Prop Knives

Photo by Mathias Reding

The reasons escape me like dizzy moths escape darkness,

And the black spill in my ocean tells me the sky is starless.

I do not know if I can make it a day or maybe two,

My animals are rioting, getting ready to leave this zoo.

I sit and I look back at the things I have killed for fun.

It breaks my pale skin, but will I ever be done?

My therapist says I should be much nicer to myself,

But if I do, no one will hear when I finally beg for help.

It is true, I only lose dear people when I get better –

A healing soul can only open so many mean letters.

A burning soul will cling onto gasoline to feel alive,

And I was never that good with using the prop knives.

All I have known is my soul being used like a free sample.

Now there is not much left, so do not take a gamble.

The reasons spill from me like blood from a fresh cut,

And the last light in my ribcage tells me to kill this rut.

-Jackie

Butterfly Net

Photo by cottonbro

I cut myself with the dullest knives for a decade,

And I believed that I could fully strangle the pain.

I lived through self-inflicted wounds and raging rush,

Yet, my stories ran dry, and I lost touch.

Nobody told me that my tongue was long dead,

They happily took away my golden threads.

No one really seemed to mind my fleeting breath,

Let me live and let me die in a butterfly net.

Was I foolish for thinking the future was promised?

I cut myself with the shards from my chalice.

My core was a rotten weed, destined to die,

But destiny is a fragile thing if you dare to try.

-Jackie

It’ll Pass

Photo by arvin latifi

I sip them like wine,

But I don’t know the limit.

I trap love in a rhyme,

Then go and kill it.

Honey, I’m a menace,

Just be careful.

Leave me on a terrace,

Scarred and tearful.

I breathe them like fumes,

But my lungs are grey.

All I do is lose,

I’m an empty tray.

Honey, I’m a whirlwind,

Sharp and unstable.

I showed you how to sin,

Then turned the tables.

-Jackie

Bravery Is A Reprise

Photo by Michelle Leman

I fell for your tricks because they kept away my ghouls.

Little did I know – you would never show me yours.

My red mascara dripped on the beige kitchen floor.

I told you my truth, but you just called me a tool.

You made me indecisive in the worst situations,

I healed you like a wound, treated you like a patient.

My survival instinct must have been on a vacation

Because when I look back, I no longer have the patience.

I fell for your charms because I was too proud to lie,

And I granted others wishes and a dozen second tries.

But I am starting to remember how to not want to die.

Love, now I know better – bravery is a reprise.

-Jackie

Parasite

Photo by Olya Prutskova

I hate it when people use my name.

They do not have the right, they do not feel the shame.

My brain is a bomb, and, baby, it ticks.

Maybe I’m poisoned by my politics.

Yet, I hate silence more than I should,

I chase it with a knife around my neighborhood.

The anxiety flashes through me in sharp crashes,

And acidic tears get stuck to my lashes.

I hate it when people try to make me cry.

Haven’t they heard?

I left my soul out there to die.

My brain is a parasite, always sucking me dry,

Chasing after substances that make me high.

-Jackie

The Girl

Photo by mikoto.raw Photographer

I stand three inches from the noose,

One peace to gain, one heart to lose.

Still, I am the happiest person I know,

The girl smiling at you from the front row.

I stand just three steps from breaking down.

Oh, these voices are violently loud.

Still, no one seems to notice me falling.

I am the girl that found her calling.

I sway over the trench one, two, three times.

It hopes that one day I call it mine.

Still, they clap as I fly towards the end,

The girl that never called life her friend.

-Jackie

Spirit

Photo by Gustavo Peres

She’s chasing her demons with whiskey,

That’s all the spirit she needs.

She loves them till the glass turns misty,

Then she opens up and bleeds.

Don’t turn away, she just cannot help it.

Baby, when it rains, it pours.

Her eyes turn from wells to empty buckets,

And the walls turn into doors.

But don’t you mind it, she’s almost done.

Watch as the new sun rises.

The face of the day kills all her fun,

It buries her in demises.

-Jackie

Substances

Photo by mododeolhar

I gave you my mind, but you needed more.

I gave up my life, you said “make it four”.

You slit open my eyes,

Bruised my thighs.

Now I walk the streets and I agonize.

I gave you my stories, it was not enough.

You needed someone who fills your cup.

You bled me dry,

Left me sick and high.

It is time to sing the last lullaby.

-Jackie

Let Them Have Their Laughs

Photo by lilartsy from Pexels

You always knew how to make me tick, you were a machine taking me back in time.

You swore me to secrecy in dark alleys, then covered yourself up like a gory crime.

You spoke at them with the roaring conviction of someone who has not been doing fine.

Despite my reality collapsing like an ivory tower, I still stayed loyally by your right side.

I put my hair up before I left the apartment to defend you and your barely scraped knees,

I walked the roads of shame with your name on my sleeve, carrying it like a past due fee.

I did not know the dry skeletons in your closet have not known one moment of peace.

Despite all their sticks and stones breaking my limbs, I held onto you like Achilles.

They watched as I spilled blood and guts over the pavement, they rolled their eyes.

They knew I was just another one of your toys, lost in love, completely hypnotized.

They let me fight off your nemesis, they did not even try to cut your ropes and ties.

Despite knowing that, I let them have their laughs, just like the last couple hundred times.

-JW

Hypnotic

Photo by Hakeem James Hausley from Pexels

The metronome blankly ticks my consciousness away,

Counting the last moments before I become your prey.

I do not remember my name, I do not recall my age,

But you speak with conviction, and it tames my rage.

Next page, I must turn the next page of our story.

My dreams keep swearing you have always adored me.

But the suspicion grows like a seed in healthy soil,

And my soul warns me as you call me awfully spoiled.

Between car wrecks and stab wounds, you call for me,

Promising a brand-new start built on stolen honesty.

I do not remember ever asking you for this palace.

My role is a Sisyphean task, and I am not your Alice.

Yet, the metronome has no loyalty, it just ticks away,

Remolding my empty life from zero in scarlet clay.

-JW