She lays in the burning lake
Of trepidation
Luxuriating in its purity
Inhaling the smoke
Of ageless memories
As her flesh begins to sink
Down into the liquid
Losing its consistency
To the easy fluidity
Of endless regret
Hoping for the end
To taste as fiery
As the first glimpse
Of registered consciousness

Curtain covered views
In neon lighted enclosures;
I hide in the openings of walls
And catch glimpses of passing shoes
Taking kilometres like a flower
Takes water from the sky
Tasting the light hearted lies
Spat into the air by too many
Heated lips wasting movement,
Not kissing the coolness outside.
The open doors avoided-
Let me walk in the shadows
Where rodents feel safe…
I wonder if their houses are as cosy
As the light that never reaches
Protected places of the underworld.
Sitting saddened by the demons imagined
Forgetting to listen to the echoes below
The low music of the ages
Resting on mounds of life’s
Discarded dreams left to us gremlins.

You hem the edges of your new personality
Before flipping the skin inside out
And admiring the neat tuck of frayed edges
Away from the laser point eyes
Of moving mannequins.
The day has just begun
And your life is sewed into place
A thickly weaved texture to match
The brains you’ve crafted out of
Foam ripped from the innards of discarded
Dolls now rolling in other worldly clouds.
A familiar face floats by
And you rip a stitch on the old wall
Watching rice fall from the hole
Wondering what your insides have become
After discarding the old stuffing
Forgetting worn clothes
And loved patterns for new seasons.

Yesterday’s integrity is lost
To the shrewd entry of today,
With all its hopeful blandness
Sinking into my skin as the sun rises
Ever so gently along the broken horizon
Where vultures escape the peril
Of the murderous day and hide in caves-
Away from the hungry pecking of
So many people in too many places,
As the sky seeks to triangulate
The presence of time within the confined space
Of the undynamic maze of man
As he moves gallingly through the elements
Past my drowsy numbness in the early hours
Magnetized into the dull thumping
Rhythms of action we all anticipate;
Estimating concepts I could never
For the life of me, regurgitate.

She walks away with flare
Leaving the scent of jasmine in the air
And I sink in the remnants
Of her vocal impressions
As I drop back into the arms of silence
Heavy with recollection
As real as the floor I lay against
Seeing her figure disappear
Into the darkness of a hallway
Too many times
Over and over again
I reach out a hand to call her back
But only the disturbance of air
Replies back in sad despair
Her presence is now only a remembrance
Of molecules scattered
Touching the receptors in my brain
Touching battered tatters
Forming abstract images of infatuation
Where her face melts and withers
Into the vague imprint of frustration
Losing its individuality to sillage

Water colour marks
On pearly skin
And that internal scream
Stuck in the protruding veins
Of necks in distress
And hands rendered useless
Towels of dirt dropped at dirtied knees
Dry as the desert in his eyes
Yet still dripping insincerity
Which she swipes across her
Barcode forearms
Where rings of price tags
Are branded on bodies unwillingly
And features are obscured
In a fluster of pity
For a being worthy of more
Than just shrieks and beatings

Fragility is an electric blue
Shock in your system
From which you twist resistance
Gifted to hands open and begging
Consoling the green murkiness
Of people’s forced emptiness
Filling their scaffolding with
Temporary steadiness
Your abandonment shatters
Into heart shaped glass shards
He picks up even though they cut
And his blood brings no fear
Because your reality is malleable
And wounds are fixable
With scars becoming loopholes
Into worlds of distorted art
Branching out of lines protruding
Introducing your skin before your scars
I see the clearing of newly planted
Seeds of future possibility
In the words you gather
Passing by flowers scented with
All the aromas that haunt you
From your youth
Just to string a sentence
For one surrounded by the obtuse
Entirety of reigning bleakness
You are a beacon of what we
Dream to grow up to be
A star in the morning sky
You shine you shine you shine.