Pragmatic incantations
Of incandescent situations
Slide
          Softly
                     Soundless
Changing tributaries
of rearranging  
                         (Grin stricken
                  Hands poised to choke
                 Plans to spread the yoke
                    There flaming arms
    Your deepest thoughts they will invoke)
                              Faces
Poised to take the fibers of your being
Tie them up with a festive greeting
And hang you high to watch the bleeding

i turned away so i wouldn't
have to watch you leave, but
i heard your car start and
i panicked

how do i breathe without you,
how do i breathe without,
how do i breathe?

Hackneyed
Ruminative
Glasslike
Surfaced
Lake
Is
Never
Original
Only
Reflective

My heavy jaw shifts forward
As if a string
Attached to the ground tugs at it softly.
My head drops and I look at the sidewalk in front of me
Not daring to look up in fear of condemnation.
Moth carcasses lay scattered on the sidewalk
Washed through the gutter by heavy rain
Unbeknownst to us all
Until the rain revealed their fate.
It often takes rain
To wash away the veil
Of a perfect world
And show us that our demons
Are simply sitting at the top of the rain gutter
Waiting to be brought out by the rain
To be put on display
And trampled under everybody's feet.

I hated you like a scar
That stubbornly wouldn't go away.
And people stared
And people judged.

I wore you like a bruise.
You were a stray puppy
And I took you in.
And slowly, I fell in love.

I held on to you like a cast.
Clinging on for dear life
And I needed you
And I truly did love you.

You left me like a cold.
Lingered for a while
And when I got used to you,
And when I needed you,

You disappeared.