Beseech

moving from one room to the next
but getting nowhere

treading barefoot
across the hardwood floors of my mind
no sounds

how do i combat this silence?

i beg you to believe in me
but you already do
so what's the dilemma?

maybe i don't believe in myself

Hermetic, nocuous, and ellipsis

the dark green monster
poisoning my mind
perhaps my mother was right
you lose the magic of yourself
when that's all you can see

Consternation

the fog settles on my skin like a lover's kiss
and suddenly i am a frozen fire
battling within

Burnish

we are not

the shiny gold star stickers

we once earned

for spelling a word right

or adding two numbers correctly

now we sweat and strain

and we are always looking up

so that our tears stain

our bodies

which never stop

we are climbing the mountain

and we don't even know where it ends

all we see is the cloud

and we are told that it is heaven

but we don't even know

is this faith

any stranger

than believing in god?

Pinchbeck and interminable

alchemy
the magic process
of turning dross into gold

this is an everyday occurrence
for some of us

this is an everyday struggle
for some of us

like breathing

Expurgate and myopia

imperfections
bubbles in the glass
tears in the fabric

we try to burn them out
sew them up
make them disappear

but what if there's beauty
in the broken?

Tome and froward

written not in ink
but in the liquid soul
will be our pages

bound together
not with string or glue
but fate

Osteopath

flesh melts away
exposing white bone
like pearl
fashioned from the dirt and grit of life

what you see outside
is nothing

Highhanded and toady

all the fire has died
am i the smoke that's left behind

where did that spitfire fairy go?

perhaps she grew tired of the empty flattery
she knew she couldn't live up to

Unwitting, erstwhile, and denigrate

the lava of your words melted our flesh
until we could no longer tell where i ended and you began
but it was mostly me
that swam through that volcano
finding a ledge
and hoisting us both up

you were too charred, too scarred to contribute

Defalcate and virtuoso

the moon sinks slowly below the waterline
where i wait with bated breath
for you to join
in the icy cold river
like you promised you would

instead i drown alone

you are a virtuoso
painting your lies
i am the foolish patron
who wanted to own a piece of you
and paid for my greed

Canine, victuals, and chaff

hungry we feast upon each other's dark looks
rough touch
sharp and scouring words

is this battle or banquet?

full to the brim
with your undeserved affection

Acclaim and bemoan

the drug i once
could not live without

you are not so hard to miss

but my mind is so much clearer now
even if my heart mourns
breaking the addiction