A poem The sound of my dreams cracking under the relentless weight of your insecurity feels like stolen breath. I take small, shallow sips now, through my lips like a straw. The limited air makes me desperate. I need to go outside. Take big, heaving unapologetic breaths, making good noise. The sound of my dreams now has grown small. You pick off pieces of them slowly and casually, as if doing me a favor. Or as if you need them more than me, and can somehow crawl into them even when they don't...

A poem You of the permanent frown and furrowed brow. Wrinkling your forehead. Mock mockery. You walk into rooms defensive, the opportunity to be offended sure. Crossed arms, wide stance. Making you even shorter. I see you out of the corner of my eye. Already my anxiety is in full bloom, my hands wringing metaphorically in my mind. I too stand in defense. But mine is for myself. I need to be quick to appease you. Your narrowed eyes and gruff attitude are now mine to deal with. Your feelings my...

A poem Mummified in my memory, a dim but stolid lamplight that does not flicker. Many nights I ache to touch that light again. The closer I get, though, I see not incandescence. I see not you. It is my reflection from your shiny exterior that draws me. The warmth of my own heart. For you never shone for me. You stole my light, and pretended it belonged to you. So I believed for a while that it did. Now it is only the light of what I had once hoped we would be. It's a false light, a phantom...