fossil

with auburn brushstrokes, i draw
little leaflets spelling out your name
n e v e r a g a i n.
stirring the bitter lip-biting moments
out from underneath you.
you have dirt under your nails, and in your hair-
time buried you where nobody would ever look
between the cobalt and coal, blackened by old souls
in untold stories, scars around the eyes of smoky storms
jolting hearts from rest,
to remind us of the weather before the sunset
the rain on that desert that held your regrets.
i am the rib cage you walk out of
when you forget a silver spoon,
to find a rusting stilleto and hide it away,
disease you can come back to.
your own little decay.

all but the heart

Filled to the deck
with spoken slurs, disturbed
What did I fill you with?
All but the burnt, blistering heat
beating beneath me.

Outside of view,
yet only open to you,
your pacific dry spells
and your deep, meaningless wells

conflagrations of black birds, migrating
out of view, reminding me of you
and all of the things that are unwilling,
distilling

viscous sky

i know places where we can go
to be alone
but i don't want to be with you
if you don't feel like home

caught up in your viscous sky,
i opened the moon and looked inside
what could i do or say about my shame?
you are just a reflection of me
and all of the things i never say

maps

life is a coin on both sides.

Thunder In Your Folds

Bespoke with thunderbolts
Lit by something you could never hold
And the sulfur in your matches
Lit by sudden bites of cold
Burning up your rose
Becoming what you love
Lit by what blisters in your soul

Thunder in your folds
Thunder in your folds

ambulance

Sometimes a branch of mine finds it's way here
I have to ask, how could one person do so much damage?
I feel like laughing, but nothing ever happens

I tell the joke you already know,
You're always first to the punch...
and I'm always late to the show.

I can't control this thing underneath my nose
It just stays closed and reflects my soul
Always lets the heavy lifting go unnoticed,
am I just a lock that will remain unopened?

I don't have anything to say -
It's not that I feel choked, but
If that's all I've ever been,
Could it be that I am and just don't know?

I don't want to be the last thing you see.
I want to reflect myself on somebody,
at least for the time being, feel around for
something living, perhaps breathing.
I want to stop sleeping.

wolf on water

so i am soaked
floored
walking on water
voyeur
looking down on you
and your mind that's on me
these ripples are in reverse
and i am robbed of reality
can't move or see
nothing but murk underneath
and i'm still on your leash

drft

woke you on a weak end
broke my way in and healed a hand you didn't have
we never were
a key with no lock and nothing to hide
i am all here
far from you.

now only when i erupt
you are my ashen warning
but my fading betrays me
and i stay awake through another day

eviscerated this vice of mine
speaking to you to pass my time
you encouraged me to break my rhythm
so i stopped rhyming with you.
you were only a liquor love.

m e m o r y f o a m

how many times
i wish i said hello. i could have made a mark
stole the show.
but i just sank into my own below.
where the same person is in the same space,
where she never leaves and even though i can't even
remember her face. she's everyone.
how many times i wanted to just show you i was worthy
of a connection but all i did was just hold the phone.
she's approaching me, but i have this feeling like i can't
make my heart come up to speed. she walks right through me
and i don't know if she saw the seed. i just regret never having
sewn a thing.

lilac lives another day

not well-received, she walks away. angry, almost explosive, she lets out a shriek. it's everything to me, she weeps. everything to be believed. she nearly doesn't survive the encore, yet alone she stands, parasite-stricken, broken heart, shaking hands. she makes her demands. she becomes floral, adorned and ornamented by the passions of They, the comfort of They, the security of They. she waits there, among they, humming about her days with you, remembering but not recalling you, with your broken hand (which she couldn't give back). she gets home safe. she stays awake. she doesn't sleep, she just waits.