______________________________
the sun and I are unusually quiet today
her head a mask of fundamental decay
she is a passenger
aside the nails that bolt her neck
she is star evidence
a cloud contains many pores for water to burst
for horror to pour
I've combusted my skull on many doors
she keeps this secret
I dream of us home
sprawled on marble
watching an ascending storm
the sun has cut away
she sparks
my tears erupt
as passengers
as evidence
as stars
we are not the same
I know my bones better than anyone
and I can’t make it
she keeps that secret
_______________
I want to swim on a beach
where I can be young
where my legs will carry the world away
where my body drifts
where my hair won't catch on fire
where my aspirations don't despair or haunt
my arms rearranged like skeletal bows
where my back doesn't expire
where love is an unfounded stone
on the brink ready to break and sink your breath
where the water doesn’t heal you it rests
_________________________
in the element of bad timing
no here is alive anymore
lost harvest and stardust
violent things and ordinary people
a girl is a dreamland spring
sorrow demolished me
when I was young
before I was beautiful
in reverence of the present tense
godspeed your demons to me
____________________
burst and bled into dust
the highway signaling and beaming
a trespasser pulling up their sleeves
tugging their coat
tethering their collar
lacing their shoes
readjusting
there is no ground left
the atmosphere is an evaporation
a solitude
this is not a revelation or a breakthrough
your world is not long for you
the highway sends its signals and beams
the rearrangements of inner space
you've done all you could
a hand bereaved
given to bright and combustable things
burst and bled into dust
they've had enough
the head readjusted
the cleaver has attendants to get to
__________________
you were abandoned
you were surrounded
burnished, charred
a star they could extinguish
that could expire
yet they were only embers
you are a fire
ready for the funeral pyre
you are nothing that no one can tame
your heart permeates light
whatever they claim
they weren’t there those nights
in the darkness
no one else could have remained committed
to such flames on their skin
ready to be forgiven
____________________
People waiting for air
people waiting to breathe
beneath the teeth in the atmosphere
aware of the earth
relieved of the floods
days colliding into dreams
evenings with nothing to offer or believe
I went above
standing
teeth bared at the atmosphere
aware, the earth declined
I lose on all the timelines
forever a witness who cannot breathe, only sees
__________________________
all things pass through the middle of my soul
dreams dying
you’re their perfect alibi
forget the dead you knew
they will no longer come for you
I did my best
life as a bird who knows only night
housed halfway amidst the glass
out of sight
tomorrow all things will pass