All this burning I do for you
Brings you no heat or light
The useless things I do
With all my might
It is the shadow that I fight

You are not too good for me
But I think you know that already
You aren’t the type
To put yourself above another life
I’m just not your flavor
And that is your right
It’s not a silent commentary
Regarding what’s wrong with me
I just taste differently
Bittersweet
It’s hard to not take personally
But tang ain’t for everybody

I see
It can’t be
Between
You and me
But that doesn’t mean
You shouldn’t  let me
Break off a piece
Please

If I were to go away
Would you wish I’d stayed?
It doesn’t matter, anyway
I’d come back, anyday

Use me—
whatever you need,
I’ll bend, I’ll bleed.
Take the best of me
and then the rest of me—
I won’t make a sound.

Be selfish,
be ruthless,
drain me drop by drop.
I won’t ask for kindness,
I won’t ask you to stop.

My heart is not a temple,
it’s a tool in your hand.
Worn and splintered—still,
I’ll try to understand.

You don’t owe me softness,
you don’t owe me grace.
Just don’t disappear.
Just don’t erase
me.

I don’t need love,
not even your name,
just let me exist
as a player in your game.

I’ll carry the weight,
I’ll silence the ache,
if you only let me
be something you take.

Don’t return a favor,
don’t pretend to care—
just keep me around,
just leave me there.

Use me,
bruise me,
I won’t mind.
I’d rather be broken
than left behind.

oh, the bliss that must come with
the ignorance to your own actions
the knives you spit with vehemence  
whether involuntary or by choice
a deaf man could’ve felt
the disappointment in your voice

Maybe it’s nothing
Always has been
But whatever it is
I’d do it again

i want to peel your skin back
and reveal your deepest sweetness.
to look at your veins
and memorize their paths.
maybe then i’d understand
why you are so rough on the outside.
it takes a lot of work,
digging your fingernails into the flesh,
pulling and pulling until you are bare.
but it is all worth it;
to visit your center,
to break past what conceals you,
and take you apart
slice by slice.

I write my love letters
to you
on paper boats
sail them to you
yet when you receive it
you say there are no words
when I have
turned the ocean blue