Sky I’d Dye For
At your first mention of going outside
I was overcome with irresistance
Four hundred and ninety-five
Cars raced at sixty in the near distance
The only sound disrupting the stillness
As the early sky melted into dyes
Slipping without resistance
As the moon was begging the sun to rise
A bleached-out blue spidered out from the highs
Turning our ceiling to acid wash jeans
Like a pair of old Levi’s
Then shifted into bright, turquoisey greens
In all of the twisted years of my teens
Ocean waves crashing hard from overhead
Is something I’d never seen
Splattered hues in a fierce, watery thread
This sea started simmering into red
Sparks from our blunt mixed with the glowing bits
Of heaven viewing bloodshed
The golden oranges shown through in fits
In the final phase of the morphing spritz
The light show faded to normal day break
And the sun sat in its glitz
Knowing that this sleepy street would soon wake
Back inside free of any pain or ache
The vibrancy of the morning flooding
Your house with plenty at stake
But so much beauty had begun budding
Intersubjective
Beaming black bullets bursting from the whites
You say you don’t care
I know your emotion goes elsewhere
You’re not dead inside
Like two-way mirrors masking megabytes
Of files hidden
From the world we live in, forbidden
Yet your light shines bright
A nose not nearly as sharp as your wits
Smells lies from miles
Forcing simplicities into trials
In justifiable fits
Knowing even when I taint truth with twist
Because of the fear
Giving you reason not to be here
Only you could make me admit
Blush pillows providing a perspective
On how to handle
Situations without a gamble
Never defective
I want you to ramble unrejective
About why you front
They’re fooled, but I see right through your stunt
Intersubjective
Violet
I’m so absorbed in astrology when I should be engrossed in the entities and ironies of birth flowers
as mine is a violet
and yours is a marigold
But I’m living in a world of light so gloriously golden
that it glares white
despite
the dirt I had to reroot myself time and time again in order to evolve
enough to cradle
the capacity of embodying such a light
of being a light
And I’m still evolving
Meanwhile you stalk around with a disposition so dark purple
that it smolders black
like your eyes
I have a fascination with them that could be described as both a sickly
amber and a
plum of dusk
with how they keep me from reading you fully
I would’ve left a lot faster than I did
if I had been able to provide myself with a rainless view of the void of a
mind that hides
behind
midnight-dyed eyes
Nolita
Shooting stars seen through light pollution
don’t know the first thing about fate
Hennessy and lemonade
convinced me I had a soulmate
Beach days and fighting nights,
We recharged under city lights,
Making out and making up…
overnight bags and waterproof makeup
The woman at the front desk
thinks that we’re engaged
Please don’t come up to the eighth floor,
you won’t look at us the same
The volume alone
slurred over tones of defeat
should be enough for you to know
we’re not as discrete as we seem
It’s actually my mom’s ring I’m wearing
No, I wouldn’t call this a “fling” we’re sharing
I’m just the pretty face he needs to keep around…
to show off in Brooklyn and the East Side of town
Through four sound proof walls and bleached out sheets,
I’m thinking back to that kiss on 56th Street
While he rolls over to answer his phone,
I’m thinking about how far it is to walk home
We sleep on separate sides of a king,
anchored with a figurative flaming twist,
names I’ve never heard, blue pills, and lies,
and I’ll be out right after sunrise
****
Nolita felt sincere,
like we were supposed to be there
It was the least you could do since I picked up the debris…
of your two fragmented affairs
She got dedicated posts,
parties with your friends
I got manipulated the most,
With a phone call when you hit a dead end
No amount of smoke screens we’ve choked on,
chased down with iced coffees
could prepare you for the city
that you now have to chase without me
****
I should have left you in Nolita.
illustration by Max Hamilton