His mother always told him to throw away broken toys
to make room for new ones
and maybe thats why they never keep me around
I've become an acrobat
balancing my self confidence on the tight rope of his words
It’s hard to walk when your legs are killing you.
My knees didn't always creek like this, I promise.
My smile didn't always come with a disclaimer

there are spaces
between words
and intervals
between
heartbeats
and breaths taken
before your lungs
release some
of what was
taken in

there is the
air between
you and a
stranger
you pass on
the street

there are oceans
between rivers
keeping them
separate yet
connected and
there are more
oceans and seas
between lands
broken by its
own mountains,
roads and valleys

a name
sets you
apart from
everyone else
and if that is
not enough
other things inside
and outside and
around you
will;

then there is
the skin :
it will always
be a nuisance
-- separating
you from me

Your fingertips were like brushes and I was a blank canvas.
You were clay and I would sculpt you with my tongue.
We were both terrible at art.

We listened to the same music.
We never sang the same songs.

You were a book and I wanted to read you cover to cover.
I spilled my words like coffee and your pages were stuck together.
I was a book you wanted to read.
You never got past the first few chapters.


When did you stop taking sugars with your coffee?
I started smoking again.


This is well-deserved punishment for trying.
We mistook war for slaughter.
False hope was every battle won.
Fate was playing chess with the passage of time.
The game ended in a stalemate.