To be burned out, you have to have tried actually being on fire

Symbolistolic

I think you're falling too far inside yourself
When I touch you, I can't reach
down far enough into the bottomless hole you hid in
to pull you up
I'd breathe the shadows off your face
because my stomach can take the dark
but when I stretch the horizon from my shoulders
there's just a pretend patchwork sky scribbled across my back
instead of the sun
And middle of the night's pouring ink into my eyes
dumping stars into the back of my head
where I'm still keeping your broken chunks of cinderblocks
knocking over the cans of white and light I always meant
to paint in whorls and swirls all over your skin
It's weighting me down into twisting shapes of bending and leaning
and I think I'm too heavy to lift you out now
anymore anyway

(dvad 9-30-09)