this afternoon is creeping in
and you're thinking
'it's 2 am, what the hell am i doing?'
because the truth is
that it's still past midnight
on our side of the stars.
i'd bleed out all the things i'd rather not encounter
before i'd hand a rose to that man at the door
who we thought would be there
but never really exsited at all.
we never really know ourselves, do we?
life would escape in a sigh of relief
if it knew that it was worth
all those breathy chemicals seeping
out your pores (i can smell them in the air when you walk past,
bitterly enticing and pouring our your lips
in strings of words that i'll soak up like the light
in the morning).
my thoughts are too scattered
and it has been too long.
it's never long enough.

petrified and laughing, we ran across that
idle milwaukee street
to get away from the traffic
and the emptiness in the doorway we had
just walked out of
and i realized
just how strong you are
and how beautiful your strength is
and i worried that you were in more pain
than what you showed in your smiling face.
if we never tell outside we are in it together,
then no one else will ever have to know.