I'm going to go ahead and get this out of the way.

I'm telling you now

A warning, before you drive over the tracks

Into racing-pulse-risktaking land

That you will never be the heart

Thud-thud-thudding in my chest

Pumping my blood and keeping me chugging along

That vessel of a cliche.

I'm not so easy

Predictable

Malleable

Boring

Dumb

Naive

To entrust you with keeping it going

Leaving something so vital

In hands that could stop tick-tick-ticking

At any moment

Like a dead clock.

I'm sorry, my dear

But that particular piece of tissue

Is one that is mine and only mine

Never to be cradled by another.

But before you turn away from the crossing

I'd like to offer another disclaimer.

There are other parts of me

That can be shared

Budding blooms growing every-which-way

Perhaps requiring two sets of hands

In order to be adequately nurtured.

If you truly find it crucial

You might push your way into my being

Become a mark branded onto my existence

Fading at a snail's pace

If I'm ever so lucky

To have it fade at all.

If you wish to cross these tracks without looking both ways

You could find yourself

Close to my heart, if not within it

Swimming in my lonely blue veins

A constant reminder that we're both here

Warm

Safe

Guarded.

You could be my sweet tooth

That impassioned affinity for something that may or may not be around

At any given time.

You could be a fold of my painfully enigmatic brain

Find yourself at home amongst all the love and anger and secrets

Push past the useless facts and fly-away ideas

Hold me tight 'til you squeeze me into a headache.

You could even be part of my oh-so-problematic blood

Nourish me

To love and to cherish

In motion and in rest

Know for sure that

Should one of us rip off the dreaded universal Band-Aid

And bid the other adieu

You'll be sure to leave a dark anemic bruise

A reminder for who-knows-how-many days to come

Of who you are

And what we were.

All precautions aside

I'll let you go on your way

With this one condensed admonition:

You, and every other person to whom I'll ever send a silvery come-hither glance

Will never stake claim

On my heart

Filling and releasing

Constantly reminding me of an identity all my own

Never shaped like a Valentine.

It doesn't mean that you aren't important

When you can, in fact

Find your own empty space in anything else

But remember:

At the end of the day

Blue veins go pale

Bruises fade

And I'm in charge of what's in my own lifeblood.

Even the most grueling marks on my skin and soul

Made by malevolence and cruel intent

Will surely heal

With the help of sweet time

And this trusty heart of mine.

If you're fine with this

By all means

Cross these rickety rails.

I'll see what I can do.

the mouths
move in a
synchronised
troop but
nobody is
moved
because
nobody
speaks.
it has always
been
this way
the same
play performed
day after day
& night
after night
to a room
in the dark
that can't
find the light.

drenched in the hollow moonless night

i see your gaze in the southern stairs of the distant stars

wildfire pulsating and impaling through my chilling heart



gracefully float in flight beneath the flashing lights

reach and touch my aching bony hands

gently lifting and entangling as we dance



pull me in closer towards the balustraded balcony  

dip me eternally into the starry night

while the world coats us onto its glossy acrylic canvas in admiration

Still searching for something...

I silently shifted past silhouettes of strangers for I am a shadow formerly named.

Someone said you felt the same, a sorceress seeking solitude inside a spire, a safe haven for all those stolen souls.

She was of the sea and softly spoke to me sowing smoke in weaves but I knew of no vowels that could commit her senses and yet sentences slowly slid from my mouth stolen by gravity towards the south where soldiers slept beneath the sands of sorrow.

Surrounded by sounds shifting from silence to song something sang sweetly secreting secrets only the stars dared keep.

So I buried my past somewhere in tomorrow somewhere I would never reach nor no longer seek for slumber is my only ally as I succumbed to sleep for the final time surrendering my soul to the valley of shapes and signs.

Unleash your cynicism
I'm not listening without regard
You've sipped on my predicament
enough
it's time to leave the bar
I'll walk you down the road
& watch your shadow shift
with passing cars
& laugh at really nothing in particular
but who we are

The devil has such brittle fingers,
long,
pointed,
calloused,
and sometimes bleeding
from his heated labors
from working the earth
just to savor
a slight taste of paradise
one apple from
God’s great garden
then die
unsatisfied
cause one lite bite
is never enough.

I don't have a name,
just a picture hung without a frame.
Dust at my corners;
what am I made of?
Blackened mud and
forbidden love.
I'm not the one that
you're thinking of;
I'm just the one that
you're picking up
when you need to feel
something real.
I been missing pieces
since we broke apart.
I better rehearse
and just play my part.
Notice how my pain
is a work of art?
Paint me all the colors
in your Mozart.
Even though in my soul
it's completely dark.