don't do that to them. don't just disappear, leaving them to think about you in the mornings when they wake up and at night before they go to bed and in the quiet moments when their group of friends stop talking or on the long car rides when all they're left to do is stare out the windows or when they see a happy couple in public and wonder "why wasn't i given that?". they'll wonder what happened. wonder if they should still hurt from being left hanging from the frail branch of false hope. wonder if they're still supposed to care. you'll leave them glancing at their phone screen when it lights up hoping the words say your name and imagining what they could say if it did, but deep down knowing they won't. they'll lose the ability to focus on anything but deciphering what went wrong and what they could have done wrong. what they didn't give you that you wanted or needed. what words they could have said to make you stay. they'll notice you in everything their eyesight comes across. they'll see your eyes in the glinting stars and your smile in the crescent moon and hear your laughter in the saddest of songs. don't leave them to act like they don't feel the hollowness and lump in their throat when people ask them about it. don't leave them to hold back tears when they remember moments. just don't do it. they're better than that, they don't deserve that, and you know it.

Painted Atelephobia

Inevitable is the oblivion afeard within celadon gardens.
In the center a cerise bloom reaches clouds with ruby fingertips. Not I will touch sunsets as she.


Click is the cardinal heel of white collars which soar in cerulean skies. Still I stand on russet boots stuck in mud. For the wings on my back have been clipped long before.

Aye is the color changing leaf. Not apace is she, yet still grows skillfully radiant. Evergreen bristles with no compare to her auburn tint which gracefully touches winds and sails the seas. A green of dark hue flies not so angelically.

Never will I be the shadow in your eyes, nor the dimples on your cheeks. Never will I stand from the crowd and bloom like her. Never will fly nor soar nor swim. Never will I be good enough for you.