We met at the crossroads of transition and vulnerability
I ached for attention
Your words worked toxically
Now you're in my bones
Which are splintered by reality
You're drowning yourself
And also me simultaneously

The children with dirt all on their sleeves
Are rolling contraptions of crushed up leaves

"Didn't you hear, he passed out again?"

Said they wanted to grow like dad and mom,
Now they can't walk they're so far gone

"Haven't even turned 18 yet"

And war was but a game kids would play
Now it burns inside him each awful day

"He said he didn't want to wake up anymore"

We all giggled the time they nearly kissed
But we stare in silence at lines on her wrist

"She gave him everything"

One is in cuffs, one's on the brink,
One took too many over the sink

*"What happened to the kids we used to be?"

You're the wind
And I'm the pinwheel
You like to see me spin
When I stop
You fix me up
Until I twirl again
I can't help
The way I turn
The cycles that I take
But you're a force
You've got a say
And sometime you say "break"
Now it's clear
For me to function
I need but one gust
So tell me why
I'm on this shelf
Just collecting dust.

"I want to feel an earthquake,"
You whispered.
And your eyes were full of spirit,
And I swear I almost didn't
recognize you.
"What a thrill."
A flash of danger
In your face
My heartbeat increased
As a cold bony hand
Gripped mine.

I was so scared.
"Let's find one,"
I replied.

She likes to listen to that song
With the sleepy quiet rhythm
On Sunday afternoons
Before light hides behind peaks
While snow drifts towards the road
That the car hums along

Because for 2 minutes
and 53 seconds

She doesn't feel
*so
empty.

We were never meant to collide
We watched and let flames subside
In stars of time, our faces hide
We were never meant to collide.

It was all but a hopeless dream
A chain of pictures worked in scheme
A foolish plan ripped at the seam
It was all one beautiful dream.

Hear my shaky words of denial
This voice that once made you smile
I whispered on tracks, half a mile
But now I stutter words of denial.

Despite it all I can't help but feel
The months of desire must have been real
And deep in yourself something more than ideal
So ensure me that my thoughts you feel.

In the end, from my sight I hide,
We had our chance, but we'll never collide.

I mapped us out on the back of my hands
Soft skin stained with black ink plans
But my pen ran fast and the words would fade
When you called for clouds to rain out our parade

Before I knew it my clothes were soaked
And my slippery hands fell to the end of your rope
And as our black ink ran all down my arms
You let that rope fall, I hit the ground seeing stars.

I was blind in that moment, thinking you'd come around
But you just laughed sickly from your place on high ground
And when I mapped us out on the back of my hands
I never thought to draw a rope, but I stood no chance.