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I built a make-shift fortress
made of crumbling walls of plastered seams
to hold them all outside
safe from tear-stained cheeks
and screaming dreams
To keep the darkness safely cloistered
A fortress to cage the pain from spilling
all over the love I long for, untouched

I pulled the empty barrel from my mouth
Smoke swirling like candy cotton
around my frost tipped interior
Lips blue against an existential bus seat window
tracing stick figures into the starlight

Her sweet smell still stuck to my heart like taffy
Spoiled by bits of sand between wrinkled pages of unread love letters
written to a school girl far away in my daydreams,
strained longing pulling my heart strings into pieces
Bittersweet ribbons of false clarity the only thing holding it all together