You yell beneath the floorboards.
Pounding fists, cracked promises lie in
Casual bricks dropping like tears that
Never mattered.

You cry beneath the floorboards
Of little red schoolhouses, tired tire marks that show
They’re not coming back and
You’re not going home.

You riot beneath the floorboards!
You shout and scream and rant but they
Cannot hear you anymore.
The stores are closing like a trap door.

You die beneath the floorboards
A death that was not peaceful but panicked
Like an elevator that has stopped moving
Briefly and indefinitely, you are gone.

Now we crawl beneath the floorboards
Searching for pieces of you like receipts
Stashed away in a pocket of an old coat.
You remind us of whispers and walruses and things.

And someday when we find ourselves, fierce
And fleeting, underneath the floorboards,
You will remind us of our fading voices forever
Silenced, but never ignored.

"We’ll only be here for a while" She said, "three years," she said, "til we settle down."
"We’ll move away," she said, "a nicer place," she said, "a place to turn around."
"We’ll walk the beach," she said, "dream big," she said, "build castles in the sand."
"I don’t want to be alone!" She cried, "I want to be loved!" She sighed, as I held her hand.
Three years have passed, alas, she’s long gone.
"I’m sorry." she said, "I can’t handle my head."
And now my hand rests alone.

Oh look what I’ve grown up to be
a sad little girl with ***** feet.
too young in her mind, too old in her hands
like a merry-go-round that turns where it stands.
Her tears are too heavy, and like acid they burn
a streak down her cheek and her stomach churns
as she thinks, I think, we think, you think,
but do not know when you drown, just how deep you will sink.
Oh look what I’ve grown up to be
nothing at all, nothing like me