Detrimental to my skin are the caged beaks,
clawing from beneath, scratching bruises
in shades only I can feel.
My overgrown feathers wrap around me,
a shroud and a shield—
enough to hold me, yet never enough to choke.

If only they would.
If only they’d cover me whole,
cocoon me in darkness
until I am nothing but breathless night.

But instead, I find myself longing to be suffocated,
not by this cold weight but by soft hyacinths,
their petals brushing my feet,
closing around me like a final kiss from the earth.

Let them rise, lilac and violet,
fragrant like memories—
until I am overcome, gently,
by something that wants to hold,
not harm, as I do.

I recognized it—that other soul was yours, dipping near mine,
Rare like the moments when stars brush the earth.

I’ve taken you into me, as much mine as my own skin,
You breathe with the glimmer of a falling star.

You brushed the earth once more in your quiet brilliance—
Such a constellation you are to me, and more.

Born quick-witted, but now too tired to speak,
This world drags me down into silence so deep.
The people, their words, like soil in my veins,
Until I couldn’t breathe, now I just feel the chains.
I sink into bed, a prisoner to the voices,
No escape, no choices.

I once begged the sun to tear through the night,
But even that struggle feels too far from sight.
Once a typhoon, I raged, I drowned in its form,
Now the rain softly falls, dulled and worn.
It seeps into my skin, a quiet decay,
Lingering forever, with nothing left to say.

My perfect face, my perfect form,
It’s been some time since you crossed my mind.
My perfect eyes roam, longing for features that will never be mine,
Yet I am not sad; I carry the essence of my kind.

I wish I didn’t dwell, though I was sailing well on this rocking ship.
My mirror lies beside me, a truth I yearn to eclipse.
I could seize it now, as effortless as dispersing a speck of dust.

My perfect face, my perfect form become what I wish,
I hate to love you and ache for your kiss, but...

In reverie, I plait your name with mine,
Our hearts aligned beneath a silver line.
The stars above, they waltz in velvet skies,
And in your arms, the world in silence lies.
A whispered breath dissolves the air we know,
Time slips away, as moments softly glow.

Like driftwood, carried by the moonlit sea,
The waves embrace our fragile destiny.
Beneath the tides, where silent dreams unfold,
A fleeting warmth amidst the ocean’s cold.
Yet still, within your gaze, I drift, serene,
A quiet light within the vast unseen.

I hand-stitched you to my heart, threaded like the gods make their rules from above.
Oh, my delicate wonder, do you wander where my mind dares not rove?
All my preposterous atrocities are mine to give, and for you to love—
But will you love them?—is my wonder. Yes, you will—the Fates weave.

Oh, my tragic imperfections, you stand like my Trojan horse,
A gift of beauty, yet ruin hides within,
If your eyes could pierce the veil of my sin,
Would you fall as Troy did, or rise once more?

I feel the wound, fragile but bold,
Our names to be written on a grave, together etched in gold.
Side by side, we’ll lie beneath the earth’s embrace,
Two bound by fate, neither time nor death can erase.

As we march toward the end, hand in hand with fate,
Two souls entwined, neither early nor late.
And when death whispers, we shall not part—
For love, like legend, buries us both in heart.