You Must Set Yourself On Fire

A thousand midnights tread, Highwire circus acts Traversing the lavender Horizon-crease; I memorize such sudden perforations, Keep them under my swollen tongue Only to purge them gracelessly Back into your fist. Replace my stumbling almost-words With vastness: A self-induced universe freckled by Cauterized cigarette burn stars And half empty beer cans. I fill my lungs with feral smog, You fill your head with smoke; My nose trickles blood freely. And if it was not for such ongoing facades-- Psuedointelect, rabid romances, My world on unstable axis-- We might have, By now, Enshrined our Hearts in plaster molds, Traded our eyes for seaglass pebbles. The cherry blossoms have yet to bloom under This hemisphere of the city: Bare branches claw against dusk and, in masochistic frost, You burn your fingerprints into My back. "You Must Set Yourself on Fire" Jenna-Nichole Conrad Wordsmith