She opted for verdant grass
scintillating and dewy
in the offset of an afternoon
thunderstorm

as opposed to the tepid
red brick pathway
damp and sanguine

sauntering in her black flip flops
blades of grass reach over
her soles and glaze
her milky toes

the bell sounds the hour
six o’clock
i’m late for class

silhouettes running down brick walls like

flashfloods clinging to ***** mascara
where starstruck children run in mud
call me the eve of original sin
for the things I have seen and the places I've been

for ridges of ink etched in landscapes of skin
for heartbeats in hoodies saying lest we forget

in the valley of the shadow of death
they rest with hands crossed over their chests

I find myself lingering more and more in the emptiness and because of this I awake in the chaos of a misplaced life. I am constantly forced to build an empire from the ruins of my mind, but the bricks never align the same each time.

                       I am
not doing
                          well. I’m
     not
                                 doing well
          at all.

I am only a brick,
My thoughts and emotions
are set behind you.

What I'll forever see,
Do all that I can't.

And before the year had ended, and a new one would begin
You had left my ribcage broken, and sagging lids and skin
Before the year had ended, you had professed you thought
You loved me with lights and your palms left my skin to rot
With each touch I melted, and basked in your great light
And then you walked without a word into the quiet of the night
Before the year had ended you built a tower, tall and strong
You used supports of love and trust so that the tower may be standing long
And then at last, after using your last brick,
You pluck each one standing, using your last trick
The tower came crashing from high into the stars,
Brick by brick, it landed, sticking in the tar
The tower sat in shambles, yet still basked in the light
It could not be rebuilt, with any amount of might
And before the year had ended and the tower had been laid
It sat in awful woe in the questioning of the raid
No matter the reason for the fall, what truly matters is this,
The tower was desperately searching for the unending light of bliss

Humans are brick walls
putting up a front
hard, yet not impossible, to break down
but if one gets it down
they've opened
a whole new world