Has money become your god?
Beauty your saving grace?
For if these are the figures you trust & bleed & scream & fight over
You will be in deep regret when the day comes that your deity runs out

-cj

Those whose colour is fierce & ripe, with life life alive & loud its petals boast while the subtle dark blooms of the midnight garden speak of the slutty shades of its beholder's eyes

-cj

Problems with pride
slighting the audience or crowd surrounding with your eyes only looking forward
to your dire black screen
where the feathers are strewn in a careless pattern
but the wings themselves are aligned to the mirrors at angles so keen they scream in impatience at the wait
letmeoutofthisbody for pride swallows me
I want to be adored I seek that and self-love, against loathing
letmeout

-cj

It's not quite morning yet
The night is fading, its plum and dark fruit watercolours are drunken by the sun
like a rewinding cassette tape

-cj

I want what the renowned writers brag of
The sleeplessness, pacing, but it's there, it's been there all along, it's just breaking out of its host
Eyes rest on the bruiselike crescents beneath them
It's the life that the story is stealing from its teller
But the death never comes in full, because that's when the end happens and feeds relief to the writer's veins

-cj

come near me again?
yes, that is what made me heal
or maybe I am too naiive to realise it caused my wounds to fester
how you ran your fingers through my hair
and kissed my neck
that august night
a breaking within
and a stitching of our threads
just the minutes concoct
this poison that will infuse my blood with the death of those willowy weeks or
an antidote, whose amber drops numb
then sway my bones to the sounds of
pure love and brown eyes in the dark

-cj

perhaps I'm just alice walking sideways & upsides downsides through this rabbit hole
not a downfall, a ****** to the core of the earth
but an upfall (make me bright, I can see colour & roses) to the dimension
where the creatures have
stainless steel hearts
nobody ever hurts
unless the queen begs to differ
when her corset is revealed to be
suffocating her wicked waist
the jabberwocky seeks vengeance & a chance to breathe fire
"off with her head," is the threat from the enemy
but an escape is in sight
a little locked door
chesire smiles' a menacing grin
a crescent moon in the black night
it doesn't matter where you go if you don't know where you're going
a cake platter with "eat me" on a card in front
home? what is that?
tweedledee & tweedledum
mad hattee, tea, dormouse
and an unbirthday anthem sung
lacking gravity or worldly law
along the dining table for the quirks
and fablesome creatures of wonderland

-cj