Unfinished

We speak of beaches and wind strewn places where you roamed, once
Promise me you'll show me where you first fell in love
Deep rooted, coerced, yet treasured. My mind floods
Me: hair matted, thrown across freckled shoulders
You: calm as ever, lips salted from steady seas
Contrived, two innocent souls...
Softly, the sunlight echoing gently over pale blue horizons

Birthday

It was a quiet moment,
The earth stood still in discomfort,
Awkward silence, then
Three lunatics rattled home
In a beaten up taxi cab.

I looked at myself in the mirror
Still young and effervescent,
Counting the years until my skin
Grows taut, and cracks
With the pressure of living.
For shoulders to sink,
Defeated with unfulfilled dreams,
Aching for youth to return
It's flickering glance back to me,
To be cured.
But instead I would succumb
To these pirouettes of madness,
Sleep, and rise.

540

I heard the bells from the church
ring, brashly stating the time.
You were late. I hadn't begun to care
And the air was sweet, balmy
Like the words you used
To cheer me up.
I fell onto the street, toppled over
Like a Russian doll,
Splintered my knee and winced.
And you picked me up,
And comforted,
And arm draped around shoulder
Told me that I am beautiful.
And some days I believe you.

Untitled

I had met her once, twice maybe,
Gazed through her, walked by in a corridor,
Shared acquaintances.
Breathed the same chalky air,
Shared the same small patch of sky.

The messages her friends had left her haunted
my thoughts, and my problems
began to curl up, embarrassed
like peeling wallpaper.

Mirror

The Northern wind rasps it's cold breath in my ear,
And my fingers curl around hers,
Then unfurl, like a blossom
disturbed by the harsh chill of winter.
She cries. I am helpless
But patient and details flourish.
Embellished through months of misdirection.
How much longer will she punish herself?
I ask my reflection,
Who stares back at me, vacant.