You vagrant, distant shadow
In flagrant delicto
red paint ruins fingers crossed
over knives with little girls
and their curls
and their names-
only mine rips the tongue.

Only yours bites my lungs,
like frosted smog mixed with tobacco’s etched tar.

I drew out your name in unfamiliar guitar,
sung by strangers that
never cared a chord for timing
of h… ours.

Address for feelings
no stamp assigned,
the past beneath the elbow
mingles in two vibrant shadows-
how I will come to know you,
once ago.

Repeat
frame.

12am henna disaster- orange forehead and patchy roots-
option 1: stay up and prevent perminant orangina skin and even out hair.
option 2: go to bed, wake up poor olive oil all over face till you are crying “WHY DIDN’T I DO THIS LAST NIGHT?”

I have got the day off tomorrow
pm? am. I don’t know it’s midnight and I’m shattered

There is no poetry for you,
your name is enough to rattle my bones
and stop the wind mid-howl
I cannot commit to writing you whilst I let you script my skin.
You wrap my brain.

I can’t escape the benefactor of my brain,
the moment she stops pumping in time
I’ll only have nanoseconds to keep watch.

I can’t escape the router to my heart,
the moment it stops solving circuits
the rest of me can only fall apart.

I can’t escape the shell to my soul,
the moment I shred it up,
there’ll be nothing left to break free.

I work at the bay,
nimble fingers undo the cross-stitch of day,
I work, work, walk, walk away.