The Pretty Ones look away
When you catch their eye,
When you hopelessly hope
They give you the same look
Rather than reach the
Edges of their vision
To tear from your lustful leer,
To grace you mere moments
Of their time,
To recognize the prayers
You filled the unwonted air in between,
Those in reverence
Of their overbearing beauty

While you wait
To be swept away
In the powerful wake they cast
From oceans that never end,
While you dream of days
Spent merrily beside
Their ethereal body
To speak in their echoed ears,
While you work to
Build Kingdoms to excite
Their exotic eyes
And rest their petulant hearts,
While you love them in dreams
But never knew their names

Because they held their breath when
They passed you,
Because they move along with
Calculated indifference
To know many like you,
You who exist as
Nothing within their minds,
Who are ghosts
That stare but not to speak,
Who are designed to
Scare but not to touch,
Who are as ethereal
As the bodies they pass
In dreams,
When you walk by
To catch their eye,
It’s not your fault
The Pretty Ones look away.

She's crawling these days,
And it's a joyous throwback to
The wordless days, when the
Eye reflects sunshine instead of tonic
And there was someone,
Always someone                                                 up
To take over when it was too much.         up
                                                               up
She's crawling in her own spit-up
And learning how to drown.
There's a certain effortlessness
To a downward spiral
And she's mastered it with the
Dedication of a carnie's mid-night
Reflections in a backdrop
Of cotton-candy and ****** expulsion.

The world has painted itself white
And she's the little blemish
Of hangnails and spilled cognac
When Atlas would rather decorate
With her broken winter smile;
Teeth to match the whites of his eye
And shattered eggshell.

She's crawling these days, amidst
Broken bottles that reflect such starry eyes
The way puddles muddy the sky
And house the most optimistic birds,
Unheeding the poolside signs saying
Shallow end.
The water is dedicated to darkness
And she's dedicated to falling.