tosses around her words so she can watch them fall and make a dent in the earth, a dearth. she fills it up with water and prayers but she can never harvest anything except for love. that's where her body comes from - someone else's curves, brimming to the top & exploding  with doves.

if there was ever a volcano that erupted just to shower everyone with petals and pearls, it would be her. a curse she holds to be so tender.


but god, i wish i was her.

i stand here with a hole in my chest. someone unearthed the key and dug up all the rest, their grimy hands
scratching and scraping into the dark. Unsure of what they'll find, but they wouldn't mind
leaving the tomb with a few
antiques,
maybe one or two.

i wish they bagged my soul with them.
it's rusting itself blue.

even when i am winged
i am benign,
i am beginning.
walking with my feet tied
so loosely to the concrete
by puppet strings;
made of words & cream
& other fragile things not
to be touched,
only to dream.
a marionette trembling
with grabby fingers pulling & drooling
oil onto my chest -
heavy, but it will leave me
slick not sticky,
ready for the finale.

I martyred the sins of my foremothers and forefathers
Therefore rebirthed an allegiance to the all
Which I was innately apart of from the beginning
They rose and sunk
I sunk and too shall rise

*By Monique Lewis ©2016

a vine suffocates a tree
wrapped around it screaming
PLEASE!
don't leave me

dear god, please don't leave me

the tree goes limp
and its bark starts to crack
as the vine tightens her grip
till her veins turn black

why won't you stay? why are you leaving me?

the vine must not falter
for if she does
the tree will grow strong and
leave her in the dust

don't go don't leave me please don't leave me

but as the tree chokes,
it thrashes her off
and down will come baby,
cradle and all.

lady loveless heard her name being yelled
from the bottomless pit of an abandoned well