an undivided heart is the goal
& mine is cut into sections
sometimes i held the knife
sometimes you did
(and you are millions of people now)
i'm being sewn up slowly
every time the needle breaks skin i cry out
gritting my teeth so i wont push the hand away
as i have done before
(& will undoubtedly do again)
& i try to take the the thread
into my own unsteady hands
forcing my crookedness onto my heart
my crooked heart cant keep the time
i hand it back & wait
(be still be still be still)

well, you're no saint
& i'm no genius

because i dont yet know beauty
the fireflies circle with encoded speech
welcoming a lover
he flies above her
twilight finds the angels and pulls them from our skin

because i dont yet know death
the trees wait with their fruit-laden arms
forming a stairway
blushing with midday
summer finds the apple and pulls it from our mouths

i am afraid. again.

with our medicine & synthetically derived appetities, technological advances & communicational breakdowns, high speed connections with disconnections just as fast, we are irreparably disjointed. i stood in the x-ray machine for a long time, the doctor forgot i was there or perhaps my ears were not tuned to his instructions. but i saw on the wall the inverted black & white of my spine & it was curving & twisting & held together by something i didnt recognise. there are things inside of all of us that we wouldnt recognise if someone reached into our bodies & pulled out the contents, setting them on our coffeetables or bedroom floors. they have told me time & again that i shouldnt be bothered with it, but i try to forget & my heart swings around like a tetherball, making circles & tying me tight to something intangible but nearly perfect.

& one day i imagine that there wont be anything left to say & i guess i would like to know if anyone is okay with that. well, mostly just if you are okay with that. are you?

"I'm here with the cause
I'm holding the torch
In the corner of your room
Can you hear me ?
And when you're dancing and laughing
And finally living
Hear my voice in your head
And think of me kindly"

when i came home your music was still in my car but i turned it off. it will stay off for some time now. it makes me a little sad but a little hopeful, & when you divide the two i think it ends up to be words not numbers. & i have my guesses but for now my mouth is stuck together because they keep feeding me something but i think it's time to fix myself instead of someone else.

building something out of nothing
or
building nothing out of something?

last night i had a somewhat frightening dream. i dont remember most of it very clearly. what stands out is that there was a man dressed up, moving around. i knew he was a marionette, and, when i looked, i could see the strings. he was being pulled. whoever was controlling him spun the strings around his neck & moved him to where he would step off & hang himself. several of us watched in horror. he stepped off the edge, then dangled in the air, dead. then the dream rewound somehow, & the marionette was just dancing, spinning, overcoming any problems & taking control. i dont really know whether there was any meaning in that, or it was just leftover imagery from my subconscious.

she used to but not anymore & i wonder about the way people spend their first few years trying to lose their innocence & the rest of their lives trying to get it back.

i am going to crawl through the old & i think it will help.

i dont have it. i just dont.

as it is already, there is an echo in my head.
& now this?

because i am too polite & you are too alone.

when He pulls the inside & the outside into a music box i leave it on my dresser to watch it spin & let the tune soak into my skin becoming more & more transparent i guess i wake up or at least stop cowering in the corner like a scared little girl.

i am hoping to experience instead of expect this time.

wings & blood & pasted spine
the story pulls me word by word
into a sort of unearthly being
not walking & certainly not flying
hovering in hope against hope
if i kissed him i would see through him
so i wait until i solidify
i fit into corners & press my back flat against the wall
would i could spin a cocoon
slipping into rest until i hear the voice that slices through my bones
'wake up o sleeper'
the light will shine upon my skin
veins visible to show what has been pumping in circuits
across my brittle body
when i am caught at last
inside an unplanned hand or two
my mouth will move again
words now long forgotten
but lacing their fingers around the edges of my dreams
it's all very nice but tonight i am only perched on a chair in a house on a street like any other

i have been coming to all of these conclusions but i dont really have a place to put them. i think for now they just need to stay inside of my mind. maybe when i am older, wise enough to write a book.

we laugh at death;
but it is because we are afraid.

i told you already,
i am not a goddamn statistician.

& the mood swings must be located at a pleasant park
because i just keep coming back & keep coming back &...

you love like a knobby-kneed schoolgirl.

you move & i guess i am too slow in following
well, can you really blame me?
this new form of vertigo
this new form of rest

cant you see that i am desperately afraid of anything that is beautiful?

i am ashamed to admit that i am the only person who seems to be able to break my heart.

my beautiful friend
with your love & with your liquor
you havent felt a need for anything further
the season is changing
look through the windowpane
we have fogged with the curses
coming out of our loose mouths
i have seen a miracle or two
and whenever i am rummaging through my drawers
i look at the lists i have made
& wish they were written in language
you hadnt already memorized & forgotten
but then again you always were a rather lovely linguist

the proud will not remain in peace
get this out get this out of me

THE PROBLEM ARISES WHEN SO MUCH TRUTH CAN SURFACE FROM WHAT IS ESSENTIALLY A LIE.

give my regards, yes, give my regards
i will not speak up this time around
all of this killing of my flesh has left me uneasy about the options that remain
so i look to the simple pleasures
driving home from work in a fog
seeing two men in a canoe on a river
& hoping for their happiness
things like that make me laugh out loud
taking hold of a strange sort of joy
in knowing that there is a standing offer of peace
it's just a matter of taking someone up on it
all of this fear of failure
keeping me alive, i suppose
but there are better things than just alive

regardless, it's still murder.

my fingers curl as i try to amend
things ive done & things ive left undone
yet the peace beyond my understanding
is filling in the cracks
& softening me
i will be silent before You

pale & beautiful,
on the way to the subway
you cut your finger to see if your blood is still warm.

and it is.

"well i'm staring straight into the face of hell
i'm so close & i cant even tell
& i'm so wrapped up inside
i dont have much to love"

peeling off like old wallpaper
& revealing what i wouldnt have touched in a million years
(but that was months ago
by now it has taken a life of its own)
sometimes i want it back
but now it is shredded & bits fall off everytime the ceiling fan whirrs
and pushes dust around the room
that held the mattress where you kissed me for the first time
one hundred pennies in a jar
i have been saving up for something
but for now i feel like the wallpaper
attached but not really a part of anything
you picked me out
what did you want?
my colors fade a little but i think now they are more becoming
(or maybe it's only the light of summer)

the only really heartbreaking thing of it all was the way you stayed to watch me get ready for bed...it probably wont ever happen again. & i am still in love with the way you have been in love with me, but that is a selfish sort of love & we both must be freed...i dont know what anything has really meant just yet...i am welcoming quiet corners & the silence of the loud music in my car. i still sleep with the teddy bear you gave me. he only has one arm & i guess that can mean whatever anyone wants it to mean.

i am building upwards like a pyramid
& with every new level i reach
parts of me have to fall down
to keep me balanced
so i am losing while i gain
but in that i must recognise
the finished product
& the final creation

we are pushing for a holiness we cannot understand.
we are afraid of the markings on the insides of our palms,
behind our ears,
on our lips.
we dont have to erase ourselves.
we need only to use the freedom we've been given,
within these rusting temples.

i am home but still driving away
& God throws the orange moon down in front of my face
as some sort of reminder
(i have forgotten, i have forgotten)
i would have given my very soul for something once
but now i am running from all of it
& wishing for a new home
i mean a place where i am held
(but held in an uncommon way -
to wake me & open me up)
after nights like this
we could sing each other to sleep
it's worth a risk
but it's never worth foolishness
tell me what i want
it's not that i dont want to think for myself
it's that ive done it over & again
& somehow always come up with the wrong answers

letters chain themselves together and fall off the tips of sandy tongues
to the spectator it's only nonsense
but all at once i am tripping over my own feet
and being glad for doing so
porcelain, ivory, plastic
no, no we are constructing roads
(& still i cling to the way that some people feel like home
regardless of the scenery)

there is a genius asleep in the back of a quiet car
angels only whisper
but take it as a sign that you're alive

elevators good lord i did not think there were going to be any elevators

i imagined myself as only skin & bones
not clutching any sort of earthly case
lifted up to God somehow

"do something pretty while you can
don't be a fool
reading the gospel to yourself
is fine"

we will color ourselves in with crayons
spending enough time in the sun
for the colors to melt and bleed
their definition of lovely won't stand a chance

i am so afraid of growing up
i want to be the little child you take by the hand
singing & walking
like nothing will ever cut anyone into pieces
and there is no such thing as a lesser evil

if it isn't now, then it never was.

the sky was so pretty, i opened the window to be that much nearer.

so i hope and wait and i hope and wait and i hope
that the mess i have grown and cared for
tended like a garden
cried alongside of (you were there, too, i remember)
will decide to cave in on itself
or, better yet
flowers will grow from underneath
pushing the soil until it sprays into my face
making me a mess
even worse when i cry
turning it to mud
on my eyes
i will see again
he has promised me that i would see

You are the only living person who has ever, without saying a word, caused me to wish desperately to change and become beautiful on the inside. Is that what love is?

and then there were two.