I don’t know that
there’s any poetry left in me
I think I’ve bled out everything by now,
all my sadness washed away
by a monsoon of tears.
Yes, there’s only emptiness left,
keep knocking but
my hair falls out stupidly and thickly
even at your kind touch.
My veins show underneath my skin now
and I can’t remember not counting my ribs
My mother says I’m fading away
But it’s just a shell belatedly
following a soul already dead.
Then again
this is a poem, is it not?
And Hope still lingered in that Pandora’s box
Perhaps even corpses can still love
Beautiful, will you be my salvation?
Your golden hair
makes me believe in resurrection.

It’s not figurative, a Broken Heart.
The searing pain in your chest
As tendons  stretch, then rip apart.
So what if it’s for the best?
That doesn’t make the hurt ease.
I don’t bother to pretend, to lie.
Don’t care if everyone can see.
They judge me because I cry,
But they cannot feel this agony.
They cannot begin to conceive
Half the despair that I contain
They will never truly believe
The darkness my soul will entertain
They, who will never understand
For their heart is strong and sure
Where mine is a wasteland
Shattered into a thousand or more.

I am a universe beyond the observable
and even with my stretches
of terrifying emptiness
there is magnificence in my galaxies;
Too bad
you always thought the stars were overrated.

I’ve deleted a lot of poetry;
Oh, ruthless backspace button!
They’re still there, though, the words,
in the white space between my lines.

I wonder
which of us loves the other more?
Could it be me
because I have always loved
everyone I met without restraint
and thus have more practice?
Or could it be you
because your love must be earned
and you have been saving it
for me?

I am the stain blue candy leaves on your tongue
eyeliner slightly smudged from happy tears
bubble gum that popped on your face
and bright paint stains on brown hands.
I am messy handwritten cursive
and glossy red lipstick prints.
I am singing off key and dancing in parking lots.
I am the laughter that makes your stomach ache
and I am the quickening of the heart.
I am gasping for breath
as I am the sweet smell of summer.
I am sunsets without end
and s’mores that leave chocolate on your hands.
I am not clean sheets unless they are a fort
but I am bold ink that bled onto the next page
and sometimes I am broken glass
clear but for your blood on a jagged end.
Sometimes I am sobbing on the shower floor
and exquisite pain that makes your shoulders shake.
I am fists clenched so hard your nails cut your palm,
the cold and powerful waves of a seastorm.
And I am learning that’s okay.
I am not in your box
and I am not yours to define;
I am mine.

Because you curse yourself for the tears in your eyes
knowing they won’t do anything
except make your kisses taste of salt.
But you cry anyway;
there’s nothing else to be done.
Your heart is heavy and you can’t help thinking
All that weight’s from doing the right thing
And wouldn’t it be nice to have what you want for once.
You’re dying to be someone else
and heroes are empty stories to you now
Because kindness and courage aren’t getting you anywhere
but lying on the ground thinking about nothing in particular
because everything hurts.
So we’re rooting for the villains now
in leather and not lace.
Red lipstick is warpaint
and we dyed our closet black
We’ve come for power
Because forget happiness, we just want to survive
I can live with this hollowness in my heart
because it’s the only way to live.
Forget Prince Charming
Because he’s a nice enough guy but nice guys finish last
so leave him in the corner trying to get his **** together
and burn out the princess in you
You’re a queen now
and you’re gonna take your happy ever after
if you have to let all hell loose to get it.