hold at your risk; it's such thin skin —
delicate until it's not —
until beneath each layer,
gracelessly peeled back
isn't a doe-eyed girl
but chaos,
coming undone at the seams of a cold, pewter dress.

stare at your risk,
until what stares back isn't a doe-eyed girl
but lashes made of papercuts;
yet, wounds don't heal in silhouetted figures —
all barefoot on the ground where peonies fall.
all cold and bruising skin where the daylight hits.

wounds don't heal  in silhouetted figures
and the quiet morning cliché is that
it's the softest thing that leaves you hurting the most

lately, these poems are becoming mere abstractions
but the wounds, they remain tender
and the chaos still tries to find its way
outside this skin.
after all,
delicate things aren't meant to hold
this much obscure aching,
these much fragile bones.

lately, these poems are becoming mere abstractions
but the wounds still remain tender
under this cruel, pewter dress.

and they are tender, until they're not.
they are delicate, until they're not.


this is soft. until it's not.