her mother embraces her,
even if out of ten,
she could only score nine.
my eyes begin to burn,
for desiring what's not mine.

my hair has always been unruly.

i was no stranger to things that are hard to maintain.

so, when you ran your fingers through my head, i become very aware of you.

the twitch of your lips, the way your breath slowed.

is the coarse texture off putting? does it bother you that it's blooming from my scalp?

as your fingers come past my shoulders and to the end of their journey, you stare at your hand, realizing you had tugged a few stray strands that coiled in different patterns.

i held my breath, waiting for the familiar look of disgust on your face.

“your natural hair is lovely.”

my world stilled.

you had my heart in your hand, but did not choose to crush it.

in fact, you even planted warmth as you watered the roots of my rapidly beating *****.

i was no stranger to things that are hard to maintain.

but, oh, how i wish you wouldn't be.

and it was when i realized
that every single person in the room paled in comparison to you
that the colour drained from my face.

ah ****, i was in love.

i broke one of my vases the other day.
it was rather simple in design, modest.
its shape unassuming, its colours muted.
but it broke me just the same
to watch it shatter into a million tiny pieces.

as i knelt beside the scattered fragments,
my hands trembling to gather them,
i realize how alike i was to the vase;
how little i must have mattered to you.

when you broke me into pieces,
a nonchalant sigh escaped your lips,
hardly fazed by the accident.
you hummed a tune under your breath,
your mind already drifting to other matters.

why would you dwell about something easily replaced and forgotten?

why would you dwell about me?

you are the sun in my vicinity,
and i am the venus that orbits you in an elliptical path.
all the planets are drawn to your gravitational pull,
and you have so much influence on every single one of us.
i am tired of being compared to a star.
you are so much greater, that my disappearance would only be a mere disruption in these delicate balances.
i don't matter enough to have my absence render a whole system nonexistent.
i am the closest planet to you, but i will never be as big, as bright, as significant.
i will always just be “the closest planet to the sun”.