Candles

candles

light the candles

watch the flame flicker

don’t get too close

don’t get burned please

feel the warmth

the warmth of my heart

smell the scent

i can’t escape this feeling

there's something about the mirror in the hallway

my reflection pours a whine glass wearing a webbed dress made of phantasmas i stare at her in the hallway such a shame, crying on a summer's day i don't understand her demands red excuses speak in different tongues an image of lace underwear haunts my daydream as a honeyed nightmare i'd write about you like a vine the graze of your cotton skin upon mine driving me nowhere i would know naked license plates coax me out of love am i wasting away in place? porcelain tears on an undrawn face laid by a statue's decency the clouds shape the moon's hidden lunacy my portrait of anonymity bedaubed in oil paint and nudity

“tequila girlfriend”

tranquil eyes framed by heart-shaped sunglasses flicker from your glass to the older voices you hear

you wear the diamond necklace you never liked and you never asked for as

you listen to music and you watch boys and hope they hear the lyrics and flirt back with their eyes

but you were born too late to be starved like this

the mark of the witch is on your waist and your short skirt reveals plush thighs i am dying to hold on to

and if i do die one day, preferably before your time, i will become a virtue and i will come to you and watch your vices and fall in love with you more

you’ll be the first devil up in heaven

i’m not religious, but i still turn to prayer when i feel like i have nothing left to love

we always talk until we say too much and even then i fall harder for you

i just want to kiss your dry wet lips and you’ll never lie to me again

if they hadn’t heard you too, i wouldn’t be able to prove you were there

and if i never moan your name again i hope my teeth rot off

even if i had a voice in my head screaming at me to turn back, you would just whisper me closer

and i’d gladly oblige in everything you do

your mind is a bloodbath, and i will bring a towel and clean it

and watch you, my girlfriend, sip tequila while i drown out your heartbreak

grown out

everyday, without fail, she’s here.

everyday. with a book in her hands,

everyday, she reads away beneath my leaves

whether my blossoming flowers slowly

trickle from my branches as the soft wind

hushes them into her perfect hair, causing her to sneeze, making me laugh,

or the strong greens of summer

engulf the sky above her,

shielding her

from quiet warm rains, or

golden leaves, bright oranges, loving reds,

drop upon her words, she picks them up

gently, so careful, as if they’re so precious

to her, as if every part of me is sacred to her,

even after it has abandoned me.

but she never does.

she never abandons me.

reading away at her pages, of love, passion,

kindness and courage, hopes of finding the

one, one day to share her life with,

drowning

in her reading, being absorbed in her life

as someone else, a character who to me

is unknown, as alas, i am unable to read.

i am able to just watch. watch her smile

drain from her face, her hair, scratched away

at my bark, her flawless skin growing paler

and paler everyday as she realizes she’ll

never live the life she lives while she’s under me

reading away, everyday, reading her books

fantasizing about her looks

getting caught onto hooks

until one day she doesn’t come.

she doesn’t read. i don’t know where she is.

has she left me? abandoned me?

she’s usually at my base, in a beautiful dress,

reading away and away everyday

like there’s no tomorrow, but then

tomorrow comes and she comes again too,

only now she’s not here. she isn’t sat where i would usually see her.

instead, others are. standing in her usual place, screaming, crying, desperately dropping

to the ground, on their knees, begging

to be dreaming.

it’s nice her family wishes to have had an imagination as vast as hers.

although one of my branches has been

feeling heavier than usual ever since

deep last night, in the bright

moonlight, when the stars became the leaves

of the sky and i was sat under the tree of the

universe.

they haven’t trimmed me in a while.

i must’ve grown out.

Calais

your heart rushes. my eyelashes flutter.

you both love and hate the lace of

my gloves, hugging my fingertips -

undeniable elegance obstructing

your skin from touching

mine. although, you could say the same

for the rest of my attire.

but we both know actions speak

louder than words.

who up early getting they worm