collect the bones
from the grave of
your youth
artifacts left behind
as dust to settle

gather the wayward voices
wailing at the funeral
of your suicide
tell them
you are alive

resurrect just to
break at the teeth
again
just to
wither at the wrists
again

shout your salvation to heal, only
to bruise and cripple

is it my fault i doubt?

sadness
burned through the
forest of my dreams
it left me
dry and devastated
homeless in the
ashes of bones and branches

sadness
snapped the spine that
left the altar
bruised
a wound that
bled of stones and
splinters

sadness
scarred the insides of
a lonely room
scraped the flesh off
young arms
sleeps with
blades beneath the blanket

sadness
is a whirlpool of
stomach aches
like a gunshot to
the gut
where the acid of
sickness and thoughts
goes to ruminate and destruct

home crashing in the waves
made of ramshackle wood
--splinter not shatter

words are the prophet
speak your soul to the wind
watch it flutter, form
to the canvas concave
injured and hollow of song

but i can write to fill
a constellation
lyric from star to star
breath lights the scattered scars
burn a hole through the night
until darkness unravels
like a thread

Wound it
baptize and bear the
battered straits of
your normalcy
sign a cross and
memorize the lines
of your veins
lions stir in
crypts above
the sleeping stones
wake your galaxy
spirit-jumping
careful not to
rouse the bones

don't apologize for being human.

you put me in a
cage and expect me
to sing
yet i fly free and
you are jealous
only the wind hears me



you can't have me

plow, burrow, mine the doldrums

dig your heels deep into
the soil of your heart
and although your shins bruise,
tighten your ankles in the mud

plant your seeds and
speak gently
sleep gently
stirring only to
rouse the the buds to grow

make your home in the
roots--smelt of
earth and rust
absorb the sky through
storms and understand:
this is how you sprout

search the pockets of
the ground and
extract the gold
amidst the coal and ash and
dying green, life waits
grace gleams