there's this story you want to tell. you're pretty sure there was a moral and you're pretty sure he'd like it but you can't remember how the story goes. but you're not worried.
it starts like this.
it starts like
this.
it
starts like this.
(i)
you have too many houses and not enough homes and the terracotta buildings have sunk so far into your skin, you don't think the earthy smell will ever leave you alone. your favourite place in the world is with a pair of green eyes and blue ones -- and maybe a brown pair or three, if they're not too busy today -- under a canopy of grey sky and greg the gargoyle.
instead, you've gotta be happy with blue walls and wood panelling and a green door.
you push it open and fall into a surprised sea.
and suddenly, you've found a kind of home you've never known.
(ii)
your pulse flutters like there are butterflies trapped under your skin. it would explain the black and blue, wouldn't it? but you bite back the early spring and he smiles at you, soft and slow and symmetrical except for that one dimple in his right cheek, and you kind of stopped breathing ten minutes ago. he says a line -- and you're too slow to wonder now how many women he's used this on, how many women he's been with, how many women he's loved -- and you can only blink as he runs because, when the fuck did you ever become something worth pulling a line on anyway?
he runs,
and you've always, always been good
at hide and seek,
so you chase him down,
and make the biggest
mistake of your life,
because he was playing tag and you
aren't too great at that,
sweetheart.
(iii)
there's a purple dress and a beautiful woman and you don't know who she is. the silver lining to every cloud and sea and mirror but you just want to rip it out of this one, turn it into a cloak and make yourself this gorgeous forever. there's a purple dress and a beautiful man and one night to make it real. your face would match your dress if anyone found out but you think he's worth the risk he's worth everything this is all for you.
you buy a pair of black stilettos and a flower clip,
and your best friend buys you a velvet purse.
there
are
three weeks left.
(iv)
she talks to you till four a.m.,
and you write him mocha letters in red ink
of all the things you can't say,
it's short and concise,
because that's what he taught you,
and experience teaches you best.
(v)
you feel like you're about to puke all over his perfect, cream floor. he wouldn't get offended even if you did because it feels like there's glass clawing it's way from your heart and out your throat to decorate his floors with miserable crystals.
there's a purple dress and a beautiful moment where you hoped it would be different.
you were wrong again.
(vi)
he's the kind of guy who gets lost in the details but never forgets he's in a painting and he's drowning in it, you know, drowning in colours. and you, you're the kind of girl who paints and paints but never gets it right; there's always something wrong. he'll tell you it's this dot over here, why is it here? and you'll say, that's the dot, the dot that's you and how you make me feel and everything that you are and he'll still say why, why is it here? and how do you explain then?
you don't.
(vii)
you've never been good at holding things together; not yourself, not her and not anything else. and he can't keep it going; not himself, not her and not anything else. he's a beautiful man in a blue shirt and things are falling apart. you think that if you press your fingertips into his bare back enough, that maybe the whorls on your thumb could be enough of a map.
but there is no map to doing this right,
and you're both doing it wrong.
(viii)
you've never been whole,
but he's pretty fucking broken too.
(he's fucking pretty broken too)
and, maybe, all of your pe i c es will fit together and you wouldn't need to be fine, or whole, or flawless, or perfect. maybe, you could both just be you.
hope is the most fragile thing,
and it presses angel kisses to your sternum,
flickering with each of his smiles.
