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Aug 2017 · 231
self love
lionness Aug 2017
i will make art
for myself.

i won't
stuff it in
my glovebox
and leave it to
gather dust,
forgotten.

i will frame it
put it on the mantle,
i will think of myself
every time i walk
past it.

i will pick myself
a bouquet
of wildflowers

i will not
shove them in a
drawer, deprived
of light,
left to wilt.
i will put them in
a vase on
my windowsill,
i will cut the stems,
change the water
intermittently,
i will admire them
from afar.

i will give myself
the love i gave
so easily to you.
i will nourish
admire
encourage
and nurture
my own spirit.

i will appreciate myself
for it, far more than
you ever appreciated
me
Aug 2017 · 156
untitled iv
lionness Aug 2017
i feel like
a house fly

stuck between
a window pane
and freedom

void of depth
void of purpose

existing solely
to float from
one source of light
to the next.

i feel trapped, here.
Aug 2017 · 180
untitled iii
lionness Aug 2017
i am a hurricane
with a heartbeat

i love and
i take and
i care and
i feel
with such a
recklessness
it will leave
you gasping
for air.

you will spend
years and years
peeling back
my layers, and
by the time you
think you
know me, you will
have forgotten
your own
name
May 2017 · 216
xxx
lionness May 2017
***
my body
is my story

for you
i am an
open book
        (you lick your fingers
          and peel each page
          delicately back,
            losing yourself
             in every word
                and line)

you say my name
like a prayer

to feel so deeply
exposed to you,
my love,
is the
greatest high
of them all.
May 2017 · 275
nostalgache
lionness May 2017
bring me back to
pulps of milkweed
floating in the
wind

bring me back to
the night we all  
took shelter in the barn.
the storm that shook
god off his feet.
the laughter we shared.

these tender
memories,
are tinged with
palpable heartache
and nostalgia.

i crave
the unspoken
synchronicities
of us all.
May 2017 · 582
untitled ii
lionness May 2017
i am
a single
atom
carrying
the weight
of the
universe

the cabin
pressure
is becoming
too much

what is
healing
if it feels
like this?

every night
the moon
weeps for
me, and
every morning
the sun prays,
"please,
god,
don't forget
about your
children"
May 2017 · 203
untitled i
lionness May 2017
i.
you gave me
these moments
of guilt and
bliss and
guilt again.

this is a  bittersweet
surrender.

ii.
i want liberation

i want to escape
your deadly grasp
your lies of freedom
and promises  of
love

iii.
you left me
with nothing but
a sore body and
a maddening
silence

iv.
i beg for
answers when
they are already
there, laid out
before me,
collecting dust.

i beg for the
strength when
it is already
there, standing
beside me,
saying,
"i've been
waiting for you."
May 2017 · 195
internal
lionness May 2017
know me
as i am

a speck of dust
living for afternoon
sunbeams, a
windbroken nameless
beneath a starry
collective,
the moonlight
always dancing
over me.

see me
as i am

deadly resilience
juxtaposed with
utter grace

on my best days
i am a flame that
won't burn out

and on my worst days
at least i am still
a light
Oct 2016 · 283
lush
lionness Oct 2016
i am blind
i am swimming
in an unchanging blue.

i am lead
by a luminosity
as dedicated and
unwavering as
god, Herself

i'm indifferent
the pain exists ambiguously
it's silent ferocity
carries me further and further
from the answer

i've already forgotten the question
Oct 2016 · 290
el nino
lionness Oct 2016
unanswered questions cling to
unspoken memories, as we
tiptoe through the
garden rows where
we'll reap and sow our
wasted time.

today the snow falls in
silent terror.

there are no beams
of sunlight, no
trembling droplets
of morning dew, no
blossoming roses
here.

i taste your absence in
smoke and daydream fears.
Oct 2016 · 246
sisters of mercy
lionness Oct 2016
when daylight breaks, it shatters
and when night falls, i'm empty
the love, madness, passion
i give to the  stars as they
laugh wildly and say
"we'll see you again at
dawn. be broken,
be dead, or
be gone."
Oct 2016 · 278
blood for blood
lionness Oct 2016
it's been a thousand hurricanes and
two thousand rainbows and
i am breathing

i've been to the ends
of the earth with you.

i spent years on my knees
crawling to kiss your
feet.

you held up the sun
until you swallowed it
whole, my desperation in
your talons

i can not placate to these
storms, anymore

i'm sorry

i found another
way to live
Oct 2016 · 507
the dance
lionness Oct 2016
how easily i gave all
of me to
this soulless dance.
years of passion and ballroom lessons
to be a shadow
puppet, a
wind up doll
in line with your
every movement
alligned to your
whim

i don't know where
the music's gone.


i want to feel my body.
i want to feel the rain.
Dec 2015 · 560
perpetual one
lionness Dec 2015
you have her
youth in your
clammy, divisive palms.
you have her
childlike innocence
and her bedtime stories
and her goodnight kisses.

isnt it only fair
that you should also
hold, so dearly, every
scar you placed on her
silken skin and
arythmic heart?

right now
she is dancing
fireside, so freely,
tasting the last embers of
stale whiskey
and always, always the absence you.

in the morning her veins
will break free and bleed
you away.

she holds nothing but
the shattered remains
Dec 2015 · 425
listen
lionness Dec 2015
listen, travelling soul
our spirit guides stumpled upon
us with their ideas of
a twisted serendipity
the day that they
watched you enter
my life. the wind roared the words of a sacred knowledge. the rain
lept from the sky
with a passion unmatched
by a nun in prayer or
a blossoming rose hip after the frost, or the
child's undying
curiosity.

i asked a lot of
questions and the
answers tasted like
moonlight tinged by the
unmistakable bitterness of
darkness and unknown.

time froze before it ran out.

listen, familiar soul

i send you silently
every unspoken question-
they cling to the shadows
of the streetlamps and
the soundwaves of the
night.

i will wait and hope you
return to me singing and strumming your broken chords, so
together we can dance to the rythm of unspoken answers and the sounds of
the storm.
Dec 2015 · 1.2k
11 pm paradox
lionness Dec 2015
(smoke barrelled down
the valley and across
the lake, visible
only through luminous
moondust

i felt
security

i saw that
even the darkness
was shrouded in
light)
lionness Dec 2015
i awake blanketed by the morning sun and
the celestial frost that lingers on from
the night. the sound of laughter jolts me.

i watch the couple walk leisurely along
the side of the traintracks. "Hi!" the
woman says behind stale eyes and
wispy blonde curls. she stiffles her
laughter until it bellows out like
a warrior cry.

i can hear the harshness
in the words she speaks of me to
her lover, they grow more distant
as they escape my view.

i can smell the sweat of the lost
souls who found themselves here
before me.


i can taste the saltiness of the tears
that slide down the contours of my
face; an emotionless, knee-****
reaction.

however, i feel
nothing. there
is no despair
left in me. no
more hatred.
not even
sadness.

i feel only
the bitter
cold of the
concrete bridge
beneath
the weight
of my resting
body.

i feel only
the hunger
that aches
in the core
of my being.

i feel only
the rattling
of the train cars
passing , only
the rumbling of
the morning traffic
on the highway above
all of which
are lulling me back
to sleep
Dec 2015 · 1.3k
forest children
lionness Dec 2015
oh, how
we have
grown.

we have left
that lifestyle of
hair in our faces
and scarred skin
worn like a
battleshield.
we have quit
cowering beneath
it all. we have
escaped the smell
of hospital beds and
the taste of pills
dissolving
under our tongues.

we have grown,
and although we are
a little grayer, a little
less alive,
we made it out of those
years, and that is
all that matters to
me.

come what may,
so long as the mountains
are carrying us.
Dec 2015 · 510
early morning fog
lionness Dec 2015
are you afraid of the beast within you?
does he shamefully bow
his head in the light of
day? does he slip through the
cracks of the night?
i ask you, quietly,
if he is what lingers beneath
the glassy eyes,
the breath stale with liquor,
the surface conversations, or
the collection of bad choices
you keep in a bedside drawer,
you say, "yes, baby
all of the above."

i ask you for the beast's name,
you whisper
softly
longingly
'mama"
Dec 2013 · 2.2k
post-seizure activity
lionness Dec 2013
lost innocence,
shattered porcelain,
i was slipping in to something
a little more raw,
a soul-broken baby doll.

i cried so many tears
runny paint,
dead eyes.
i pulled the laces,
cut the ties,
and i started running.

i started running and
i ran back in to you.
Nov 2013 · 458
glorification
lionness Nov 2013
(every pulse is a symphony
that echoes throughout
the vaulted ceilings of my skin.
with every
beat of the rythm
warmth settles in to
my empty pores

this
here
is all i need.

play me a song.

sing me to sleep.)
Aug 2013 · 732
waking up
lionness Aug 2013
my heartbeat plays the cello
a deep, slow, somber song
echoing tragic reality
in to my empty being,
it sings,
"still alive, still alive."
i am longing for the final note,
for my strings are wearing thin and
i am far too hollow.
Jul 2013 · 735
dear mia,
lionness Jul 2013
i
found faith
in the sun
in muddy waters, and
in drinking southern
comfort with
you
Jun 2013 · 933
how to measure beauty
lionness Jun 2013
you learned
from a young age
that beauty
is measured
in three digit numbers.

my dear,
let me teach you
how to unlearn.

let me teach you
how to measure beauty in
scattered
strawberry blonde freckles.
in vibratos and
in beautifully spoken words.
in tears of laughter and
in moments of bravery.

let me teach you
that your two digits
are more than good enough,
and that your light shines
as bright as the moon

my dear,
i promise
on everything i have
that i love all 96 pounds of you.
Jun 2013 · 523
-
lionness Jun 2013
-
Please,
Listen,
You are not broken.
This  world,
This pain,
It 'll work
Itself  out.
You gotta
Trust me.
One day
You will
Be
Un
De
Rs
To
**Od
Jun 2013 · 839
chasing the sun
lionness Jun 2013
As you lay back on the forest floor
You are graced
By a dim light
That glows through your blonde hairs,
Like a halo all around you.

You are an angel to me.

When you exhale,
A trail of smoke rises from your cracked lips
And dances through the trees,
Celebrating it's freedom
From your lungs.

You watch it fade out,
It's bittersweet scent
Still clinging to the air.

This
this isn't a sin.

This is heaven itself.

I find purpose
In the way your chest
Rises slower than it falls
And I find peace
Halfway past this moment and
An arms-length from the sun.

— The End —