Therapists, I don't like their taste.i.in 7th grade i didn’t know depressionuntil she told me her name,carving forever scratches along my limbs likelittle love notes on the barkof a tree.she stole my ringsand left me hollow.ii.i had only ever met anxietyin passing, until one day he handed me power and told meto hurt someone else with it.iii.inexperienced,with an uncontrollablequivering in my fingers,he whispered, “ to survive,you must learn quickly.”as i shoved the bevel of a needleinto a strangers arm.iv.so, if a therapistcould talk away my scarslike iodine disinfects,guide the shipsthrough
Please,don’t make me fall in love with you,again.I don’t want to remember you,those Sunday morning wake-me-up kisses,or the way yourlost boy eyes always,always found a wayto find mine.There are only so many timesI can allow you to slicethrough my scar tissuebefore I finallyfallap art.
lion boyi knew a boy witheyes of gold & firein his footsteps.he would roar to thestars, declaring himselfas fearless as a king & as regal as a lion."ad lucem,"he would announceevery night when leowould coax the virginfrom her radiantcastle.five times around thesun & loyal fangs baredto shield his kingdom,my lion boydances with flames.
I Am FlawedFrom body to soul and in between,They blotch the parchment that is me;I know of worse flaws I have seen,But surelyI am flawed.I sometimes lose my temper,Use my mouth before my mind;I ponder things I could do better,And regret them for a time.I can be harsh, I can be blunt,I tend to hide my thoughts;But this is far from what I want:To be in someone's heart.Comparisons are hard to makeSince we are all unique.But half the time my words are fake;The real me is a freak.Regardless,These flaws define me, describe me—They make me what I am.In that light, I'm proud to say thatIamflawed.
Confessionsthere’s a lot I never told youone. I have a habit of lying, about the simple things (like, yes I forgot to remember and I swear bysoul mates and I’m in love with your susurrus voice and no, I’m really doing fine).It was not an act of infidelity becauseI believed it, too.two. I’m infatuated with the conceptthat I am more or less fictional, thedelusive beauty a million men willdedicate novels to: I am fragile,a dust angel sent to save the worldfrom commonalities andmyself.three. Since I’m not allowed to remember your nameI will commemorate you in acts of escapism, killing off the pieces o
String TheoryThis is determination,existential numbness in whichI drown from the paranoid spittleof that dreary-eyed girllost in the mirror.Jesus, what would you doif you saw me now, all grown into my predetermined curves andthe nihilistic fabrications knotted in my skin.Maybe you still want to bea brain surgeon. Maybe you still weep when you’re happy and stopwhen you’re lonely, drooping over likethe puppet no one remembered. Maybeyou still smoke like it’s a defiance, and lovelike it’s a war; maybe time preserved youlike a corpse in formaldehyde, and maybeyou still think of me, too.
i shouldn't write when i'm stonedpeople say you'rean asshole. but that'sokay because people sayi'm an asshole, too. maybethat's one of the reasonsyou love me and i love you.but i think more than that,i think the biggest reasonwe're drawn to each other isthat neither of us fit anywhere.we are both lonely. and we are sad.but we don't care, and we love it.we are good at beingalone. we are good atbeing together. if i could,i would paint a pictureof two souls tethered closebut sitting in separate roomsand i would point to it. then youwould understand why we willnever come apart.
ExperimentalistShe always said she wasAn experimentalist.I knew otherwise.This girl was raised to Believe that the ability of Counting the bones in yourRib cage is beautiful.Sixteen years oldWith sand in her bloodAnd shoulder blades As sharp as knivesAs long as wings.That day I knewHer smiles were painfulAnd her laughs were justRecorded in her throatFrom so much practice In a life that was onceSo happy.
A little punk rocker with a gift for singing songsGirl with the rock and roll smirk curled behind her teethBurning her insides for fun because there wasn’t much else to doAside from skipping stones across car parksAnd sipping the last dregs of forbidden liquor Behind broken trees to keep up the act of normalityLate at night when the moon is asleepShe lies on dismantled bed framesCounting stars because lambs are too often sent to the slaughterLucky star heartbeats and posy veins Hides broken windows behind her pupilsCeiling lights tracing patterns on her cheekbonesAs late night contemplation's lead back to RomeAtlas limbs curled into her ribsWith a sense of obligation she
this habiti have this habit of thinking without thinking.my mind will be walking down a roadbetween citieswhile i am plugging away at the factory,while i am putting groceries away.if someone were to ask me what i was thinking,i wouldn’t know what to say.i would have to wait hours,long after they’ve gone,until my mind comes through the door,tracking all manner of shit onto the floor,and explains himself.
Sea sonnet for the girl with ocean eyesShe was southern Californian storms On a good dayWhen the skies nursed the shoreline like a woundAnd the rain tasted like two scoops of mint chip ice creamShe held the nebula in her palmsAnd poured it out onto the sidewalkSo that the gutters would have somethingTo talk about at nightShe swallowed the oceanAnd held it in her eyes deep poolsOf mountain rock blue straining against the skyThe bluest eyes I’d ever seenSparrow girl with the breathless wingsEmbellished in vinyl’s and cassette tapesGramophone gilded lashes and half-moon wrists made upPaper tapestries taped together with Shakespeare and GreenSunday mor
AdultsI envy those people who leave home at eighteenand live like twenty-five year olds,looking out for themselveslike folks did in the good ol’ days,drinking whiskey straight, driving all night with no limits,loving and fucking without apology,never having to remind someonethat they’re old enough—Goddamnit, they’re old enoughand if they’re not cut loosethey’ll suffocate to deathwithout ever having breathedon their own.
Alaska is hiding behind her eyesA girl caught up in the same gameWhere circus tricks and trapeze artistsAre nothing compared to the burning of lungs Where insomnia stains the people’s smilesIn a pale wash of sea foam angst bottled up and thrown Into the horizon where the sky meets the earth In a disjointed seamShe had hurricane rage eyes And wishbone sleeves pulled tightly across her chestTo suppress her Medusa heart from crackingThe stars open and drinking their flamesOcean funeral where ChaconneIs played to sirens and sea urchins Coiled beneath the oily depths of seascapesWhere her kite string spines push against the thin membraneOf split grin skie
On the road again searching for lost thingsLake bones carved into wordsThe slow baked Texas heat seeping into Galaxy veins and Saturn ring irises Like cross hatched road mapsLeading to lost cities gilded in gold The skies nursing oil spills like a woundYour cat eye palpitations lingeringBehind drowsy eyelidsWhere childhood adventures of never growing upSpark between neurons and sneakers poundingOn old dirt tracks Boyish dreams of Milky Way heroes Make up the constellations of your breathing
The TravelerThere was a girlWith a heart full of starsAnd eyes that shoneTwinkling, like diamondsWith her soft leather satchelShe traveled through space and timeA soft sea escapadeShe sought nothing but the journey.
dishesdoing the dishes is real magic for me.dipping my hands into soap and water,into the smell of oranges but not oranges themselvesfeeling around for shapesand finding themfeeling in and around thempulling them outslippery and gleaming and diamond-likerinsing them then setting them asidethe water beading then slipping off.the room fills with the calm of things left aloneand the results they produce.my hands go in and out of the waterlike pine roots in and out of tamped ground.i'm not sure what i'm pulling outof the sudsbut it's not justthe dishes.
ReminderYou forget more than you remember.You are older than you look,though younger than you feel.You wish that the blue flamewere cold instead of hot,more like a damp flowerthan a gunshot.But it's not.You have loved, though since thenyou wonderif you're still able to do so.You feel you aren't often yourself,as if you changed your namelike the week changes days.Your favorite shirt is the blue & green onewith the turquoise buttons.You don't really know a personuntil you've seen them at their worst.You like to run a pencil up and down your forearmbecause it feels as if lightwere moving between muscle and bone.
Description of a paintingUntitled, 1986. Oil on white rag board, root-blood and shattered moth wing, single-haired brush, paint-stickand fingerwork. Watercolor and ice floes on a million years of canvas.Artist unknown. *RedInside the layers lies a nuance guided to a circle.An edge between media, a place for the fly-wings and the dust from the one night
LightningboltsYou ease forward, prop your elbows on your knees.The veins in your hands fascinate me,like those aerial pictures I remember from schoolof rivers worming through lush green areas of places I'd never been,would never be. The curve of your back gave off heat, the imaginary line where you ended and the room beganwas too real, too sharp to be seen, just felt. The look on your face seemed burntinto the wood panel walls behind you.You rose, pulling at your tie with one hand,unbuckling your belt with the other, as ambidextrous as a chef, as unsteady as waterspilled over dry ground. You tugged the belt out of its loopsand as
Ugh.
This hurts me in the best way.