Spark

she is my shooting star
lighting up my sky
burning bright and promising
crashing into me
leaving a smoldering crater in my universe
her smile makes gravity irrelevant
her eyes are a spark
when they meet mine
it starts a fire, sucking all the oxygen out of the room
i know ive been told not to play with fire
but i never could resist the beauty of a flame

Thought Constellations

i think about the stars
i wonder if they're souls of the dead
shining to let us know we're really not alone
i think about how every moment passes
slipping away like grains of sand pulled into the ocean
lost forever
i think about how if i say this sentence out loud
my whole world could rearrange itself
i wonder what the sunset would sound like if it made a sound
a haunting melody of colors
i dream up the moment we kiss
down to the last detail
knowing if i daydream it
it will never happen
i imagine spirits in the smoke of a blown out candle
escaping from the flame
released by a breath to roam free
and then vanish
i think  about how big the universe is
and yet how finite
i think about all the stories etched and erased in the sand
initialed hearts washed away by the tide
dancing footprints blown away by the breeze
i think about how clocks are the heartbeat of time
and wonder what happens when it stops
i consider the differences between romance and friendship
i wonder if there are any
i think about what a naive promise forever is
i wonder if death is the beginning or the end

Self-Comfort

"it's okay
i'm okay"
she chants
walking briskly down the crowded grocery aisle
her hand clenched in a bloodless fist

"it's okay
i'm okay"
she mutters
lying in bed at 2:53 a.m.
biting her wrists

"it's okay
i'm okay"
she cries
rocking back and forth on the floor
fingers knotted in her hair

"it's okay
i'm okay"
she gasps
curled into the corner of a bathroom stall
trying to remember how to breathe

"it's okay
i'm okay"
she whispers
sitting alone in her car
cradling her bleeding wrist

"it's okay
i'm okay"
she murmurs
standing on the ledge
arms spread like wings

Ghost

i hear your heartbeat in every love song

a gentle strumming

drumming in my chest

i feel your embrace in every daydream

a sweet tenderness

a ghostly gentleness too easily vanished

i see your smile in the starlight

a soft reassurance

granting endurance for me to keep going

your ghost is everywhere

but i want you here

Puzzle Pieces

my fingers trace the texture of tree bark
like puzzle pieces that don't quite fit
a design of growth and change
a beautiful story written in cracks and knobs
i look down at my own flesh
irregular ridges and discoloration
scars
like puzzle pieces that don't quite fit
and i wonder
if they can be beautiful on a tree
can they be beautiful on me?

Bleeding

some days

the words flow like blood from a severed vein

effortlessly

in a violent rush

a bleeding i can't slow

can't stop

some days

the words

must be painfully extracted

like the prick at the doctor's

when they try to draw a drop

needling and kneading till the finger aches black and blue

Autumn Leaves

she sheds words
the way an autumn tree
sheds its leaves
leaving a trail behind her
of fragmented poetry