Fluorescent lights and lonely eyes
this bar is full of smoke and the smell of stale cigarettes
there's another fool getting into a fight
spilled beer leads to a broken face
and through a cloud of smoke
you walk in like you're looking for me
in the corner booth
you're drawing hearts on the palm of my hands
connecting straight to my heart
it feels all too familiar and I get up to leave
you reach over and whisper,
"we ain't no good for each other but we ain't made for no one else"
and I'm walking away
with you right behind me
I smile because you know I say with every sway
let's do
what lovers do
we'll hold each other
in parentheses,
your curves
holding onto mine
in perfect alignment
even if
it's only pretend.

You can preoccupy your mind with every new girl that you touch
keep a list, keep a tab, keep yourself busy
but you know that you're just trying to find me in every one of them.

Go ahead blame it on someone, blame it on me
say that my tummy is too flabby, my thighs are too big
and my elbows are too rough
but see,
those are the very things you look out for in every new person you meet.

And why can't you sleep at night even when she's in your arms
the quiet of your room is an oppressive screaming silence
because my sighs were the only sounds able to put you to sleep.

Friends tell me you don't look at the stars anymore because you've found them in her
you can lie to them and you can lie to yourself
but the truth is, you don't look because you told me that my eyes held the galaxies
and you would forever be lost in mine.

So fill your mouth with different poems and different verses and different words
tell your new addiction how metaphors form from the curve of her lips
but you know it's my spit that rises at the back of your throat because you still long for the taste of my mouth on yours.

I can't look at you without feeling hurt
but in time
  I may find
that I love you more
(than I ever should have)
   with time,
  strange how a hairline crack
can sometimes feel
like multiple fractures.

I have loved you
  with 26 letters
and I shall hate you
  with the same.

I keep
  falling into love
and walking into walls
tripping over boundaries
    and overstepping limits
I guess the only thing
  you left me
was a diminished
      sense of space.

And now I see, we are but tiny bubbles that float upon the great blue ocean. Some of us struggle so hard against the tides that it would seem easier to just give up and let them take you under. And then there's you. You caught the light and shine like a diamond. Proud and beautiful, defiant and brave.

And there she goes
with a frail heart
the fragile girl
seeks refuge
in the quiet corners
of a strangers' lonely
and vacant stare
if only,
I could be the shores
she dropped her anchor for.