I am cobblestone cracking in the heat
Terrified of becoming inconsequential under your feet
Once a beautiful stone carefully layed now weathered and worn

----I keep thinking I am breaking

Young, hunched over, under covers,
Hous after lights out--
Bedtime forgotten;
Book in hand;
Fake sleeping when parents checked;
A secret moment in the world just for me
               It's a wonder how my flashlight never ran out

We can watch the stars play off the water
Until we're certain enough to know that we can't tell the difference between the surface and the night sky
A nostalgia tangled grip of your hand in mine
The only truth I can hold on to
I still have trouble telling apart my left and my right,
But I can always find my way back to you


--You smiled and I felt it in the beat of your heart

She sought refuge in the inhales of a panic attack
Rapid breaths as loud as the waves of a roaring ocean
She could hear promises in the threats they made
Loud, fierce
Rapid and strong
Reassurances that she was allowed to live

I always knew you would change my life for good
How foolish I was to believe it would be for the better

I think
There is a morbid beauty in the way we rust
Water and oxygen and minerals
Color out of steel
Weakness out of strength
The things which give us life
Slowly breaking us apart

     --She is always smiling
          But teaches me nothing

I gasped my way through the drought
Course, dusty particles abusing my lungs
Gulping down whatever little water was given--no matter how stale.

I was digging my hands through the cracked ground for so long---
Searching for a well, a spring, even clay I could use to build shelter from the scorching heat--
Head down;
I didnt notice the storm clouds brewing overhead
I mistook their darkness for the routine calm of night

The flood is here now and I thought I would have been more ready
Instead I had been ****** dry for so long that I had forgotten how to swim