I found her
resting atop a hill.
Where fields stretched
far beyond I could imagine.
As I approached her
She told me her name
and took my hand
and led me to places
I never thought I would go.

She led me through lustful forests.
Which heightened my senses
to the point where my mind
was overtaken by
every essence of her.
She craved for me
and I could not resist.
She pulled and tugged
at my heart.
Just as she did my hand.
Until I practically
became her shadow.

I followed her
through bad times
that brought about feelings
of pain and suffering.
These feelings would
gradually transform
to endless tears that would
slowly drip from my face
like rain upon a window.
She was still with me
but I felt her slipping away
from our grip and leaving me
to return to the restless state
I once belonged to.

She soon drifted away
and I refused to be alone
so I chased her.
With all of my strength
I pursued her for days.
Until her presence
no longer existed before me
and I was once again
alone.

Knock me out and lay me down on the table
Cut along the dashes that
Have been growing beside the contours of
My collarbones and down my midline
Since we first met

Peel away my armored membrane
And pin it down with dinner knives
Unsure of what the future will bring
Clear out the scar tissue
And put it in a jar for later

Wring out my organs one by one
Into a series of measuring cups
And assess their net worth with a scale
You obtained from a magazine
Where you read about true love once

Evaluate the products collected
Noting those of my lungs and liver
Are a few shades darker
Calculate a figure and become excited
At the idea of a fixer-upper

Save my heart for last
It takes you both hands to lift it from my chest
Thinking it must be full of riches
You crack it open with a pair of bolt cutters
Only to find not treasure but

A collection of mundane things
Loose change, used tissues
Tickets and receipts
And a piece of paper that reads:
IOU

You are no longer
a child
innocent or forgiven.

Slower now,
dreams have taken flight
with butterflies
and *****
thrown beyond your reach.
No longer child-bright,
you stand in court
where age
grows upon the wall
and eats the air.

Your shadow lingers
frightened at the door
unconvinced
then bounds away
to chase a dream.

the old man asks his daughter
would i be a burden
when these hands can't feed by its own
this body is almost an inanimate mess
by its own can't move place
these feet can't walk to the toilet
on bed release involuntary waste
sit on soiled cloth and foul smell
would you come to my room
a hell smeared in ****** gloom
where now lives your father
who would just won't die
but in his eyes write a poem
from a piece of sky

I know now that there's no time to waste on the past, for the present is right in front of me.

Our breathing slowed to a simultaneous rhythm
Supported by our hearts, beating the same