The snow layered thin upon the rooftops,
lining the neighborhood with rows and rows of bleached skulls.

People crawled forth from toothless mouths,
baring their tongues to a leaking ceiling,
their heads covered like hidden fists.

Clenched in each was the fading ink of bottles
trapped in the carcasses of beached whales
who finally met that distant shore
and did not turn away.

You have one headphone in the left,
the radio in the right
as a stranger drives measures in clefts of night.

Kiss him how your feet kiss sand or
a soloist breaks off from the band
until the pianist beckons him back,
tuning deft fingers to a single track.

Open your ears to sound’s wordless talk,
beats in a measure a half-step off.
Blue’s lips tactless, ******* you down,
Blue’s lips fastening ankles to ground.

Then sudden and brace;
a rock in the road,
an anchor thrown
as you're caught between verses and words you don’t know.

Then sudden, the break;
pianist's mistake.
Notes shift under toe as the ocean lets go.

she used to ask me to leave bruises on her neck

and then asked me to arrange her hair to hide them.

One of these days someone is going to fall in love with you
The way you fell in love with them
It will be like a second nature to the both of you
To love yourselves
and to love each other
Oh how beautiful
Oh how soft
Your love
It could build mountains
It could create wonders

Trace the seams of your body for loose strings.
Pay attention to the places the unraveling has started
Again, to the places where you’re making the same mistakes.
When you’re alone, smoke endlessly into the night
And reset the topography of your heart
With mortar shells and ******.
Repeat this process as needed.
(You’re going to need it.)

There is an immutable emotion that all of the
Displaced strata and debris only serves to cover.
In the past year, you have found yourself
A lot dirtier. Yet you don’t bother to excavate,
Expecting to still recognize that glow
When it comes bursting back through the earth.