Grace

Shaking my teeth loose on your table

The dullest white squares I'll never be

Now that you've picked each one apart you can't look at me

I'll probably lose you now

But at least the ones I have still sparkle

Putting on your makeup everyday before he wakes up

So he could stomach your face now easier than he could without

Yeah this is love

This is all that you could want

Open equals heavier

Hold your hand out palm side up

Open, empty, light enough

Minutes all turn to months

This is one thing we have all learned

Equations always make up a sum

But it doesn't add up

Signing up for that second semester

Because you won't marry me without the degree

Once I fix things up right you wont be so embarrassed of me

But I'll never make it now

But at least looking in the mirror wont feel like lying

Posing for your still visions

Acedemic postcard prisons

Raise your chin, love

Purged a poem I swore was finished

Heaping lines half chewed unconscious

Settle on a plot, chalk another loss

Stage set for

Breathing and choking on swallowed conversations

Clutching and crawling for constant validation

Still nailed in the ruins of corporate co-dependence

Still stuck on the thought that you're the one exception

All the while the same

I'm worried that the purpose is

How I look, not how I lived

Let's get dolled up and play pretend

Cause nothing stays honest when

Every thought is cursed with intent

A pulse covered in skin and words covered in lips

The taste of regret as it leaves your stomach

Coating your tongue with every noun

Watery eyes the only thing that makes sense now

Spitting your insides out

Start over

Start over

Start over

Start over

Start over