t h e    b o y

the way sunlight reflected off other people and bodies around him and bounced toward him, making his olive skin shimmer like fading dots of a sunset on a starlit horizon

there was

something

different about him

of the glint in his eyes of
the lingering quirk of
a devil's advocate

of the brilliant mind
his eyes shone into of
an enigmatic jumble
of alluring chaos

of the honey and forest
flecked eyes of summer
under a sun long gone

of the intent in their
depths of someone you
knew you couldn't
trust but couldn't help
being drawn
just a little closer

of lips of roses and
thorns that whispered
the lies he wanted to hear
against the velvet cheeks
of countless girls who
fell too close

but people didn't know that whatever way the sun glowed on his skin as if he were once part of a star, the streaks of sunlight threading through the chocolate strands of his hair couldn't reach into the empty space of his hollow chest trapped by the bars of his ribs separated by darkness

they

didn't

know

of the splintered beer
bottles that still had
splatters of the blood from
his hands and sill
remembered the feel
of his lips on their rim

of the whiskey that mixed
with his tears as he tried
to feel the burn of the
alcohol at his throat in
his heart the way the
night sky and a torn
blue kite used to do so
before

of the packets of weed
and the smoke his lungs
drank like air that drowned
his chest with honeylike
poison as he searched for
a fire in his soul while he
inhaled smoke and ashes

of the days crossed off
calendars as he listened
to the screams and wars
downstairs of 2 who used
to share one heart and now
only had hatred for each
other in common

of the tear-filled promises
from his older sister
telling him that tomorrow
was another day and it'd
get better,
someday

s
o
m
e
d
a
y

now 

his sister

was
g o n e

and he was just a broken boy society labeled a man all too quickly