i strip metaphors off my skin
the feeling of you, something i never knew
i drink similies like they're gin
wishing and wishing and wishing,
i wish

i sit here in bed, staring at the ceiling above me.

the thought of you floats into my mind,

the way the wrinkles form around your eyes when you laugh.

the way your hazel eyes look in the sunlight, changing color at times from green to brown. i would always grab your chin and look into your eyes while you moved them around so i couldn't see.

sometimes i would stare at you while your worked and smile whenever you would get excited and say "i really do this"

when it was time to sleep, I would sometimes run my fingers through your hair to soothe you to sleep. you'd wrap your arms tight around me and id smile while burying my head in your chest.

my favorite things to do with you would be watching movies while being wrapped in each others arms, going out for walks, those rare times you take me for a long drive.

everything slowly changed,

you stopped sending me cute messages.
you stopped caring about my feelings.
you stopped hugging me at night.
you stopped going out with me.
you stopped holding my hand.
you stopped sharing things with me.
you stopped wiping my tears from my eyes.

your heart that I once held my in hands was pulled back while you still held onto mine. however it slipped out from your hands and you left all the broken pieces on the ground for me to clean up and piece back together.

A chaste & lovely maiden
Loved a roughhewn sort of man
It was a strange attraction
The folk could never understand
But she lived in a great tower
In a foreign land.

The lad traversed the valleys
The tangled briars low
Great and craggy mountains
Replete with ice and snow
He knew that he must find her
But did not know where to go.

He questioned people far & wide
Of how to find the lass
Finally an old woman
Told him true at last
But guardians of gargoyles
Would let no one pass!

They would ask a riddle
That he would have to tell
What was found in plenty
At the bottom of a well
If he couldn't answer
They'd take him straight to hell!

The rough young man, he pondered
Yes, he was perplexed
He had no ready answer
Didn't know what to do next
He did not know the answer
And he was so sore vexed!

But a gentle voice he told him
Just like a tender kiss
What resides within a well
Is always a great wish.

So the lad, he faced his foe
So bold in his youth
His answer confounded them
Because it was the TRUTH.

He found the modest maiden
Straight away they wed
They had been kept apart
But had higher love instead!

The moral of this fable
Is the greatest wish in you
Should NOT BE GIVEN UP ON...

... FOR THEY MAY COME TRUE.

Catherine Jarvis
October 23, 2020

i am not afraid of the light
or it's ability to show me who i am

when it does not come around so often
leaving me in the comfortable shadows

mouth
breathes heavy.
***** air.
lungs are full
of space.
the butterflies
do not fly -
they are dead.
i coughed them up.
hacked the ashes
of their bodies
into breeze -
some sweet nothing,
some kiss of wind
i hope
will find its way
to your mouth,
wide and lonely
and waiting
for mine.