I spent yet another night copying poems into frames so that she can hang them on her tongue and teeth and bear them when she bites or smiles. They fit nicely between the crest of her lips and the minarets of her words. Rising and crashing back down with each inflection, the meter invites life to slip back into her throat and kiss her from the inside out. Deeper than I ever really could. But the lines were not drawn level. Something is off. Her teeth are wearing green with an ugly blush of patina. Her tongue flies wildly in her mouth, rapping at the chamber door beneath the crook of my nose for more of the guilty promises I dressed ravishingly to rival the gallants from her favorite childhood stories. She beats her fists purple while I watch from behind the bulwark and laugh at the tears welling up in the bags under my eyes. They say that words can't bite like nails but I've seen suns come to be and die again in a passing breath. Sentences like portraits capture the decline of the southern aristocracy, the thinning of the Grecian blood, or the collapse of the bay waters into the shore with an efficacy that seems divinely inspired. Or, at least, inspired in poetastry. So that she may rest again, like a child would, I will heed the words of an old poet now silent like his poem in that solitude. At once: we are Being Still. Following are the words left for those who clamor for the works of a man stricken dead by the slight of his own pen.

She is the bluest light I know this from a love that’s been taught I can’t get her out of my sight The beauty she’s flaunting is haunting, it’s taunting me I’m just a prisoner to insecurity and made her a prisoner of an undying love I’m ruined; haven’t you just had enough? Scattered out of focus lights Keep me from seeing Everything that I missed An image that will break my heart tonight And in the afterlife I’ll find you faster, love of mine I’ll be right by your side There will be no need To say goodbye Forever connected With your blood on my lips The taste gets sweeter With each and every kiss Soul mates Our love will shine as bright As scattered out of focus lights Scattered out of focus lights Keep me from seeing Everything that I missed An image that will break my heart tonight Let the right one in Scattered out of focus lights Keep me from seeing Everything that I missed An image that will break my heart tonight (Let the right one in)

Help somebody there's been a Murder in Baltimore It came to this Over a conflict of identity and self respect There's only room for one His thoughts to do harm Ran deep but their words to cure cut fatal Til they dug between his shoulder blades And made his gait unstable So he cracked at the knees to echo Cassandra's providence of the coming collapse To be a staple in the woodwork Nothing more than a fly on the wall Of a well lit room with a lone window looking in But his eyes still scream Where have I been Flee the scene it's flooding, holy hell it's bloody Avert your eyes and steel your ears Twenty wasted years Count the breaths in seconds The beating of my pulse rings hollow I thought you would be here Just ask me if I'm fine The cliff is steep and sheer Would I be wasting all your time Help somebody there's been a Murder in Baltimore It came to this Because you couldn't reconcile yourselves Can you call it suicide if you don't know the person that you killed? There's nothing to say when the only thing between the preacher and the choir is a mirror And maybe if we're born as ghosts we're not supposed to die whole

Suddenly the snow doesn’t seem so beautiful Now that it’s covered in blood He said this is not what I wanted to do But it has to be done Death is no angel Plagued by nightmares of things I can’t believe Haunted by visions of that winter scene A lifeless body on the ground Could that be me His blood's on my hands You’re guilty, you’re guilty Father stop I’m begging you please The doctor said there might be some hope for me Like I’d believe his mouth full of lies Telling me everything will be all right Telling me everything will be alright Telling me everything will be just fine Memories are probably the saddest thing about my life. Not that I regret anything, or I didn’t enjoy myself, but knowing I can never go back. I can never feel what I felt in those moments passed, good or bad. Paying no attention to how much time I had, or how fast it was passing me by. I would lie awake late at night feeling choked by the ceiling, wishing I could just see the sky. Wondering about the future, feeling sick about the past. And no matter how much time does pass, I never feel whole. Never okay with what I’ve accomplished year after year. I still lie awake every night. Still choking. Still waiting for change. To feel whole. And at this point, I don’t think it will ever come. At this point, I think I’ve given up. Please don’t do this You’re sick And I won’t wait to lose another I won’t go through this again It was the same with your mother It’s happening right before my eyes And I can’t sit still If I don’t kill you now I know the cancer will And I won’t wait for answers from an uncaring doctor The unknown is unbearable It’s not enough And I won’t pray for answers from a faulty God I’m ending this tonight I’ve lost too much I’m bleeding out in slow motion Neurons fire off like explosions My thoughts flooding me with emotion But I accept my fate as I fade away Accept my fate as I fade away Father stop I’m begging you please The doctor said there might be some hope for me Like I’d believe his mouth full of lies Telling me everything will be all right Telling me everything will be alright Telling me everything will be just fine

Lay your body down for the count (I'll never have this) Your sacrilege is saccharine (I'll never taste this again) We're buying our time but we spend it on arguments You splinter your spine Look up, down, reflect, repent Caught by the wrist, compressed by the gravity We hang right here I woke up that day near sunrise grasping at the sheets for something that wasn't there. You had already left them. Your hair obscured your face from me like a memory that isn't quite mine but I knew your eyes were passing along the windowsill, tasting thoughts on your tongue. Yet all I could see from that pathetically comfortable temple we called a bed was your back pressed like Atlas under the slight weight of your shoulders. And you were tracing the footsteps of the kids across the street. So I went back to bed. I couldn't handle a poetic moment that early in the morning. So is this what we are? Hands shaking and blue hearts refuse What does a dead sacrament mean to you? When the lights went out, did you lose your eyes? (Or just take mine?) Or just take mine? (Let's face our convenient lie) And a glance is too cheap To afford what we speak I'm tasting sour in sweet Is this the last of our love at our feet Or just the rest of your feathers? Is this all gone forever? (Kyle:) We were dancing in circles in churches, we fell Your body, it clutched into mine From hearts, my belly, your torso, to wine Count backwards from seven to slow dive Before we die Before we die Carry my body, deliver me Tearing roots from the ground, you coquettish hound Don't you ever forget who brought you to sleep Press the air Out of your lungs and tear our your hair Broken bruise Sleep is a dream in a bluesy key I dispose my fear I've interred my love under boxed wine and diner food Soft, mute, and motionless I hope I'm ready to let go A waltz is supposed to wake the body Not shake it in apathy Maybe I just heard it wrong Well I guess I'll accept whatever I'm left with That's easy to swallow And I won't forget If you don't believe That letting this go Was a choice that I made

I’ve been watching you while you sleep In hopes that you’ll wake to find me In hopes that we could speak I will follow my hope blindly In the afterlife we will meet Don’t ever stop trying to find me I’ve been watching you while you sleep I will follow my love blindly