Felt.

Time stood still for nary a soul,                    
it dragged its feet, aching and old. 
Blistering heat that made us melt, 
we were once softer than silk felt.

Hallowed hearts wind whistled through,
covered in bruises, black and blue.
Hardly broken, but maybe bent,
running on empty and love spent.

There comes a day in all our lives,
when our failures cut deep as knives.
But you shall remain a triumph,
you stayed with me, like a science.

Words were whispered, curses, we'd shout,
until the blood drained from our mouths.
Yesterday—softer than silk felt;
seems like all we do these days is yell.

Outer Space.

Even in deep space,

your love holds me down,

Your embrace has weight,

and keeps me coming, back around

I was on track to be a tragedy,

before we collided, like stars

You give me gold, you give me gravity,

and it's more than fancy cars

I was a lonely planet on my own

Now you are the sun to my moon

I orbit you and feel at home.

I was in ruins, but I'm brand new.

No distance between us,

could break us, or tear us

apart.

Not miles, or minutes,

not even lightyears would be

too far for my arms.

You light up my galaxy,

our universe exists inside

my heart.

Closer than the others,

if I'm Earth, then you are my Mars.

You keep me human, keep me golden,

keep me green, and grounded.

Give me freedom, give me healing,

eclipse me, leave me astounded.

Celestially, you are the best for me,

I rest my chemistry, and let you

undress me.

Effortlessly, you impress me,

effervescent, I'm obsessing.

Astro know me, come explore me,

Supernova, satisfy my

celestial body, cosmo comet,

asteroid shower, like meteorites,

I stargaze, and you give me power.

Equanimity.

Like the fog protects the sky,
I held you close, with watchful eye.
Incapable of enduring another loss,
as trees mourn leaves slain by the frost.

On bended knee, I gave myself to thee,
only canines know such loyalty.
Like petals perspiring with dew,
there can be no me without you, too.

So, I just dance like second hands,
that measure time, in all the land.
I am the key—you are my lock;
like lyrics in our lover's rock.

Us.

You and I were like Alexander and Genghis Khan—we conquered the entire world;
In your arms I was the oyster,
who proudly displayed his very first pearl.

You and I were giants—no match for Jack and his pitiful magic beans.
I gazed lovingly into your eyes; you were the golden goose of my dreams

You and I were Dostoesvky,
Dickensian when we talked.
But soon enough, we stopped listening,
and all we ever did was fought.

Remember when I was Shah Jahan
and I built you the Taj Mahal?
Your eyes despised it, soon enough,
and you demanded I add another wall.

Do you recall the times I tried to redeem myself with jasmine scented words?
Pretty soon all you did was chastise me
with your acid speech that burned.

You and I could've reached the top of Everest, but all you did was tear down my Great Wall.
I wanted you to be my empress, but you just wanted to watch my empire fall.

Now I am lost for words—my lips have been sealed and then sewn shut;
I just wish we could go back to you and I, instead of left questioning what is what.

when the dams burst, we will patch them up with words

"Tell me again, where is it you stop and the succubus begins? Why is it that once we separated we both ceased to exist?" A vanishing act, in two parts.

Act One: My pitiful proposal right in the middle of study circle was the first arrow to pierce your unfeeling heart. A feat more noble than neon on the periodic table. And you? If you were an element, it would be gangrene, the way you suddenly appeared and immediately created a crime scene. A biohazard more toxic and lethal than Fukushima. You radiated light, and at first glance I was blinded. Now that each individual shard of shrapnel has been plucked from my silver eyes, I see that you were nothing but nuclear. Once a dream within a dream, until you decayed and became a fucking nightmare within another godforsaken nightmare. Like those matronly Russian nesting dolls, but instead made up of demons, until there was nothing left but desolation.

Act Two: What happened to the wide eyed hopeful freshman that I met handing out pamphlets to save the rainforest or feed the world or whatever cause you'd attached yourself to at the time to make your human form seem believable. That same kid with the thick accent from East L.A. who arrived on a full scholarship to help inner city sweethearts avoid the inevitable—getting initiated into the first gang whose leader fell in love with her. I should've known the damage was already done and that you were the greatest con artist to wield a pen as a weapon. You seduced lovesick idiots from all walks of student life. Who knew future doctors, lawyers, and politicians could all be so easily swayed. Either way, you were a lost Latina princess who made men feel like one of your Latin Kings.

What happened to our heroine who refused to be branded like the cattle that would never be found on her plate. She was skilled in every recipe from cookbooks of anarchy. Who knew sometimes even soldiers sold out and became the same sheep they swore up and down 'til kingdom come that they would never be. The very sheep who required shearing and saving from a slaveowner who would rather refer to himself as a shepherd.

Behind the scenes a heavier battle was brewing...a conflict that was as deep as canyons grand, that had way too many layers. Our waxen eyed protagonist met his Waterloo in a spicy Puerto Rican seductress. Together, they personified academia, every interaction either ended with evacuated lecture halls or underneath ramen-noodle-stained-thrift-store-bargain-basement sheets. Spectators sighed at the sight of these star-crossed young lovers like modern day Montagues and Capulets. Together, they were an unstoppable machine.

Lovestruck or love's fools? The line between their overlapping identities faded with each day. They put blood, sweat and every last teardrop into the resistance. A revolution like no other, they claimed, that was the brainchild of their brilliance. As they grew closer, their separate clumsy heartbeats merged into one single thunderous rhythm. Surely nothing could come between a love that was united in humanitarian efforts.

By the time graduation robes neared, and colours reappeared across campus, the string that bound these altruists had started to come undone. Consumed by consumerism, a worldly woman in designer threads stood in place of our former rebellious lioness. As she appeared to be a phoney, her subjects rightly labeled her a fraud. Soon, her expensive appearance was a liability to their cause.

One black Friday between thunderstorms was when this War of the Rhodes' came to a halt; she turned away in anger only to be struck by his left lightning bolt. Electrified, and hurt as we reach the final breaths of real love, as it often ends. Only fairy tales wrap in happiness, why else would they appeal to us heartbroken humans.

What about healing, like we planted trees? What of the hospitals, where we pulled smiles out of the broken and the weak? What about the prisons, the detention centres unjustly holding refugees? Where did we stray, where did the love go? When did our own silence need to be bought with violence? What about orphans, widows left to starve in the streets? Where did we go wrong, to get here today? What about love, sweet love that doesn't end up settling in court? When can we return to peace and harmony? Unless we turn back, we won't have a pretty planet to watch on TV. If Satan's greatest con was convincing us he doesn't exist, isn't it time for us to accept we got ourselves into this mess?

Puzzling.

And he makes me want to carve myself.
Starving from extended winter,
I beckon to you with a finger.
Trembling; my veins fill with splinters.

Wooden slivers cut me from the inside,
I race towards any assistance.
Pressed, I pray for brooding brilliance.
Why do you play my ribs like piano keys.

Signal to you with smoky urgency,
peer into your zippered soul,
through magnifying glass eyes,
I catch you in action.

Hinting at the secret;
the secret code to my hunter heart.
You can access its emotion.
But do not tell the others.

Capture me in your net,
I beach myself on your bed.
You become the shore,
I slap at you lazily, like ocean.

Flowing, we crash into one another.
Resonate within me like cymbals.
I vibrate—cut me in two million pieces.
I win with my hands down.

Hold me in your clammy palm,
then blow me away, like dust.
Just let me scatter.
I yearn to know all the places!

No longer a mortar fortress.
Refined by this scandalous resilience.
These broken embraces can get so jumbled.
Shutter me. Forget my vulnerability anyway.

Estranged.

Everything is changing, coming to an end,
yesterday we were lovers, today we’re hardly friends.

From familiar to strangers, in less than a night,
don’t say you love me anymore, it doesn’t feel right.

Falling to pieces, like shrapnel from the sky,
I have used up all my resources, my tears have run dry.
Take all that you can and go, just leave my side,
as long as you always know, love is stronger than pride.

I am not so weak that I won’t survive,
this is not the first time I’ve had to stay alive,
no, it’s not the first day of my life,
I have felt the worst pain, love’s a knife

Throwing out the pictures I still have of you,
setting fire to the letters that only make me blue,

letting go seems like the only reasonable thing to do,

I cannot keep pretending that I haven’t got a clue.

Separation Anxiety.

The fire burning inside me 
had started to subside,
caught up in memories of a love 
you were unable to provide. 
The light in my eyes flickered, 
and went out without a fight,
causing me to self-destruct; 
how do I survive devoid of sight? 

My blackened heart refuses 
to pick up and resume. 
The guilt you've burdened 
me with continues to consume 
the remnants of my sanity, 
refused to spare my dignity. 
Swallowed in a sea of pity, 
taught a lesson in humility. 

Many years had passed; 
assumed I had regained control;
seemed like it'd been so long 
since I'd been granted parole. 
Not a promise, or a lesson; 
just a disdainful release. 
Content for the longest time, 
I thought I was at peace. 

Yet, you've returned, once again, 
to wreak havoc on my soul. 
Falling apart, scattered in pieces. 
Broken again, love has paid its toll
on my life devastated, 
by the knife you concealed in your spine,
and because of your endless torment. 
Our bodies have separated; no longer entwined.