A gun raised to the mirror
They shatter
And they only cry together
A beautiful boy and a beautiful girl reflected in shards that litter the floor
A clinking, lightning crack "I love you."
A thunderous, infinite echo pouring down
Razor sharp and tearing skin
Gasping, sinking, drowning them with everything.

I am calm as the sea.
People get confused, they claim the sea is wild and free
but the metaphor there they cannot see.
Every time I try to swim I just simply sink
tied down by anchors of my past, or at lest
that's what I think.
I need you so, but it's my fault I let you go,
I set you free 'cause I simply knew we couldn't be.
Your words are haunting my head
late at nights when I'm all alone, I can't stop wishing I was dead.
It was you and me, but never us
and there's nothing more to discuss, I'm left here with open cuts.
So I'll swim in this endless sea of pills and alcohol, and as I'm fading away from here, I'll finally be calm as the sea.

Questions curdle
Each disdainful day
A glowering cloud
The threat of rain
Pounding footsteps
Troughs of anguish
Wavering moments
Images of altercations
The pleasure of detesting
Chocolate cake
Flavoured with money
Resentful ripples
Washed up on rocks
Drowning sounds
Solemn and deep
Slowly sinking
Disconcerted water birds
Shimmering reflections
Echoes in the darkness
Displaced by contradictions
Clanging, banging
Bouncing *****
Dissolving memories
Misplaced optimism.

Seeing my glass reflection
Everything goes into retrospect
And the day goes black with haze
As the weight of my thoughts sink
Everything disappears
Goes up ablaze
As brain alteration happens in a blink
While watching it burn with infatuation
It's like I'm stuck here
In this odd imagination

I had chest pains for you
chest aches
chest cracks
chest fractures for you
A highly flammable heart
it burned me from the inside out
and made me feel like a new person

I'm better now, my chest is fine and I know that I'll meet fire again one day at the bus stop when the timing is right
but for now my heart is cooled and settled
settled so far into myself
falling
not in love
but sinking deep into disappointment

You are not who you used to be
You are not who I swore I would love forever
and you no longer need a fire extinguisher to put me out

My monsters crushed me
with their unsuspecting weight
hidden deep within the sadness
of my ever changing eyes
I wouldn’t expect most to understand
this constant, pressing heat
that has the power to take away
the beauty of a morning sunrise
But to be alone was what i knew
with secrets i was dying to say
with my burning heart desperate
for you to knee **** me back
to clear skies and brighter mornings
where i'll sing softly to myself
not wanting to speak my thoughts
to another soul, but you.
This perception might be distorted
by feelings and ‘the word’
that has not yet crossed our lips
as if its some sacred creed.
But i am a desperate writer
as many of us are, just
trying to convey thoughts
of a particularly long night,
where all i really want,
is to be next to you.

I know the contours of your face
just like the streets of my hometown
          you'd squint your eyes
                 when laughing
     at the corner of Main and Dow.

Blacktooth Brewery
               on frigid Friday nights
frosted glasses, fogging breaths
and laughs caught up
               in tightening chests.
Kendrick Park can keep its towering trees
                                   and midnight charms
if I can keep your laughter with me
                       when I sail for newer shores

Something in familiar signs,
          buzzing blackened Bighorn skies,
keeps us just above the water line--
          afloat for one more night.

Sheridan Iron Works
Red, rigid lettering a raised, distant hand
Watch it wave from on the hill
above the Kendrick boardwalk,
soak December in our smiles
choking back our April cries.

Snake's head yawning
          from the I-90 exit
slithers down Coffeen and tails
          our icy footsteps
     Rattle. Rattle. Rattle.
Shake this town to its bones
with our Thurmond Street jokes
and our glowing Gould Street hearts.
I hope
          this is enough
          to buoy our ***** up
          against the weighty ballast
          of this tiny, yawning town.

Settlers of Catan
played on a windy Wednesday night
over another drowning round
of clinking Wagon Box pints.

The contours of your face,
icy streets of our hometown,
our squinting, gasping laughter
on the corner of Main and Dow.

Blacktooth Brewery.
               Frigid Friday nights.
Fogged up glasses. Frosting breaths
and laughing, clutching tightening chests.
               This freezing town
               will test your mettle.
               Settle up and bring your friends.

i'm needy, i'm restless
don't know where my head is
got bruises and whiplash
every move's got a backlash
i can't tell you, i'm thinking
i'm constantly sinking
on the edge, see your face
but things just aren't the same

There's a rift between the dead and me,
Sinking and falling faster into the dark,
The closeness of it seems sickening,
I can feel the teeth of the vehement shark,
Closing in around my throat,
I feel lured and enticed to feel the pain,
Is it wrong to want to feel something,
Is it wrong to be this insane?