I thought I found the diamond in the rough,
and maybe I did
I just didn't think
that your sharp edges would cut so deep,
I can't say they didn't warn me,
beauty is pain.

As we kissed
the constellations in the skies,
started disappearing one by one
and reappearing in his eyes.

I stumbled back
and looked with wonder,
an entire galaxy twinkled in his iris
but I spared myself from the inhuman lure.

Maybe he was a galaxy,
he was still not my world.

I have always felt familiar with the stars—
the nights I’m saddest,
happen to be the nights they are brightest.
And it leaves me to wonder
maybe there is an afterlife
in the sky
but not in Heaven,
except among the stars.

Don’t you find it all too curious
that the population of people
who have ever existed on Earth,
is all too similar,
to the amount of starry specks in our sky?

And why is it,
that each time a friend of mine has passed
I notice something brighter
among the clusters in space.

If this is the after life,
waiting,
I’m no longer afraid.

You paused to look at me as if you were browsing a book shelf
and your fingers brushed ever so slightly across my skin
hesitating, lingering, at my spine.

Then you chose me
you laid me down and opened me up
it wasn’t easy because not many have read me before.

Your eyes looked me up and down, side to side
taking it all in,
engorging yourself.

You licked your fingers before you turned my pages
for a steadier and more meaningful grasp.
You said paper cuts were pretty
and that they were safe with you.

But then,
you read something you didn’t like
slammed the book shut
and shoved it back on the shelf.

Never take shelter in another human being—
we are weak foundations
no comfort within
because we all break, splinter, crumble
at some point,
concerned not where our rubble falls
and not who it destroys
but if it falls safely

She* had lavender hair,
it sometimes smelled like coconuts
when she passed by me quickly.
We were so excited to leave high school
to go away
together, as always.
But things never works out nicely because

I wrote she passed away,
And they wrote she was pronounced dead.