i circle the sun
inching closer
it lets me in
giving me a taste of the golden glory
and i burn blissfully
i burn-
for you.

suddenly the wings are a furnace
plumes unspooling to ashes
my soul - annihilated.
i fall, a comet without a name,
worse off than when i first came.

loneliness wears a thousand faces.
it sits beside me in lecture halls,
laughing in unison;
while i am a ghost in daylight.
and the world looks through me,
as if i were made of glass.

notifications flicker like false stars,
giving me hope.
but no one ever stays to ask.

loneliness - my only constant.
it lingers like a shadow near,
the only voice i'll ever hear.

yet i still write,
i still bleed,
perhaps someday someone will read.
and respond.

sometimes the stars look like exit wounds in the sky.
bullets,
punctured through the abyss of darkness.
they were pure, innocent souls; slashed down.
their inner light bleeds through;
trickles out in rays through the sea of tar,
until the entire night is freckled by their memory.
their silence.

we call it beauty,
but it is really grief gracefully endured;
stitched into the heavens so we may never forget.

perhaps the things that wound the most,
are the ones which leave no scars.
ironic, isn't it?
blood is associated with hurt, not release.
and that people are associated with camaraderie, not isolation?
yet leave you cold...

how infectious is this joy!
looking into the eyes of a canine companion,
a pair of shining stars, filled with nothing but love,

undemanding,
a love that asks for nothing.
not food, not shelter;
only-
you.

yet on our streets,
those same stars are dimmed.
silenced in the name of safety,
while the true criminals parade on in broad daylight.

tell me,
what kind of world-
cages a heartbeat?
erases a wagging tail?

they asked us for nothing,
gave us everything.
and we repay them,
with absence.
with killing their love,
a love, that;
just
wanted
to
stay.

the stars speak to me
tiny glimmers of hope dotted across the
vast abyss of darkness
for they burn for millions of years,
yet light up not a fraction of the sky
but they persevere!
they persevere for the one who might find solace in their glow.
lighting up even one person's life
is reason enough to keep going
to keep living