I can still taste the watermelon
sweet with huge black seeds slipping
over the top of my tongue

When I dropped it
a thousand ants appeared
faster than I could believe
it was completely covered

Is that how fast your body burned to dust?

she falls for him as he falls
from reality
or rather straight
into it

I remember you
from back before our time on earth
I have already heard all of your songs

fingernails black
and blue
aluminum foil wraps legs
her heart stops
his goes

bed of thorns
sinks deep
below the place your thoughts reach
you beg and you don't know what you're begging for
but I know

moonlit tables clothed in moss
tiny sparrows hopping
among the bread crusts you put out
yarn twists rhythmically
into all the blankets that kept me warm
but I can't keep you warm

Failure spits a hot odor
that's me in the bed of thorns
that's me with the key
on a ring where all the others are charred black
and only one is clean

words fall
like raindrops
from smoldering pages
down into molten rivers
and wash away
the dust

Have you ever
picked up bricks
from your own foundation?
And stood in the rain
as it fills up the rivers that sustain you

Have you ever lost someone you love
long before they can afford
to lose you

And you can't understand
why the bricks are so heavy
or how to hold them without
slipping
into the abyss

I didn't know there were chapters
and pages that turned
yellow and ripped
or that one day it would all burn

I didn't know that petals would fall
or what snow was
or black dead night

I didn't know that truth would be an illusion
or that bricks could ever crumble

Sitting in the desert sun
a thick, smooth flower bursts
from its bud
jagged spines run
up its stem while I choke
on nothing but air