• folded

    our promises folded; the strings that held two together neatly wrapped around a coin; the corners of the pages of our favourite book unfolded, pressed out, closed; the words in our mouths finished before it had a chance to begin, to begin,

  • curse

    i watched you, watch her tear through my chest and eat; you did nothing, you have been eaten the same; and you say, it’s the mother’s right; i don’t think so; i think it’s a curse the first she had placed on a weak heart–or that she couldn’t allow in the purity of a pearled…

  • mouth

    can you read those droplets running down skin, dripping down moss, and hair, rivulets down the feet, and earth; you say there is not enough kisses; i say what do you mean? the air is filled with it; flowers spilling, fruits, beating wings, everything touches something; you are eating love just standing, the mouth is under…

  • emblem

    you wear the emblem of the rejected, montage of reshaped pieces that reflected light; you threw yourself to the flames, to wear a shroud; the lights switch off around you, maybe, the sun has been too harsh on you as it has for me; i don’t blame you, i don’t blame you—forgive me,

  • said

    i don’t remember what were the words, but i remember your lips, pursed between a half-smile, a kiss and a thought; how could you hold three strings between two? i don’t remember what i said, and i have said a lot over the years; the well hasn’t dried—but you wear a shroud,

  • hollow

    i will give you the hammer and chisel myself, and beg you to keep chipping away; do not let stone remain unformed, even more, hollow it out, inside, outside, shelled; a moonshell in midnight wet sands, let me sing you like everything else; break me, break me,

  • gaze

    the gaze pushes open these petals; the last layer hardened by years of not a true sun rising, you say, it’s true, and i wish it so that i am willing to be broken in, even though i have been promised to believe instead—and wait, i am sure eons have passed and not a single…

  • tainted

    you were the beginning, and you, are the full stop, in between was the longest sentence of me, don’t ask, why the gates are closed; sweetness tainted the night’s air, i hadn’t known anything good can be cloying, yet this skin bleeds death like it is life,

  • filth

    it’s born under the filth of every discarded skin, muck that clogs down your throat, limbs trapped under tar; submerged, ripped and pushed to rock; silence so complete, you are not sure you are all there; or really, is anything there at all, 

  • strike

    the blade’s turned inwards, point twisted through cavity; feel free to push further, repeatedly cut me out, do not undefine me; the bindings tighten; i have rearranged my dreams every night and have seen you in sharpness that made everything else, less real; petals fall, let them fall; strike those fisted whetstones into the shape…