Be gentle to yourself.
You have fought for this skin,
These eyes,
This voice.

Be gentle to the child inside of you.
When it comes to you, looking up at you
With large, watering eyes,
Brush that loose strand behind the ear
And tell them

Everything is okay

Because no one else will.

Let your thoughts devour you
If they must,
But remember to come up
For air.

Be gentle to the tiny voice inside of you,
That makes you leave your bed every day
That only wants the best
For you.

In the end,
You are all you will have.
And when you leave,
You’re going alone.

Be gentle to yourself
I’m sure if you were able to,
You would swallow this world
Whole.

A wisp of
smoke
Billowing
in heavy gusts
of wind.

This vacancy feels like
lukewarm coffee.
What happens when I hit my threshold
What is out past there
Swimming about in the darkness,
Waiting to latch onto me &
Suction out my remains
Is there really a point of light
Even infinitesimal
In the black
Or is it just vacancy
that tastes like lukewarm coffee

I am
      becoming
the shell of the hickory nut
Instead of the entire tree.
A sprout that has shed its excess drapery
My life has outgrown me.
The sapling progressing in the dappled
     light,
And me,
Decaying silently
    on the ground
Watching the encroachment of night.

I watch
as the ghost of you
        freezes
        to death
                       on the sidewalk.

Moon,
drench me in December.
       Feed me the briar,
Trail the icicles of gravity
       down my spine.
Ground me in this
       hardened
      dormant soil.
Give me witch hazel flowers
      sprouting from my hair.
Adorn me with Yule's gown
      of brown
      and gray.
Speckle my eyes with
      Mercury's shadow,
Give me Owl's voice,
      Crow's rigid
                   wing.
Bejewel my crown of dried
      Oak leaves
With Taurus' red eye
          Aldebaran,
Beetlejuice, and Andromeda's
                   armspan.
Embellish me with a solemnity
         of solitude
So that my soul can sing
in these hours
        of renewal.

The moon rose,
    and collected
    like dust
    on the back of his
                                    neck.