There is a rhythm
to the movements
of your eyes across
my face, sketching
sunbursts onto my
cheeks,
freckles blooming
back to life

Your gaze never broke,
not once did those eyes
leave mine --
you knew a beauty
in my face that no one
had ever before explored,
something I tried to keep
hidden against my chest

These trying arms
melt in their own embrace,
waiting for you
to hold them up,
I can't hold myself together
without you

Waking up
to this hardened
world time and time
again, my gentle eyes
finding only red
among the black

This moment
hangs heavy
in my fingers,
waiting for the
better days
when they'll have
yours to hold.

There is a mineshaft
in my chest -- my heart
scales down the lines,
dropping into my stomach
graceful, a trapeze artist
descending from above

There is a tranquility
here, a blinded heaven
scarring across my eyelids

This ghostly skin
shakes me awake,
screaming ripping
like paper between
the sheets, I am stuck
with a glue I never spilled

The lotus unfolding
back and forth, a
sick dance twisting
in front of me,
the memories in my
head convulsing
like they're trying to
restart my heart,

I always knew
the end would be
brighter
than the beginning,
the candlelight
of my birth
painting pictures
I'll never get to see

because this heart,
it weighs me down
a death I never felt
roaring in my chest --

And this waterfall
will never
reach
the pond.

My sister
is a signal fire
burning
until she finds
someone to
rescue her

tell me why
the sky turns red
whenever I touch it

I watch her
burning out
across the sand,
crackling flames
spitting at me,
then crumpling
into ashes

tell me why
the sand turns to glass
when I bury my feet

She disintegrates
into pieces, blowing
past me in the wind --
I could pick her up,
replace the freckles
on her face, but
the only way she knows
is pushing me away

tell me why
my loved ones scorch
when my hand comes near

My sister
spreads hostility
like wildfire, turning
my own tongue
into a lick of flame
We trade insults
like red-hot peppers,
the bitterness congealing
on our tongues

*tell me why
you loved me once
only to turn me away

The universe,
it does not end
so much as it curves
downward, angles
brushing into cloudy
strokes across the sky

There is no
horizon here --
everything extends
so beautifully, a
twilit landscape
falling away
into the
blackness
beyond

The end of
my life, it will be
an encore
I will fall below
the curtain only to
appear on stage
once more,

I've never been
the kind of girl
who could let go
of something so holy,
who could give up
when she knows
it's time

These stretch marks
across my body,
they might fade
but the ties
I held onto --
they'll continue
snaking across
my frame,

and I know,
you would take
my hand, and between
the sunset and the dawn,
you would hold me
to your chest,
an agony of echoes
passing between
our lips

This end, I don't think
it will hurt --
I think it will fade
as easily as falling,
an endless high dive
where there is no pool
to catch me far below

I will never sink
so much as I will float
in the in between,
waiting for your hand
to catch mine as we fall

My dear, we will burn
like shooting stars
across that sky,
and I know, that
unforgiving moon,
he'll give us the chance
to join him someday

And when we
disappear
into the black,
I want to know
the last word
on your lips
will be my name.

Sweetheart,
there is a star
cut out from my heart

I would give it
to you, hold it
outstretched
and let it fall
into your hands,
a warm and glowing
reminder of something
I told you, years ago

I would hold
galaxies, swirling,
up to your face where
you could watch them
turning  --

I'd leap over train tracks
and lay my hand close
to the flame at your core
just so I could
brush this white-hot
pain away from your chest,

I'm watching it
blistering there, and
the flames are licking
at the piece of me that has
always been connected
between us, veins weaving
together in tangled knots, I'm stuck
so close to you it hurts

And tonight, this holy
darkness closing over
your head, I hope
you can think of this,
and touch your hand to
your heart --

I hope you can smile
thinking of the ties
that bring me sailing
back to you.

Your car
is my own personal
spaceship, hurtling
through galaxies --
billboard planets
and streetlight stars

The city
doesn't sleep
so much as it snores
this early in the morning,
piles of buildings
stacked together carelessly
across the skyline

My legs
curled beneath me,
an insect shriveling
back into her cocoon,
we don't speak
only discontinuing silence

You retreat
into your shell
before I can speak
a word of the truth
that is congealed
in my chest, a
cancerous mass
that is sure
to stop my breath

This night,
it hasn't broken me
so much as it has
brought me back to life,
soon I'll remember how
warm a person's eyes get
after they've been so cold
for such a long time

We whisper
under our breaths,
fumbling to connect
with sentences strung out
across a wire between
our ears, cans pressed tight

And now,
my house looming
before me, a
swirling black hole
that swallows me whole,
your headlights barely
a spark in the distance

I wish
more than anything
that I could follow you
back home, curl with you
until this ache has left
from my bones

But if I did,
I know it would be
different than we thought
Your quiet mouth would
change beneath mine
and I know, you would never
stop until you understood why

this blooming pressure
tears at my lungs
until I can breathe again

Tonight
the sky stretches,
yawning, awakening
in front of me: it's been
a long and gentle sleep

The paint clogging
my lungs has cleared,
the stains around my eyes
rubbed away, maybe
by your hands on my face

And your hands,
they stick, love like
a film of dust that settles
over my skin, coloring
me pink

We are sunk
in this madness,
tied together like
the knots in your boots,
messy tangle of thoughts

You know,
there are stories
buried in your nail beds
I can't wait to discover.
But in this dream tonight,
that full moon
shining on your face

Night sky opens up,
pulls us in tight
And I know, the two of us?
We could sleep for days.