King of Iron Hearts

Don’t forget to draw down the dream you wish there

Like a balloon pulled from the sky

And carry it with you while

You walk down the street

So you might notice me finally when I find you there

I felt like a penny

Picked up, rubbed clean, and then used

To make a wish for something more.

Why did you have to change the way

You loved me?

Because you wanted to be best?

Closer?

More secure?

Why did you have to change the way

You spoke to me?

Because I couldn’t love you back the way

You wanted?

And it made you bitter

Turned you toxic?

Why did you have to change the way

You touched me?

The hand once around my shoulder sliding

Down the crease of my inner thigh

Pulling me close when you should be pushing me away

Because now your lust was in our way

Why did you have to change the way

You loved me?

Because now,

It is impossible for me to love you back.

It is its own kind of miracle

How someone can look at you

Like you have hung the silver moon

In the velvet sky of their most luxurious dreams

One moment

And

The next

They never want to see you

Again

Romance novels made me an insomniac

I waited by the phone in the darkest hours

Held my breath until the silence mocked me

And the emptiness of the room without you

Began to echo

Overripe with love

You fall from the limb

Too ready

Too willing to be had

You break open on the ground

Only food for the flies

You were moonlit sonatas

And the stars in the sky

We were young and hopeless with wishes tied to clouds

Like children’s balloons

We didn’t know they were so

Fragile

That close to the heavens

We didn’t know

That even stardust could rust over time

Anything for love

They say

Let that count for love of self too

If your soul cries out for it

It’s not selfish

It’s sustenance

Don’t settle for friendship

When you need love

Don’t settle for sometimes

When you deserve someone’s always

You have the worth you give yourself

Your worth is not measured by the angle of your hips

And the gap between your thighs

In the weight of your breasts

And the breadth of your smile.

It’s hidden shyly in the corners of your face

For few to find.

A flower safe guarded in the middle

Of a book you have to study

Before you find the prize.

The true currency of your glamour.

Sometimes a person’s got a soul so pretty

It makes them glow prettier than anything else.

Lust is no true substitute for pure care.

I have an entire galaxy in my soul

And you have only landed on the moon

Do not think

Because you can see my stars

That you have earned the right to colonize them

You pushed and pulled

Breaking apart an old house

Thinking you wanted what was in it

All the baggage you thought was treasure

Finally

The boards cracked under your pressure

And I broke open

Just the way you wanted

Exactly what you worked for

All my secrets

And my troubles

My old house aches and pains

At your feet for you to pilfer.

We didn’t speak after that.

There is a black hole at the center of every universe.

It yawns

Stretches

And contracts

But it is constant

Ever hungry.

So,

You feed it.

Sweet bursts of sugar

Deep draughts of the finest wine.

You fill it with vicious violence and

Blood red rage

With sex and sinning

Envy and greed.

It eats

And eats

Everything you give it

But sometimes

The right times

All it takes is a mirror to prop before it

And it doesn’t seem so depthless after all.

What do you feed your demons?

Remember

It is you who makes a lie come alive.

Someone need only sow the seed

In the fertile field of your mind

Where they might watch it take root

In your insecurities

Flourish under the drizzle of your fears

And blossom in the sunny belief you hold

For anyone who lets you love them.

This is how a lie takes hold.

There are not enough love letters about friendship

How it feels to know you have a home

Inside the heart of another being

They are the kerchief for your tears

The arms around your shaking shoulders

The hands that help carry your burdens

There are not enough love letters about friendship

Yet they suffer the same betrayals

And there is nothing as brutal as a knife in the back

From a person you trusted with all your pain

I’ve found

That the worst monsters

Have the prettiest faces

The art of deception.

His laugh was bitter and sharp with hate

I swallowed it down like hemlock

And wondered how long it would take

I have an encyclopedic knowledge

Of all your flaws

I ripped out the pages

Of things to love

Verbs of worship and nouns that rhyme

With your name

I burned the edges of the Holy Bible

Because you once told me

God wasn’t as important as our love

And in the end,

It was the biggest lie you ever told

Love looks best on you

But honestly,

Hate is pretty too.

She tends to her anger like a garden

Waters the earth with her hot salt tears

So that only red flowers can bloom

Poppies to commemorate a violent death

Of something she once held so dear

Digs up the weeds with her bare hands

And bleeding broken nails

So that her skin is stained just as dark

As the bruises she secrets away on her heart

She tends to her garden of ivy and wrath

Like a groundskeeper