The light you bring to our friendship
is indescribable. It’s like a melody
that makes me smile every time I hear.
You could’ve burned me from the start,
but instead showed a gentle glow.
It allowed me to gain a deeper
and larger view of the world.
We walk different paths,
see life in different ways,
but make each other better.
Remember you’re powerful enough to burn
through all the storms of life.

I.

I’ve swallowed too many I love you’s
to be afraid of coughing up blood.
They cut you on secret.
Who knew it was drinking gasoline
and sawdust and every little inflammable thing
and then sitting down cross-legged
in the heart of a howitzer; soft.

II.

You are a soft explosion.
You are streaks of a rebel orange
in a sky that is supposed to be blue.
You are steel rods in the curve of my spine,
holding me straight.

III.

I love you’s are like death notes written in ash:
you’ll have to smoke your way to it.
Smoke cigarettes, journals, curtains,
and yourself to get that much ash in your lungs;
trying to blow smoke rings into your finger;
my ceiling knows more about my sadness than you do.

IV.

Saying an I love you once will have you
chanting “don’t leave me” on a rosary;
love will take your bones and leave you
lusting for somebody whose back
is the last thing you’ll see, and whose
skin you’ll think you left your keys in:
and now you’ve locked yourself out
of your own house, in a storm
whose sirens wail in your ears and remind
you, you’re hopeless and homeless.

V.

I love you’s leave no exit wounds,
no shell casings, and when the time comes
you’ll be telling them all how his bullet
ricochets in your ribs,
but emotion never made up for evidence
in the court of settlements for a broken heart.

VI.

Telling someone you love them is like cutting your jugular
and not expecting to bleed out.

VII.

I love you like the pages of a mad girl’s journal.

VIII.

The moon turns from an ally
to the haunting image of science and realisation:
you share the same sky, but no longer the same bed.
And astronomy keeps ******* you over
when you look up at the sky
and no longer understand constellations.

IX.

Love makes it more getting-back-at-you
than getting-back-together-with-you.

X.

Every time you taste blood,
you’ll know you kissed somebody
with teeth like needles
and they cut you everywhere; they
bit you, they bit you, they bit you
and you kept letting them.

one
by
one
they
came

no
light
no
candle
to
smudge
the
pure
darkn­ess

children
of
the
shade
revelers
of
midnight
there
to
view
the­
event

in
the
womb
of
blackness
moons
were
cocooned
awaiting
the­
push
of
labor

~ stars ~
spent
with
their
urgency
await
the
impetus
that
will
send
them
­spiraling
out
into
blue
and
gold
galaxies
to
scintillation
with
n­ebulae

and
so
the
event

the
faces
of
the
creatures
of
the
crepu­scule
evaporate

the
moons
are
birthed
into
fire

the
stars
are
scattered
like
a
billion
bi­lliard
*****

the
fabrication
that
was
matter
energy
space
and
ti­me
is

no

more


^
<      >
\/

These words leave my mind
Course through my veins
Find strength in my pain
And bare their soul through ink stains.

May or may not be intended for you
Cause if the shoe don't fit
Get yourself a size two
I don't have the capacity to disrespect a whole race,
Oh yeah this isn't an apology too.

I wrote Caged Bird to tolerate ignorance
It was more of me letting off a hindrance.
I let it bare my fight
My hooks were my words
My jabs, my verbs.
And the ten count was the title, Caged Bird.

Yesterday someone called me a N**
I just wrote unhindered
I let loose my mental trigger

So I've said it before and I'll say it again
If the shoe doesn't fit
Don't worry my friend
So if you know where you stand,
Be there, unshaken.
If your lip have never uttered the words
Then why is it offense you've taken?