Highly educated, low-life prince.
I heard he graduated but no one's seen him since.

If god were real
When he’d appear

It would be out of nowhere
In mysterious ways

God would be dressed as a clown
His front top teeth are missing
And he slurs like a drunk
Sometimes you can’t understand him

He does this on purpose
God was never cryptic
He just had trouble enunciating

DON’T BE MEAN TO PEOPLE
JESUS CHRIST

You have trouble looking at his face
It is hard to take the message of a clown seriously

So you look down at the globes of the tip of his shoes
Red shiny bulbs

Inside the reflection
You are ant sized
You feel small in that moment

God says something but you are busy looking down
You see other ant sized people walking behind you
Towards work
To get food
To go to school

God makes you a halo
Out of balloons
It is white because he ran out of yellow

Before he puts it on your head
Turned sideways
It looks like dangling handcuffs

He makes you a sword and belt too

You have just been turned into an angel
A human angel armed with the necessary tools to fight on his behalf

You don’t feel strong in that moment
You still feel like an ant
God gives you a holy water balloon
Just in case things get hairy

You decide you might be able to surprise baptize someone with it

Then god walks a way
But you totally feel better because he just gave you a halo and a sword

You cry that night
Because you have never felt so small and helpless in your entire life

You never felt so silly
Wielding you faith as firm as a balloon sword
Wearing your blow up halo as a badge

So you throw them away

Not your faith

Just the balloons

DON’T HURT ANYBODY
God says
His tongue pressed to his gums to prevent lisps

Then he begins to pump up another balloon
He honks his horn
And you are so confused

it's like I was tied to a post, never tried
to untie it, myself but

then your subtle hands
all over

and I was    ******
outand

in all this
space, love ly

can just spin, slower and slow er
until I find (read: believe) that
I don't need to
find

anything
to be
free

I just have to


be

Wear love like a scarf
close to your head and your heart
don't let it choke you
don't let it blind you
just keep it in between those two
so everything makes sense
so you make sense
and you're not withholding yourself
from what life has to offer
if the scarf starts blinding you, take it off
if the scarf starts chocking you, rip it off
and remember
its better to wait for the good scarves
the ones that last
cause the ones that are in clearance
have a reason to be there.

they say the creases on my forehead
poking out under my curly hair
are frown lines
that signify anger
but i don't think of them
as frown lines
because they're at their deepest
when i'm smiling
no, they're more like life lines
or souvenirs
from the time you called me beautiful
in the middle of november
yes, i remember
i hope by the time i'm eighty
i'm covered in love letter wrinkles
please, come age me gracefully
i wanna wash my feet
in your bloodstream
maybe that's a little weird
i'm scared of telling you how i feel
but at four in the morning
under my sheets
you ******* clean
you fold me
like the most beautiful constellations
i wanna be your north star
look to me for direction
i have no sense of direction
but my heart is so big
you can see me from space
like an egyptian pyramid
bury yourself
in my chambers
every time i buried you
i was really burying seeds
you always
grow back
to
me.

brighton,
you made me feel
like less of a cage
for one night
my bars were branches
i have since, however,
thrown away the key.

you,
wore your heart on your knee
we spent three months
in bed
until i found you
washing your sheets
of me.

11am,
you made me impulsive
i knew nothing but your name
we shared our skin for three & a half hours
until i faked a text
and rushed to leave.

one night stand,
and sit,
and all fours,
we were eachothers last resort
it seemed
the whole time
i felt like the aftermath of a catherine wheel
all my charred skin wanted
was to find something for breakfast.

we
found comfort together
2-3 nights a week
only,
momentary comfort left me
with uncomfortable shame
maybe that's why i never said your name
always tried to hide my face.

promised land,
your arms were meant to be a haven
i was supposed to find god in you
we ought to have been scripture
but i am not a holy temple
and i stopped praying years ago.

october
you made me shine
from across the bar
it didn't take you long
to get me into a taxi
didn't take you long
to stain my skin
didn't take me long to let you in
now every time i see you
i know i'll never be clean
again.

your snoring is so loud
it sounds like you are feng shui-ing
the furniture in your head
but i love it
see,
i could list all your bad qualities
& the thousand reasons
why i love them
but instead
i wanna catch your flaws
like fireflies in jars
and hide them on a high shelf
so you never
have to
see
them.

pop music tells us
"listen to your heart"
but all i know is
my heart beats
ten times faster
when i see your face
i don’t know what the **** that means
see, i don’t speak in beats
i already trip & fall
over my native tongue
and i don’t think vital organs
come with translators
i look to my hands
for answers
but what use are my fingers
when they've dropped everything
i’ve ever tried
to cling on to
when you smile at me
my skin breaks out
into a rash
to remind me
that my allergies include
grass, dust, anxiety
and pretty boys
just like you
i have to tell my legs
that no matter
how hard they look
they will not find yours
in the depths
of this bed
but they keep searching
for something
to wrap around
see,
i talk to my body about love
because it has the sweetest memories
of your skin
so when it whispers
of your fingerprints
i can’t help
but listen.