I.

I’ve swallowed too many I love you’s
to be afraid of coughing up blood.
They cut you on secret.
Who knew it was drinking gasoline
and sawdust and every little inflammable thing
and then sitting down cross-legged
in the heart of a howitzer; soft.

II.

You are a soft explosion.
You are streaks of a rebel orange
in a sky that is supposed to be blue.
You are steel rods in the curve of my spine,
holding me straight.

III.

I love you’s are like death notes written in ash:
you’ll have to smoke your way to it.
Smoke cigarettes, journals, curtains,
and yourself to get that much ash in your lungs;
trying to blow smoke rings into your finger;
my ceiling knows more about my sadness than you do.

IV.

Saying an I love you once will have you
chanting “don’t leave me” on a rosary;
love will take your bones and leave you
lusting for somebody whose back
is the last thing you’ll see, and whose
skin you’ll think you left your keys in:
and now you’ve locked yourself out
of your own house, in a storm
whose sirens wail in your ears and remind
you, you’re hopeless and homeless.

V.

I love you’s leave no exit wounds,
no shell casings, and when the time comes
you’ll be telling them all how his bullet
ricochets in your ribs,
but emotion never made up for evidence
in the court of settlements for a broken heart.

VI.

Telling someone you love them is like cutting your jugular
and not expecting to bleed out.

VII.

I love you like the pages of a mad girl’s journal.

VIII.

The moon turns from an ally
to the haunting image of science and realisation:
you share the same sky, but no longer the same bed.
And astronomy keeps ******* you over
when you look up at the sky
and no longer understand constellations.

IX.

Love makes it more getting-back-at-you
than getting-back-together-with-you.

X.

Every time you taste blood,
you’ll know you kissed somebody
with teeth like needles
and they cut you everywhere; they
bit you, they bit you, they bit you
and you kept letting them.

Oh little strip of silver,
Your shiny edges peak my interest.
Your dainty figure feels so small in my hand.
Your sharp tongue makes my skin scream.

Oh little strip of silver,
I can hear you calling out my name,
like separated lovers in the night.
You fill my thoughts whenever we are apart.

Oh little strip of silver,
I keep your love marks hidden from the world.  
No one must know of our rendezvous',
For no one knows of our lust for each other.

Oh little strip of silver,
You penetrate the layers of my skin,
ripping and tearing away my very being,
As the red flows for where you left your sharp kiss.  

Oh little strip of silver,
As your pointed feet dance along my veins,
I feel with every dip and turn,
the smooth angled edges push further into my body.

Oh little strip of silver,
You washed away my pain by replacing it with a new.
I never thought I would find such relief in you.

Oh little strip of silver,
Your kisses cover my body in permanent marks.
Our time is growing short for I can take no more.
My body begins to fade as your kisses grow deeper.

Oh little strip of silver,
You drop to the floor,
For I no longer have the strength to hold you.

Oh little strip of silver,
I never thought my heart would cease to beat because of you.