xliv

aren’t you lost? aren’t you waiting?
you’ve been smiling a lot more lately
or is it the ketamine bleed-through?
i suppose it doesn’t matter too much
as long as you have found your happiness

as long as you’re holding on inside
throw enough dull knives at a wall
sooner or later something will stick
chipped resin over rotted wood
your mark will be left and eventually forgotten

i wish it didn’t always feel this way
sleepless and waiting on everyone’s suicide
rely upon the comedown to separate what’s wrong from right
separate the light from our eyes
laying adjacent in opposing lives

instinct tells me to hide from you
i want to learn to listen closer
why must you love me the way you do
like it means everything and nothing
dead flowers in a stagnant vase

existence in poetry //

transgender,
hopeless sapphic
gothic romantic //

revelations in love,
despair, hope
failure, beauty
death, personhood
resistance, healing //

non-indigenous woman
dwelling in Naarm
on lands sovereign
to the Wurundjeri people
this always was
always will be
Aboriginal land
paytherent.net.au //