i. nebulae
i placed the metalwork
of my mind into
your waiting arms.
you promised you would
take the rusted bronze
from too many nights spent
out in the rain, under the
cold glare of the moon
and wax gold until
my body is molten hot
to the touch and solid gold
all over, a statue in
one of your temples.
you saw potential
in my rebirth and
who was i to question
the intuition of an artist?
sea breezes echoed off
of your words, an empire
begins to rebuild itself
from the crushed pillars
of ruin it is now
ii. protostar
your laughter was
the soundtrack to my life.
i took pictures of
everything we did but
knew i never needed them,
because i would never forget
the taste of your lips
at 2am on a thursday night
as you kissed me
against alley walls
marked in graffiti,
tattooing your name
onto my heart, tainting
my blood and the inner
workings of my veins
iii. star
our love was a work of art;
your breath hot against
my neck, as my collarbones
realigned themselves to
form the compass pointing
due north into the night sky,
the big Dipper guiding
your hands under my shirt
and between my legs.
i bent myself backwards
under the weight of
your touch until it was
too late, until i didn’t
notice the blood
pooling on the floor or
the fractures in my spine
as my bones struggled
to keep up
iv. supernova
when you realized
you had been using
violet instead of mauve
this whole time,
you littered me with
shades of red and blue.
my body was a spotlight
on your mistakes,
magenta and lilac
and lavender and
plum mixing together
until you couldn’t tell the
red from the blue anymore.
and you moved onto
a blank canvas, one
that wasn’t covered
in the wrong colors.
then on your first try,
you painted a perfect
shade of mauve onto
her milky clean body
v. black hole
i refuse to remain ruined,
i did not endure this
only to wither away
into oblivion. the space
where my heart used to be,
where you used to whisper
the secrets of the universe
and tell me how all
humans are made of
the remnants of stardust,
is now empty and hollow.
i will rip out the stardust you
once said was rusted bronze,
was useless and worthless and
had no chance of being gold,
and turn it into a black hole.
if i am broken, i will drag
you down with me.
stars have no power over me,
i will not be another
piece in your game as you mix
colors onto every waiting body
life cycle of a star | c.y.
