“Haven’t you heard the cottage in the clearing-”
“-upon the mountain?”
“-yes it belongs to a demon.”

And I gripped my angel’s arm to keep them from interfering
with the two mothers' conversation.

“My kids tried to enter it one day
they thought it was abandoned; figured it’d be okay.
But it wasn’t empty! The home came alive!
With shifting shadows that let sinister creatures thrive!
It hissed like a serpent preparing to strike
but its shadow was not unlike
a human in form, tall and thin
with claw-like fingers, a pointy-toothed grin,
and slitted eyes that glowed amber in the dark-”
“I’m glad my children know to only play in the park.
No demons to be found on a swingset
Or buried in the sands to upset
children wanting to explore-”
I interject, “Isn’t this just some old folklore?
A tale told to tiny children to make
them more obedient… or perhaps to fear the snake?”

“What are you doing?” My angel asked
But I did not reply.

“Oh I am sure that my kids exaggerated a bit.
Childish imaginations are like a wicked kit
to build extraordinary nightmares from shadows.
A frightened animal becomes a monster which addles
their minds, tells them not to stray.
But it is an 'evil home' they say."

“That is absurd! It’s just an old cottage!”
My angel was incensed.

“And no child should be digging through its remains,
no matter what secrets it contains.
So if there is a demon, I do not care,
As long as it stays there.”
“And besides, a storm is coming, haven’t you heard?
If the cottage survives its assault, that would be absurd!
Leave that evil thing to rot in the weather-”
“Yes, that’d be a splendid thing! I’d tether
my hope to it like a boat to its dock
and wait out the storm. I'd wait out the clock
to see horrors end their own existence.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Good riddance!”

And the mothers walked on, angel pulled my arm
turning me to their pinched face.
“Why do you speak such a way?”
“It got them to leave me be.”
“You could’ve said, ‘I live there and I’m no demon.’”
“That would never work.
I’d rather feed into their fears and keep them away
than gave them a single face to openly hate.”
“You’re absurd!” My angel declared
and then grabbed the collar of my coat,
turning it up to protect me from the sting
of the oncoming wind
And perhaps also from the maelstrom
they feared untied boats would be caught in.
Protect me from the frightened visions of children
completing a dare.
And keep me safe from their mothers
who speak about me without knowing I'm there.
And keep me safe from myself
when I speak of why I should not receive care.

I check my pale wrist where my watch hangs
held up by a loose knot, turned from my judgement.
I do not push it so I may see its true face
for the lifeless swing it will create.
I leave it to its gravitational movement.
And as a result, I do not know the time.
Yet ticks crawl their way into my head
and bite down on sun-bleached bones,
for I have no humor left to feed them.
So they trickle away with my thoughts
like a stream that may one day nurture a river
and carve a path that cannot be denied.
No, I do not know the time
or the place I'll reside in when the flood
sweeps those ticks away forever.
But my bones fear not the changing landscape
as my patience is pendulumless
and floods cannot be bridged by swaying watches.
When the knot finally comes undone
I'll watch time plop in waist-deep water
and I will not be beholden to that parasite.

I will not know time.
Time will not know me.

They said I divested Saturn of his rings
and asked if he would dance with me.
He squeezed my fingers so heat lingered.
I knew he was told I'm a danger;
that I don't feel, that I don't kneel,
that I'm a terror, but that isn't fair.
Just say he can't make his own choices.
Say he can't control his impulses.
Why would I tempt a planet to ruin?
Why would I tempt a god to consuming
each breath before it disappears?
Confined him to my strong atmosphere.
Then call my heart weak as it beats in threes
how convenient, toes tap to odd melodies.
For my body's from Venus, how divine.
Yet I was a borne sinner, so keep me in line.
He said good evening as I said goodnight,
atoms were buzzing in the sunlight.
He grinned like I was a prize to be won
It was almost as bright as the starry sun.
So I lead him a bit further and took great care,
Saturn broke his orbit for an affair
and threw himself into the fire.
He was burning desire as I played the lyre.
Strum a gentle song for the end of love,
call me a heartless, winged-rat dove.
Say this is how I feel; this is who I am.
Say I sent an innocent to be ******.
Call me a fiend, a demon, a liar,
when I'm just a woman who played a lyre.

I kept a quarter in a drawer next to my bed
for when I made decisions that hurt my head
where each choice came at great cost to my sanity
so I flipped a quarter to cheapen the price to twenty-five cents
and I said it's just common sense keeping innocence
but it's ignorance and guiltlessness that I wanted for me.
When a quarter felt too heavy I moved on to a dime
because it was lighter than its cost and fit my indecisive crime
but I find I tossed it too high and couldn't always catch it
so it clattered to the floor and rolled beneath my dresser
and maybe if I left it there, my decision-making stressor
would disappear like the dime then I could quit
Yet decisions kept on coming and so a nickel would have to do
five-cent choices should be worth less than dimes too
and yet again, I couldn't bear the weight of my choice.
So instead I flipped two pennies, to get my two cents in.
One landed heads, the other tails, and I still have a decision.
I can't keep flipping coins to replace my voice.
My treasure trove of choices worth less than the ones before
because they're all plastic, made so I don't have to endure
the weight of cost so I selfishly kept on flipping
all these coins and kept on wishing they would never land.
Fifty-fifty, leave my choice to chance, take it out of my hand.
If my coins never land, then my decisions cost me nothing.

he said he couldn’t breathe,
so they took his last breath

It's time for a name
Not to be just another 'name'

To anyone who lost a life
You didn't die in vain

Colour doesn't matter
Inside we're all the same

It's time to stop the suffering
It's time to stop the pain