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  Jul 2015 Dust Bowl
Kendall Rose
light your cigarette again
i'll try to breathe toxic air like im the one addicted.
i found myself in the flicker of your lighter,
only warm when your fingers were on me
i used to be forest fires
volcanoes
heat waves
now i am the dying ember in your ash bowl.
forgive me for wanting to feel your lips against my skin
ice melts in the presence of heat,
and you could never be less then me.
cigarette breaks are temporary
but the black in your lung is permanent.
you lit me with the intentions of putting me out
but I promise my flame will kindle every time you try to exhale me out
  Jul 2015 Dust Bowl
glassea
it's funny that we bruise black and blue
when the anger behind them is so clearly red
  Jul 2015 Dust Bowl
Riley Schatz
i’m waiting for my heart to break
because i know it will soon

soon i will lose it to an unsuspecting someone
who will unknowingly carry it in his jacket pocket
and i won't be able to do anything but watch from afar as it's poked and prodded and cracked and tossed in a washing machine

and what should i do?
what if it was you?
what if i told you,
"my heart... you have it."
what if i asked you to
"be careful, please..."
would you comply?

would you give me yours in return and let me hold your hand?
or would you try to give mine back, wrapped in mumbled apologies?
or would you toss it away, and leave it to slide into a street sewer with the muddy rain?

what if i didn't tell you?
what if i said,
"be careful, please..."
whispered it from afar, and let my heart get bumped and bruised by your oblivious hand, the one i want to hold?

i’m waiting for my heart to break
because i know it will soon,
but how?
Dust Bowl Jul 2015
I'm in love with a girl who washes her hair in her bathroom sink every morning.
Truth be told,
She washes it in the kitchen,
But I wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea.
Let's backtrack for a minute.
You see she has a shower right behind her
But she hasn't used it since the day the water ran red.
She tells me she likes the way dirt looks under her fingernails,
The way people on the street wonder if she's lazy
Or just excavated a body.
But what's the difference right?
Either way you find yourself in a hole.
I wait for her in the kitchen every morning.
Hand her her coffee.
Watch her stare into the yard as she sips.
I mention the birds
and she sighs something about the night she had to chase away the neighbors cat.
How she wishes her father would stop feeding them.
But you see,
I've heard this story a hundred times.
And though the ending's always different,
Nothing really changes.
Her dad keeps feeding the birds,
And her uncle keeps dying.
Sometimes it's an accident,
sometimes it's a disease.
Either way he ends up in a hole
And her dad only comes home when the birds get hungry.
I picture her sitting cross legged on her grass,
Her eyes envying the way it always shines green,
And I get lost in thoughts of how I'd like to make her my emerald.
But you see she's always wanted to be a diamond,
And there's just not enough warmth in my soul,
Or pressure in my hips
To give her that.
You see she washes her hair in the kitchen sink everyday
Because her best friend killed himself when she was eleven
And let the blood run down the drain.
She dyes her hair the color of a crime scene,
But forgets the caution tape.
She says she hates the mirror in her bathroom and the way the lighting makes her look,
But I've never once seen her bother to open the window.
You see I never minded though
Because the longer she stayed in the dark,
The longer I got to pretend to be her sunshine.
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