hope and reassuring words
to feed off of.

We are the stars working
against our own relationship.
Foolishly tripping over our own feet.
While scaring our own wrists,
old practices of middle school days.
Bad habits to partake in.
(Shouldn't we have learned this already?)

Addicts trying to quit
but it's difficult
to see clearly when our skin touches.

Tasting you again is poison
and I know this
because you still haven't
learned to listen,
and I haven't
grown out of being a stubborn *****.

The august rain will fall
marking the end of summer
and the leaves will change colors.

And you and I burning stars,
will fade in the ever changing night sky.

Broken bones
of weak kneed boys scattered
in eyes of great empires.

Exploring forbidden roman ruins
sacred grounds of turmoil history.
Going to bed won't be easy
if I cause another casualty.

Words of my mother explain
for the fallen cathedrals.
Expectations were too grand
and so they crumbled.

Steps should be
calculated and careful.
My words should be
soft spoken,
to blanket heads in flowers;
she instructed.

My heavy footsteps are
to blame for fallen bricks.
My words, bees
that sting from passion wings.

As I explore broken bones
of the weak kneed boy sanctioned
in fallen empire sleep.