.
Cardboard mattresses lining doorways;
a warning to avert your eyes
lest you be caught off-guard by throwaways
or made to squirm because you empathise.

A pinched sneaky glance at a sleeping bag
to see if a wayward vagabond there lies
A woman and child, or a greasy toerag
Probably a ****** laying vacant on high.

It is with pacified ignorance you accept this -
society's stunted stereotype, which offers no prize
for presuming your time's of more value than his
hers or theirs, a lost cause - the shivering exiles.

A person cold and damp remains a person
whether they smile or they stifle their cries
upon losing their place when matters worsen;
we can help, we can acknowledge they're alive.
.

Loving someone just like me was terrible.
We were a twister; a ball of flames-- so destructive, that we burnt everyone in our wake.
I'm so sorry.
We broke every bed, and smashed every ******* hope and dream our parents had for us.
We screamed and yelled and decimated each other to the brink of permanent dislocation, and then you shoved me over the cliff.
My, what a cliff that was..
**** me?
No.
**** you.
We shattered every bone in our bodies violently explaining how "right" one of us was,
but we only proved how fatally stubborn we really are.
We rode the waves of life *******.
That was a mistake.
We shot up the night, and drank up the tragedies like drunks fresh out of a failed rehab stint, as they rolled over us like rock crushers-- hair of the dog that bit you; "it's good for poetry", they said.
Never a dull moment for us
Abuser
Never a craving
I want what I had back
Never a quiet moment
We used to scream so loud..
Never left wanting more
I want more than a manipulator.
Never a deeper sadness than what we create together
**** straight
I don't love you anymore.

I love my heart,
Every contradiction.
It's warmth, it's ice,
Its truth, its lies.
My dreams, my fears,
My love and tears.
My path, my past..
I just don't. know.
I reside too deep.

**-N.C.