He said I was pretty when I got upset
He said it was cute when I cried
He thought I looked beautiful with mascara running down my eyes
He liked the black that stained my cheekbones, probably because it was all that I had left
When I finally sat up and tried to catch my breath
And the words that I screamed into the mattress swam across the bed
And the colors that ignited me were shriveled up and dead

He held my rainbow that seeped
From my skin to the sheets
And the shades of my dreams
Poured right through the seams
He caught the colors in the same palms that held me
The same hands that bruised my wrists
Into the fingers that seized my hair and the hands that grabbed my hips;

"You can't possibly drive home with the makeup stinging in your eyes
Darling, stay the night, you're just so pretty when you cry"

I watched my shades run down my arms, they stained the corners of my dress
But I would rather be his "pretty" than be someone else's mess

I've spent the past thirty minutes dismantling the jagged pieces
Biting their edge and screaming confessions at the bathroom door
I'd pick up all my colors but they've soaked into the floor
This is my last letter to him, I refuse to write anymore

I'll see if I still feel grey tomorrow morning