ErsatzInspiration

the edges peel off every once in a while; i stick them back together, press my thumbs down, say i've fixed it--- but it's peeling, fraying, sliding apart at the seams; the blurry edges of my vision make me nervous, make me shake and worry (i am marble-cut and resolute, somehow, i'm okay with sentences like puzzle pieces "you're not okay" so what?) it's addiction, you know, "this is love" is love is love is this love? is this love? is this ever going to change? my symptoms are showing (stage directions:  clench fists and beat holes in the floorboards; be careful of the bones, they're thin now, plaster dust packed in a ch

"all the better to see you with" your eyes like ankle weights enthralled her--- save the lonely girl, put her out of her misery with her own helium kisses (she likes the dark, it's in her eyes and you can show her depth--- i dare you) the devil's in your gaze; his fingers in your throat, he's watching (can you feel the knuckles pressing in your lungs?) you're hungry--- "all the better to slit your wrists and suck you dry" all the better to feel your fingers dancing with the devil's hands--- he loves how you love the way her fingers taste in your stomach (she walks like wolves are after her, you know  she knows you're waiti

she walks with spiders, marching along baseboard cracks they hide their webs in the back of her mind, the cavity behind her throat they bind her voice in silk she walks in step two by eight she knows how they feed at night she doesn't know how to live here, doesn't know secrets how to starve with class, she pretends she isn't brittle i pretend she lives there now she doesn't know me doesn't know how to smile my name peeking through the windows of her eyes, gaps in teeth how they shiver every day how they shiver all the time how they shiver when she's cold she's always cold, my fingers freeze around her wrists my palms p

you're ages older than your namesake; i hear your bones rattle in your sleep, shaking in time with old songs we used to sing together, but our blood is thin, frayed ties too tired to tether us together--- you're growing up too fast (i never knew you, just the salt-tracks of your tears cutting down the lines of your faded smile) we're not perfect, are we? do you remember when i cried you to sleep? we played assassin in the halls, shooting across banisters; we chased our folded ambition across living-room dreamscapes, welded to our perches, pulling triggers (fire) we buried our secret wars; we only held hands in pictures, wh

this house is made of glass bones and windowpanes--- we're hiding in spectacle; we're hiding our voices behind crystal sheetrock ("i can't hear you") i can still see your fingers skipping beats across your cheekbones (you paint portraits with fingerprints, pressing patterns into faces met in dreams) you're different now, butterfly turned silkworm with age--- faded monarch, you're no majesty (you're made of spiders, little legs linked and stacked--- there are cobwebs in your eyes, you can only see in dreams) we're hiding in vacuums and pressure-treated walls, locked in silence like we knew what we were doing when we shattere

mars is on his knees waving surrender, god of war turned timid lover, he is begging you to look away (i can't see you like this, i can't see you splintering--- i should have known you'd fray at the edges) don't say those broken words; save your voice for lullabies printed in history books out of tune with comfort-- you're not happy here i've seen broken wildernesses struck like piano keys; the sharp notes resonate through the branches in my spine; have you heard about the falling pantheon? they tumbled through the forest leaving us alone, we're alone, we're not strong enough for this; you're not strong enough for this, and

hey icarus--- you knew you'd fail, you had that flaw (don't admit you were wrong, apology's a sign of weakness) you're stronger than that dad had bold words, warnings as stark and cold as the sea sent to swallow you, digested from legend to myth you should have asked me what the sky felt like; i would have told you stay away--- even birds only come up for a moment (no one wants to be where they belong) this is you spinning down in your own twilight, little bird, "you deserved it" he let this happen you weren't built to last--- you were built with knees and made for corrosion, and i bet you didn't know you're bones are h

we are the dreams of our mothers-- your father doesn't love you do you wonder where he is? he thinks you're still the same, frozen in the amber of the moment you told him you never wanted to see him again; he fossilized your smile (you're not a person anymore, you're a keepsake) precious heirloom, we're just waiting for you to fall and crack we are saplings, roots tangled in the porch stairs (home is where the knots won't come undone you're stuck here "don't leave me") i've set fires in all the rooms, i've tied birds together, fingers splitting feathers like bad decisions, picking leaves from broken wings pointing at the

someday we'll look back and laugh like we used to "remember the time----" "no, stop, you're embarrassing me" and you'll wave it off with a flick of bony wrist you'll be whole again and i'll pretend i don't remember did you know you were bending, a sick sapling come untied? i never understood you, and the things you said were too dead and empty and i thought you were trying to make me laugh (you used to do that; you were happy a minute ago) here's to the years and the crowds "go ahead, i'll look for your ribcage and catch up later" you were perfect a minute ago, but now you're nicotine and aspartame and i'm crashing into s