I can't breathe
My heart is beating
I didn't think I'd see it.

For certain I was dead and gone.
It takes a dream, a spark,
A flare of life.

Only the smallest speck of candle light,
Is what you'll need to make it through,
The spirit of life, is built anew.

Between drags of my cigarette,
I lie back on the concrete
and stare into the night sky.

The stars are beautiful tonight, aren’t they?

Not because the air is clear,
or that the heavens are unusually bright
but because tonight I see their depth,
their quiet elegance,
the way they gather into a canvas
stitched across light-years.

The way they align feels like perfection
a harmony born of distance,
comfort found
in the vastness of the abyss.

I trace the Big Dipper,
Orion too.
Not for anyone else,
but for the stone that cradles my skull,
for the roots beneath the soil,
for the spiders weaving
in the leaves at my side.

I’m almost finished with the cigarette now.
But some part of me wants to stay out here,
just me and the stars
serendipity
in their quiet, endless beauty.

who would have thought?
isn’t that the girl from 103?
she left that scoundrel,
now lives on the east side.

she should be
the pretty girl with the ribbon bow,
shining every day,
dancing until her feet blister,
getting ready with her friends,
singing with joy,
inking in red
a silly smile
on a boy’s cheek—

not crying at nightfall,
afraid of the monster.

he’s already locked away,
watching the sunrise
through bars.

but yours rises round,
burning like fire—
and tells anyone who dares to see:
fear is no longer yours to keep.

no man
will ever again
hold the power
to make you suffer.

I want to burn for you,
Like the sun does for life on Earth.
I want to you to orbit around me,
Like I am your whole world.
I want you to watch me set and rise,
and glow with my light.
I want to burn till there's nothing left,
and all you remember is the warmth of me.
Until you can't find what you need in others,
until you need me to breath.
Like we need our trees,
until other lovers stop satisfying you.
For in this universe, and every other.
I am meant to be yours,
As you are mine.
So don't ignore me,
or brighten around someone else.
They are not your sun.
I need you to live,
I need your salty pain rolling off my cheeks.
I need your burning love,
I need it until I can no longer breathe.
Please don't leave me, my darling,
I can't walk this world without you.
Your soul has a thorned grip around my heart;
it bleeds.
But the wounds still heal,
because the blood is proof of our strength.
We're still standing, together.
Hand in hand, even if I have to beg you to stay.

some people seem to carry heaven
in the way they walk—
effortless, luminous,
as though their purpose
is to remind us of grace

i have not known such ease
my lessons came
through breaking bones of the spirit
through the heavy silence
of unsaid words
through desires that cut too deep

and still—
i do not curse the falling
i do not despise the storm

because what it left in me
wasn’t bitterness
but the stubborn clarity
that love,
even when it burns down,
remains the only treasure
worth guarding