you can lean
on the tennis court fence
and tell me
about your day, your week,
your life.

i can sit
on the tennis court floor
smoking bits
taking petty photos
of the sky,
as you say how bad it is
to be alive.

we'll find
comfort in loneliness
and when we
finally feel okay,
i'll snap
a new photo
of our sky.

the birds are calling
i feel like crying
i used to love their
morning song
and still i do, and always will
but today my mind is
ill and tired,
the love inside me
is close to expired;
i'm drained and my eyes
are as sore as paper cuts.
these birds, they sing
soaring like i wish i could
oblivious to the irony they bring
that juxtaposition of
cheerful chirps
as a young man lies in bed
and wishes for...
something he won't name.

i think i kinda like you
just a little too much.

i'm not gonna tell you about this
little infatuation

but i feel warm when
you smile because of me,

and my cheeks ache with grinning
when you laugh at something i do.

i told myself i never would,
know all the reasons why i

never should fall for you;
we're just not made like that.

this is... don't read into it
preferably? don't read it at all

this is something i've
considered for a long while

i'll laugh it off, call you my-
well, that'd be obvious

ruining us is the last thing
on my mind; but you

are the first thing on my mind
most days

god, i hate this. i'm so sorry.
i didn't mean to

i didn't mean to get confused about us
i didn't mean to wonder

mostly, i don't know how i feel
maybe i'm confusing friendship with romance

but i do know this:
your lips are ones i'd like to kiss

"people are afraid to merge"
there's shadows on the walls,
stuck like glue
I've never seen anybody cling
so hard
the way shadows cling to walls
the way lovers might do

with significant others and
away from the crowds;
you're my hidey hole, my safety
my excuse
not to linger round
"come over," they say
not today, not today

they're loyal to these bricks
we made vows with anxiety
paint cracks and wallpaper
rips
but nothing will rip us
from these walls.
shadows, I see them clinging
for dear life
and not living

life on the freeway,
bet that's a fast one.
"people are afraid to merge"
standing out the top of a convertible
arms in the air
yelling, "I'm alive, I'm alive!"
and seconds away from tumbling
over the edge.
when his head hit the concrete
I bet his last thought was "finally"