something big

i)you curl your knees like a seashell,
a hermit crab wrapped in human skin, you drag yourself
from place to place searching
for a better home than these rags
waiting for someone with the suns in their eyes to catch you
and change you and press their
fingerprints into the wet clay of you

ii)cannibal, your teeth are worn
you hunt over your shoulder for something
a puzzle piece like you, with holes and gaps where you have
spears and thoughts that don't fit
to plug yourself into the raw electricity of them
and short them out
not with a whimper, but a bang
fireworks, or maybe just fires.

iii)the party lights are scattered like stars
and she puts them out with a breath and a crushed paper cup and
he watches her like his life depends
like she snatched his heart when she brushed past him
and he stays close, not wanting to snap
the veins and arteries she has tangled around her wrist
her eyes snap up and their jigsaw
snaps into place

iv)he remembers her in his dreams and her
kisses are the monster under his bed and in his closet and
just behind his heavy lids
the sun rises and he gasps away from her subconscious clutches
again, and he wonders who he would be
if she hadn't folded him to fit around her
then torn the paper up

v)she wipes lipstick across her mouth and
she doesn't think about him, planning instead
where she will watch the sunset from tonight, and she
crosses her fingers and blows the mirror a kiss
it is the memorial war of what she was, and the names
of her toys are scrawled around the edges
for her to mourn, for her to remember, for her to forget