You burnt your tongue that night
On coffee
And fluorescent lights

A Polaroid dream

A picture perfect us
Torn to shreds in a suburban basement years ago

And you told me you felt high off life and love

But you, you never loved
And only briefly lived

We visited an abandoned church

A broken home
And you cried when you found the grave

Getting drunk and climbing fences

Only to find
You didn’t want to see what was on the other side

A black and white TV with no sound

Enjoying every moment a heart breaks without a noise
Like mine did

A pile of ashes

That was once a pair of lovers
Burning like hellfire

And

A once white paper

Now covered
By the ink of defeat

A whispered name, a mentioned lover
Someone
To flee to for cover

A paranoid glance
To see who is there
As the ghosts advance

A balcony at sunrise
A Juliet
Whose Romeo told her only lies

Sex with strangers in a strange place
It brings memories
Of a girl with an innocent face

Jealousy hovers over you
And you pick it
A ripe green apple that’s been waiting for you

That night you ran into the street
Hoping it was safer
Than remaining with the ghosts in your home

And you fled to

A cheap motel room
The shades drawn
Everything lost in gloom

You took me for a ride on the motorcycle
The wind in my hair
And death on our minds

A cheap bottle of wine
Half empty
Resting between our thighs

We gaze at stars
Neon and flashing
As we lie on this concrete desert

You run a stop sign and then a red light
But it’s 4 am
So nobody sees or if they do they don’t give a damn

You broke your leg
But not your life
As you jumped to escape your teenage years

You carried a gun and knew how to use it
But wasted bullets
Because ghosts can’t be shot

And I wanted to tell you how I felt
But I couldn’t
Because I knew you didn’t feel the same

And I cried
And you kissed the tears from my cheeks and told me
It will be ok

But how can it be ok?
It couldn’t, I knew that
I knew that with my heart stinging like my eyes and my cheeks from the tears and from you

Together

We were falling stars
For one night
When no one looked up