I crumble like broken rocks
melt like glaciers
fall apart into strings of muscle
and hollowed bones
My paper skin tears asunder
like a discarded love letter
Blades of eyelashes
dig into closed eyelids
pry open sealed pupils
flay apart glass irises
Dissolve dying stars
into the lines of my palms
sink cosmos into the riverbed
of my veins
and shackled wrists
Wind ribbons of twine
around my throat
Crown my breast with thorns
Crucify your name on my tongue
Carve your touch into my hips
Strangle my waist with the vise
of your hands
Sew my hair into the gaps
of your fingers
and I'll sew yours into mine
And finally
unravel me
with poetry
and paint me
on your skin.

Ethereal
in form and name
with fog as flesh
and breaths
the color of haunted
smiles and cries
clothed in wails
and hollow screams
that fill this hazy emptiness
empty, empty
I am empty
Where do I find
a heart
tell me, tell me
Tell me I am real
not just a fragile
figment of imagination
to be captured
imprisoned in my own thoughts
I am already captured
imprisoned, emptied
carved into a marble shell
pretty, pretty masks
hiding nonexistent expressions
concealing glass eyes
broken, broken
I am not yet broken
there is nothing left of me
My name is a forgotten relic
But I hope you'll look for my grave.

Contained
lightning cuts across
the tongue
sears through flesh
and traps the silent
screams
in the bottle
with a red seal
warning, warning
of thunderstorms
that clamor for
release
from the throat
with glass shards
cutting, cutting
through veins
that ***** ink into
paper
which hungers
for the rumbling clouds
waiting, waiting
for the bottle cap to pop
and shatter into
raindrops
the earth quakes
awaiting by the precipice
shaking, shaking
until the final jump
into an eternal arch, down to the
ravine.

Blue
is the color of the mid-morning sky
dotted with the white
of lumpy clouds
with rainstorms in their bellies
Soon the blue
of the smiling horizon
will be gray.

Blue
is the color of the open sea
swathed in undulations
of the ebbing waves
with destruction in their fingertips
Soon the blue
of the endless waters
will be a fist.

Blue
is the color of a bruise
shaded with the subtle purple
of failing light
with darkness crawling through the edges
Soon the blue
of abandoned rage
will be everywhere.

Sloth
The idyll which is deadly
to the transient mind
Aloft in the empty desire
to take nary a single step
to refuse oneself
to do nothing

Gluttony
The uncontrollable want which is deadly
to the fickle body
Drowning in irrational need
to consume
to devour oneself
until there is nothing left

Greed
The desperate craving which is deadly
to the unsatisfied palm
Reveling in destructive yearning
for things not needed
for things impossible to have
until rich with nothing

Lust
The mindless drive which is deadly
to the sinful being
Swamped in instinctive sensuality
of the pleasuring flesh
of the touching skin
until thoughts are nothing

Envy
The reined malice which is deadly
to the defenseless heart
Unseeing in the loathing for others' triumph
as the resentment festers
as the bitterness thrives
until the bloodstream is nothing but poison

Wrath
The burning rage which is deadly
to the peaceful soul
Cowering behind the crimson mask
of latent fear
of suppressed weakness
until nothing but hatred exists

Pride
The lofty eye which is deadly
to the humble person
Flying above the breathing clouds
above the fabric of reality
above heaven's brilliance
until the sky falls

until the earth is nothing.

See, here you are less than real
A hollow shell of winter's breath
encasing you in a blanket of stars
Perhaps you are farther
than I thought

See, here you cannot hear me
My voice is my grip
And I'm losing it
Perhaps I'm the one in the vise
and you're already gone

See, here you cannot feel me
There are serenades in my touch
I wish you'd notice
Perhaps the grief on my fingertips
is all you have

See, here you are oblivious
Trapped beneath a sea of ice
with the sky collapsing on you
Perhaps you are no more
And I'm just a fool

See, here you cannot be mine
The silence of oblivion is your embrace
Will you listen to the ballads in my curses?
Perhaps you cannot leave, either
And I'm on the precipice

See, you are my breath
You are my prison
You are my only freedom
Perhaps I should just walk away
But I am
       waiting

                   for your
                          heartbeats
                                    to come
                                                back.