Twelve kinds of empty
And three times too full
Your excess splashes over
Into my brimming mind
But I struggle to hold it,
like the African women
Walking with baskets
Upon their perfect posture
The burdens,
The balancing act

When things move to quick
the burdens you carry
Splashes to the floor
But leave no mark.
The tears evaporate
Before they touch.
They are all that could have been,
and nothing that will ever happen.

Somewhere in the middle,
Of this tug a war
Spanning the length of the equator
There is me; and then there is you.

I want to be closer.
We can meet in the middle,
in Ecuador perhaps.
The suns rays are stronger there.
We can lay, burn our skin,
With its poison, until,
It peels and as we shed those layers.
Maybe we'll shed some of the scars;
The faded bruises
And we'll sweat so much
We won't be able to cry.

The weather stays warm there
Unlike these winters,
Where the trees lose their leaves.
The left behind skeletons
Mirror your body;
As the stress does all the eating
Your mouth and stomach refuse.
You get emptier than the old swing set
in your back yard
which haphazardly tilts to the left.
I wonder how no ones noticed yet.

Your fingertips trace my spine,
Connecting the bones.
As they explore the constellations
Nestled in the crook of my elbow
Or speckled across my nose and cheeks,
You don't realize the nebulas
Of translucent bruises
Embedded into the muscle memory.
For that's all that's left.
The memories of love and hate,
Blurred by tear filled vision and shaky breaths.

Ribs are there to cage your lungs,
To hold your heart
But my breathing
Is still erratic enough
to shatter my bones
There’s not enough room
For the thoughts in my head
My lungs cannot drag enough air
There's no room for oxygen in my head
And if my thoughts suffocate me
It wouldn't be the worst thing to occur.

But like those African women,
Day after day
I'll balance those burdens,
Upon my head.
Keep that perfect posture.
For there is no room for error
When it appears as though
your entire piece of the world
relies upon your ability
to carry out the balancing act.