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 Sep 2013 madeline may
brooke
I have backlit photos of
you on the Seattle ferris
wheel, on the train tracks
on the beach, I always
caught you from behind
you were always
beautiful in the sunlight
(c) Brooke Otto
 Aug 2013 madeline may
Morgan
As a kid,
I'd see that look in your eyes
and it'd hurt me deeply
but I wouldn't know why
The saddest part of being an adult,
is understanding things like that
I wish I didn't have a reason
to comprehend that feeling
 Aug 2013 madeline may
Morgan
I'm not leaving because
I need to feel missed
I'm leaving because
I need to know that I can live
a healthy life, alone
 Aug 2013 madeline may
hkr
there's sleet between my teeth
and a thunderstorm in my mind
there's a hurricane in my heart
and a drought beneath my bed
little tiny heart compression
a Dorian Grey of my expectations
decay and grime has covered my trust
hoping for a little boy to grow up
 Aug 2013 madeline may
raðljóst
the space between my dreams and reality
terrifies me, taunts me, tricks me into
thinking i'm living some other life.
last night i dreamt you hated me,
read all my journals and poems
and decided i was filth.
when i sleep i feel wretched,
tossing and turning in my bed
as my dream-self lives a nightmare.
and when i wake up, i'm greeted by
that same sun pouring in, telling me
it's a new day. it's a new life. i'm free.
but if half my time alive is spent eyes-closed
but somehow open, doesn't that count for something?
doesn't my pain in the night become significant?
i don't want to close my eyes.
i don't want to stumble into slumber.

but i give up once more.
*góða nótt
it was one of the most terrifying feelings
i felt like i had a gaping hole in my chest
where my heart should be
where my soul would live
where my sanity is.
you couldn't even meet my eyes,
for more than a second.
that glare broke me into thousands of pieces,
and i became a mosaic of sorrow.
that night it rained and rained,
but the water wasn't enough to wash away the pain.
nothing could clean the cut you left me.
what went wrong?
what had i wrote?
and i woke up, searching for my journals in my
now-awake mind,
tearing up my could-have-been poems,
burning letters i never sent to you.

but then i was at your house, curled up on your bed,
we were listening to kalimba and dancing with our fingers.
happy wasn't something to be questioned.
eleven months and not much pain has arisen,
my heart has not broken.
i love you, asleep and awake.
 Aug 2013 madeline may
September
Hopeless, yeah.
A little useless
and destructive

but ****, it made me happy.
 Aug 2013 madeline may
hkr
i guess my philosophy is that
movie times were scheduled for
double features
and we were given opposable thumbs
so we'd have five fingers
feeling reckless and rebelling in the smallest of ways
 Aug 2013 madeline may
brooke
I've realized
that I can't
dig people
out of their
own holes
(c) Brooke Otto
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