I forgot to breathe today
when I found your hair
red and shiny,
staring back at me

all coiled and coy
laying there lifeless
in the corner of my closet

I thought seriously
about returning it
but I knew you wouldn't miss it
just another thing to lose
another piece of you gone
I'm sure you didn't notice

So I placed it on my pillow,
laid my head down and gazed
at its beauty and knew
that it looked at home in my home
and good in my graces

I slept beside it for hours
and when I awoke
it didn't greet me good morning
it was gone,
but it was probably never there at all

I can no longer
run and hide from this
this love,
so pure and crystiline

There's movement here
in my chest,
where my heart used to be
when it was new
and beating

I sweat and sin for this
drink my baby gone
and bleed for it
this sweet and sticky thing,
they call happiness

It's addicting
and I've always been a fool
for drugs
a sucker for a hit
strung out on kisses and sweaty palms

I'd be new for this
get clean and pray for it
for a chance to be new again
my feathers unruffled
and my hair untangled

No more make up smudges
black **** covering my eyes
waking up with tears
because that girl is gone
and this one's newly forming.

And then I killed it,
or at least I dreamed that I did.
It's not always easy to tell
the dreaming from the waking,
or reality from the imaginary

But it felt so real,
too hold it down
until it released its last breath
and finally let me go

The crow doesn't cry for me now
he doesn't wait for me at every turn
around every corner
and behind the sinking sun

He no longer sits on my heart
and spits poison into my blood
pecking at all my soft spots
before casting his shadow into view

He's gone now
because I killed him
and with that final act of redemption,
I was freed
to finally live and laugh in the light of love.