the mermaid’s brazen attitude
pushes me to my limits.
with her blatant sounds
making me feel alarmed,
my knees start to shake
and weaken—
the ocean beckons to
my half-dead soul.

heartaches hurt the most —
as if breathing takes
a lot of courage
and playing guitar
isn’t about the riffs anymore.
it’s as if tears
could choke you in pain
and every so often
they heavily pour.
usually, heartaches
could only be felt
in a sob or two;
but now heartaches are
random nights that
keep on haunting you.

the sun spilled upon her lashes,
her breaths long as she glanced above
by chance, catching wind of his russet hair
obscuring the view of his soft blue eyes.
unknown to him
she watched as he stepped his skateboard down,
noticed his worn black jeans
and colorful sneakers,
him rolling away
not knowing how he caught
the girl's starry eyes.

I used to make little whirlpools with my finger,
In the dark
When I was a bubble, you couldn't hear my pop
I landed back in the cold water
Bleach to sanitize, never enough
My eyes were bloodshot underwater
And I dove to the safest place
The bottom of the sea
The sea shells were never real
And neither was your face
The pressure in the trench would take my breath away
Float to me, I always screamed
But I was too busy chasing the light.

red lips,
high heels,
a few bits
of love feels
like a burning paper —
slowly consuming me
out of uncertainty.