Hatred settles where love used to throb
I press my fingers into nothing, and still
it leaves a mark. The collar’s down—
but everything points up. I swallow
glass without shatter. I peel
myself back, all soft and spiked.

(Shell off… touch touch… no echo)

I walk like I’m reversing. The dusk
starts speaking in pulses. I pour
out of myself, into air, into
someone else’s outline. Fullness
makes me sick. Hunger, clean.
The rhythm is hollow and I live in it.

(Drip back… step wrong… walk walk)

The fire doesn’t sting anymore
We’re frost with heat trapped underneath
Everything I was—tight fists,
now just a shape I wear
to remind me I’m still here
when I’m not.

(Like me—numb me—numb me)

(numb me—um me?—ghost)

Mmmm

I ache for silence and it screams
I am holes and I’m too full
Give me too much and I empty
Give me nothing and I spill
I want the edge of it
just the edge

We open each other like wounds
not out of cruelty—but recognition
Somewhere between
sipping thirst
and digging bone
we found comfort in the pain

(Lost-first, first-lost... bones bones bones...)

Let me un-fill
Let me ghost
I am underneath and overdone
Madness, maybe
but it holds me
like home never did

(Sadness… sadness…take this…)