beauty and danger share the same last name

the same hands for petals

both delicate and deadly

roses are thorns with beauty etched on the outside sometimes

with colors found growing out of soil and swaying with leaves

roses celebrate and they mourn on the same day

for the same lives they took for themselves

because roses and thorns share the same last name...

skin is still skin like hidden veins when the light switch is down

while bones are free to roam as the sun forgets their name

an eclipse of the soul when the candles snuff out

nothing left but shame

since we all look the same in the dark...

paper boats still sink

and happy lemon colors leave a bitter taste behind

like fake smiles during Christmas time

rivers are just tears collected

where paper boats still sink and bitter lemons grow...

this is how bleeding leads to beauty—

when I travel the rugged plains on your wrists

the ones I long to kiss

and sew shut

so your love

doesn’t fall to the ground

anymore

because there are other doors from which beauty comes

and I want to show you that bleeding sometimes means healing too...

the sea is a barrier and an escape, but all I knew was that I want to be there, looking over the water and swimming below it. There was thing thing about fear that made me step out into the abyss. I didn’t know much but that’s what made it thrilling. How far could I go without knowing and where would it take me? Mother always said to keep one foot in the water and one on the shore, because you nev...

skin against skin

bone against bone

soft pink flesh cries

red tears and red rivers

where promises are born...

the sun shines on your flowers again

the kind you like

the kind you used to buy at the market

around the corner

I replaced the old brown stems with fresh pink petals

the kind you picked when you wanted someone

to love you back

the sun shines on your flowers

the ones on fresh dirt

the ones that lay on their side and tell you that world cries without you

the sun shines on the gray stone

the...

I follow your ghost around the corner

because I want to burn with you

To feel the lick of the flames on my bones

To let them char under your heated gaze

I would do anything

to fill myself with the tainted parts of you

To lose myself in you

To become a ghost while chasing you...

resentment bleeds from the holes in my skin

and I watch

it fill the shell of who I once was

no more

innocent wonder and curiosity

now

I bite the hand that feeds me

maybe

it will let me starve

maybe

I will come alive when empty

maybe

empty will swallow me...

are we mosaics

of everyone we’ve ever known?

or am I my own

to love and to hate

to blame myself for

all the mistakes I’ve ever made

is it just me?

what if

it’s heartbreak that made me

into the monster that I am

what if

it made me soft

and naive

what if

my laugh is from my father

and my tears from my mother

what if

who I am is not who I am at all?...