You would murmur your kisses
Into the delicate skin under my eyes
The veins fluttering under my paper skin
Your lips like butterflies

You say I look tired
You say I toss and turn in my sleep
My dreams are filled with dark nothings
Your reassurances are starting to seem cheap

I am breakable and held gently
A brief word could knock me down
You still sit beside me
With always a faint hint of a frown

Our kisses are turning downhill, my love
Our kisses are falling downhill
Yet you are here and I am here
Together we lie still



n.v.

everything is terrible
the hollow beating of an empty drum
over and over

But it's reliable
it's dependable
and I know that it won't get any worse
it can't get any worse

high school is a drip of a tap
but I'm dreading a waterfall


n.v.

Flashes of magenta and orangered
over your twisted limbs
as you dance with your eyes squeezed shut.

Black makeup smudges, black dresses and
in the corner of my eye
you have your eyes closed on the rain and you're laughing.

I'm still observing,
but closer because you love me and I love you.
But when you think I'm not watching
you lay your head in your arms and sigh with your whole lungs.


n.v.

This girl.
She goes at random times. She leaves.
She runs so that sometime, someone,
will ask her to stay.

This boy.
He disappears without explanation.
You don't see him for days.
He withdraws so that when he finally goes, with a crap explanation
People won't be too sad.


n.v.

My hands are as broken as I am
The nails chipped, not healing
The pearl shine shimmer peeling
The cuts on them still bleeding


n.v.

And it's easier to separate out
thoughts and actions.
When you have no physical proof
of your thoughts and there is a barrier
between what is earthly and what is
a flimsy thought.

Even speaking the words,
the words of my inner.
They seem like paper planes in the rain,
billowing and then collapsing,
disintegrating on the cold concrete.


n.v.

She had a figure that was suitable in the sixties
Most days she wished she lived then
On her good nights she dressed in glamour and preened
On her bad nights she purged in bed

Her eyebrows were never quite perfect
She moved to her own vintage tune
She looks to the mirror, sees things to change
None of the creams seemed to do

'Look at me shine, I'll be a star'
She lights another cigarette
Noticing my gaze, she remains unfazed
'My body is my temple, and I've trashed the place'

She sticks her curves out
Exclaims with a pout "I need to lose 10kg'
Then she laughs it away, as if it were a game
If this is a game I know who's losing

She was taught what was important from the start
A confidant gaze, a loving heart
But nothing can outdo the art
Of 45 kilos and worth something


n.v.