On a rooftop unfamiliar,
A ledge so inviting,
Death’s warm embrace waiting
At the bottom of a
Half-hearted attempt to fly.
Contemplating,
Finding the strength to take
A weightless step
Then losing it
To the cowardice in fear.
Fate’s twisted desire
To make a sufferer
Of a good man
Or the fate of the sufferer
To become a good man.
In retrospect,
A life half-lived,
A man half-loved,
A memory forgotte...
I look at the photographs of us
And see your features
Etched into my DNA.
The way my face
Resembles yours
Makes my heart sink
Because I know
That these photographs
Are the closest I’ll ever be
To seeing your face again.
I want to tear them apart
So I don’t have to think of you
But I can’t bring myself to do it.
I just stare with empty eyes
Waiting for you to reanimate
From a faded Polaroid
Like my...
I stared at the stars above
To avoid your moonlit eyes
As you gazed a hole
Through my manipulative facade.
I
In hindsight
Should’ve split my chest open
And spilled my heart to you.
But in emotional honesty
Lies weakness
Because
When I admit my faults
Verbally to you
I must accept them
Mentally myself.
In doing so
I would destroy the
Paper-mache house
I’ve built over so many years
To protect myself...
The sun cascades through the leaves above
As tears dam in your eyes then burst down your reddened cheeks.
I have so many questions
And only you have the answers
But in my finite wisdom
I hesitate to speak
I hesitate to act
Instead watching like a fool
As your soul pours out from your eyes
And elegantly traces the soft curve of your jawline
Dripping down into your hands
And spilling through your fi...
Were it so simple to love you wholly
My arms would bear far fewer scars
My heart would still beat in tune
And my eyes would still have the glint of hope
That you said reminded you of the stars above.
For far too long I’ve sacrificed myself
For the betterment of us
But your perception of our joint life
Comes from privilege.
You never fought for love
Not the way that I have
And it tears me apart kno...
I hear your name in passing
Between the distant hisses
Of brakes on a phantom train
Headed for nowhere.
The station is empty
And yet here I am
Waiting for more of your
Words of affirmation
With only half-hearted meaning
Scribed between the letters.
I guess in my delusion
I failed to see
That all you are is
Smoke in mirrors.
The illusion of safety
That I welcomed so easily
That you handed to me
On ...
Crunch. Crunch.
My footsteps reverberate through this vacant place. The sound of my heart beating stings my brain.
“Can you hear me?” I call out. Only my own voice responds. Where did you go?
Cold wind whips at my cheeks, my scarf billowing in the breeze. I pull it up to shield my face.
“Hailey!” I yell. You can’t hear me, wherever you may be.
Crunch. Crunch.
The snow glistens in the sunligh...
She would hold her umbrella to the sky
And the crows would come
Perched on torn fabric
Wet with the rain of yesterday.
Steady they waited
For her command
The queen of the murder
The monarch of the flock.
She would dance
In the setting sun
And her silhouette
Her shadow
Would grow to seven times her size
And fly away
Fly away with the crows....
I found God
In the bathroom mirror.
He had a crooked smile
And only one dimple
A half-assed
Ten dollar haircut
That covered half his face
Ears so big
They could hear a pin drop
Two houses down the street
Eyes so sunken
That when he cry
Angels could swim in the tears
Puddling at his eyelids.
I found God
In the bathroom mirror.
He looked a lot like me
So I punched him
Between the eyes.
The mirror sh...
I’ve…been here before.
I look up at the giant spire before me, a towering, crooked structure of some otherworldly brick and mortar. Fog wraps around it in a gentle embrace, shrouding any path that may lead to or from it.
I step hesitantly. The air is uncertain, the ground is sure to be the same. One wrong move and the fog takes you, leads you away with its gentle hands until all you have left is...
