Sorry about going so long without an update! Hopefully this will make up for it :)

b r e a t h e

in, out

a little girl, crying as she clutches at a ragdoll

the marker diminishes beauty,

but not as much as sad glass eyes

made of scratched beads

and blinded by carelessness

in, out

a ten-year-old

trying on cissy's dress

and mommy's make-up

she doesn't want to give up believing in the world

but the world doesn't seem to believe in her anymore

in, out

a teenage girl, in a hospital bed

parents are yelling, screaming about THAT BOY

they're so busy being terrified by the accident

that they don't see she's already dead;

a sack of skin and bones, a marionette

her strings are the morphine pumping through the bed,

her master the blonde that struts around the school

in, out

a young woman at a party,

lipstick staining her lips as alcohol stains her breath

and leaves a bitter aftertaste

LOOK AT ME NOW, MOM

she tucks homesickness away behind curtains of rage

in, out

she isn't quite sure what she's mad at

or if it's the whole damn world that's gone mad

or if it's both

mostly, she thinks about colors:

red, flowing on the ground, mingling with black and gold and green, an iridescent rainbow

floating on an oil spill,

choking the animals

it's not that she's crazy, only bored

they only gave her four white walls to look at, after all

in, out

and with every breath, she wonders why they can't see

the whole world crumbling into ashes and a bitter aftertaste

--a bit like cigarettes butts and cardboard, washed down with rainwater.

the planet falls down, butterflies fleeing bleached ribcages,

and the innocence is stripped away

in, out

a child sits on a boulder in her mind,

picking flower petals off,

and as they fall, they turn into insects,

fleeing from her cruelty

in, out

the men came today,

with huge needles

they didn't listen to her, not when she told them about the fires

not when she screamed for help.

she was crying out in pain, flames licking at her sides,

not when a massacre occurred.

in, out

an elderly woman sits,

her eyes blank

once upon a time, they were wild as the ocean

they danced and cried and laughed

but they're as distant as the stars now,

following non-existent smoke trails

from blue-jay feathers

in, out

in, out

in, out

out, out, out...