stereotypes are overrated

When I was a girl
I imagined myself a princess
locked in a tower
and the knight would come
to rescue me from the dragon
and take me away.

Now I am a woman
I am not a princess
though held prisoner.
No knight is coming for me
Fairytales are for children
I will break out

two-faced

I used to believe
love was salvation
that light in the distance
beckoning us home
to a place of safety
where old wounds would heal
that it would cover us
like a blanket
and under it
what life we would create!

Now I know that love
is a temptress with a noose
which only tightens at the neck
as we rage against it
it will not be denied, it will burn
and torment long after hope dies
like a plague
it will consume
and bright eyes will go dead
in the dark.

Torrents

It's not like a faucet.
You can't just--
turn it off.

You can stop it up
But it will drip
And it will trickle
Then comes the flood
again
       and
             again

Nameless

Why do you still stir such things in me
like little birds that soar above the world
right into the sun that shines so bright
I have to shut my eyes against it
Who are you that they should whisper of you
these voices that won't die like the rest
but instead sing louder, ever more insistent
and paint your name into my dreams
What is it about you that lingers so
here in the depths of my ravaged heart
amidst the charred remains of who I was
a single ember, a pale glow, frail warmth
Why is it your voice alone
that calls the wind to stir these ashes
waking faith and hope and sunlight
from shallow graves where they sleep
In your eyes I still can find myself
who I was and was meant to be
and I still believe that I can be her
and doubt impossibility.

ever

sunrise has never been a friend of mine
cuz I dance with the devil every night
I'm still killing myself over time
cuz I've lost my taste for the fight
but I'm gonna lay down my effects
and take up arms again someday
I'm not lost, just need a little rest
I don't need to be shown the way
I may have gone a little rotten
but when I wake from the dead
you'll see I've never once forgotten
how to walk where angels fear to trade
These streets may be broken, but if you have the will
I'd be honored if you'd walk along with me
The bridges smoking in the distance can be rebuilt
for what is never really lost can ever be

x marks the spot but you burned your half of the map.

So youth withers into decay
like roses once given away
and I've had enough of yesterday
of ardor that will never stay
and secrets kept, year after year--
so many are planted here
hidden from the one called dear
to my heart forever cohered.
Nothing has changed or is the same;
on yellowed pages, I scrawled a name
still glowing within a lingering flame
a treasure that never shall be reclaimed.

I will dance with you at your brightest
and rage against the dying of your light
but I will love you at your darkest
and stand by you through the night.