You’re overflowing –
Like an ashtray
                      But no
You’re not a nicotine yellow stain
You’re not ash grey
You don’t smell like a stale insomniac’s late night in an empty room

You’re a burst fire hydrant
Children shriek and frolic in your shower
And somewhere out there plants, grass and weeds will turn green and tall
Because you have nourished them
But you’re still ******* off that firefighter.

But maybe you’re the fire?
                    Too hot to touch
But we all look on
                    We all glow with you
You eat the world but
In leaving it fallow give a chance to something new.

But you’re not new
You carry eons on your shoulders and
Wisdoms between your teeth
You are like the grains of sand between my toes:
You were once completely different

But I like you in all your ways
I’ll inhale your smoke
I’ll dance in your rain
I’ll let you burn me up
I’ll let you turn me into something new
I would grow old with you.

Dear lonely girl,

why is it that you choose to cry
about once again not having a valentine?

why does a stupid date
fueled by cheap chocolate
and ****** cards
make your very core ache?

you don't even really like flowers,
why receive a gift of something
that's overpriced and already dead?

having a valentine
would just be another broken half,
of a stalemate love.

you don't need no Romeo,
you'll both only end up dead.

it's just another day lonely girl,
another day for you to be happy
that once again, you get to live.

Love, Me
(lonely girl)

I lumber sluggishly,
dragging the weight of my body.
Every pound is tethered to me,
I can’t escape the heaviness.

I am stuffed into clothes,
encased in figure-hugging fabric
that looks better on the hanger
than my rounded, fleshy torso.

The scale is an unlucky lottery ticket
displaying a number
that I will carry around
shamefully like a scarlet letter.

I count calories like beads on a rosary,
making sure I shrink to conformity
critical of every extra curve
because to love my size is a societal sin.

Airbrushed beauty queens
and slender starlets
wear their size 0 like a badge of honor
in the battlefront of glossy magazine covers.

I’m crushed with the weight of the world I inhabit
a place that teaches girls to be self-conscious
of each pound that sticks to their body
instead of teaching them to be confident in their own skin.

I’m tired of micromanaging each nutrient that touches my lips,
to achieve a slender frame that resists my big-***** body
self love is not a one-size-fits-all
and I will radically adore every ounce that is tethered to me.

I kept playing my song
until you came along
playing my heart to the right beat
giving my feelings a front row seat.

Broken halls and center stage
releasing the prisoner within it's cage
You gave me new rhythm and sound
The likes of you I've never found

Hello Drummer girl
The drum set's shining pearl
The way you play I cannot explain
I wish I was still sane.

The die had been rolled,
We were lifted off into another reality,
One without fatality,
And we were sold,
Just like the houses in monopoly.