there's a pretty hole within me
there's candy, sweets inside
on edges made of sugar crystals
shards and sharp corners hide
there's a rotting hole within me
it's dark and growing wide
it smells like cherry filling
the air can get you high
dependency like poison
a cold and gaping need
can be strangely alluring
it plays cruel tricks on me
say darling, don't you love me?
say baby, you're my need
say please don't look too close, dear
screaming please, love, don't you leave

ive been having trouble sleeping
without purpose
text me in the morning, a reason to start the day
i am comfortable and safe under covers
but stagnant, alone, and awake
i am just floating in time and space
coexisting with the day as it passes me by
ive been having trouble sleeping
without someone to wish goodnight

Dramatics aside, I am healing
Learning to drink the rainwater as the sky falls
And learning that the sky falling is only gravity
If I fall with it, I can pick myself up
Knocked-out teeth and bloodied knees
Still breathing

should've seen it coming from a mile away,
saw it coming but pulled the covers up over my eyes,
suffocating but reveling in the warmth
as if i could ever have anything good
as if anything good could last
i thought you were
forever
for real this time
i thought i grew out of **** like that
guess i'm dumber than i thought

let the embrace of naivety rock me to sleep
cloak me in the past
in days before i was weak
let me hold the stars
for just one more night
let me rest for real
let me wake up unafraid
to the sound of a city i know

im doing it again and i crumble
take it, take it, take all of me
throw my heart at you, pour out my being
i try to reclaim myself with distance but only succeed in isolation
i say "i can't do this" like this is my purpose
like i am nothing more but a resource to give with no source to replenish
i hang onto the tiny fractured pieces of myself and constantly get cut on the shards
i make promises like a death sentence
i say "i can't do this" and crawl back into my cell away from everything i need because
i am needed
needed and given and taken and used up
and i need
but when i need i am grovelling, overflowing, and still trying to give with nothing left of me
somewhere along the way i convinced myself that i need to be needed
but i've been serving purpose all along
i exhaust myself with being needed, with putting myself forward even when i am not asked for
i need to be able to need
i drain myself dry of affection, passion, compassion
i will not eat for days, i will wear my binder for days straight
i will put everything away for you like a guardian
like i could ever be anything but a broken thing with a mask
trying to fluff up my chest to seem large enough to take care of anyone who needs me
i have been walking on broken legs and i think they healed wrong
i have been tearing out the same stitches over and over again, bending over backwards, contorting myself
i am so afraid to speak in anything but metaphor because i don't want to shatter this, show my underbelly, cave in to my own weakness
i don't want to say i need more than this, that is how i get broken, that i how i am discarded
i don't want to show my marred skin and remind you that i am bleeding, too
i don't want to be anything but a shelter for you
i will continue you to tear myself apart in chunks, crying
take it, take it, take all of me

i am carefully stacking building blocks in uneven patterns
trying to keep going up
and i know i said i'd be there but if you lean against me i will topple into pieces again
i have to accept the truth that i am not strong
i am finally learning to take care of myself and it is lonely and it feels selfish
and i hate breaking promises
but i cannot be an anchor when i have no hold on the ground
i am a tightrope walker with shaking knees and two left feet
you say it's okay in a way that lets me know it isn't
and i stagger on the line
please, please, please
i'm trying to stay alive