Peter Pan

Photo by Victoria Borodinova from Pexels

Do not put this on your shoulders, darling,

I will carry all the love until our parting.

No need to compromise, hold your truth,

Be it vitriolic, be it unequivocally rude.

I can break my morals and step on them, too.

Afterall, I gave my blood to paint you blue.

Do not lift a finger, love, do not suffer.

My arms will persist, they will grow tougher.

I am willing to drain a river with my heat,

You will not notice as I slip underneath.

The water will carry me back to the day

I betrayed everyone to make you stay.

But do not put this on your shoulders, dear.

Women like me are meant to disappear.

No need to apologize, not that you can.

Keep levitating aimlessly like Peter Pan.

-JW

The City Calls

Photo by Anete Lusina from Pexels

The walls within this sickly concrete sea monster always look too dull,

The faces are greyer than October sky, barely sticking to their skulls.

I bury all clues and shotguns where I know I’d never step my foot again

And blend in with the walls, breathing in fumes and fresh propane.

The lines are long but I’m used to waiting for an uneventful death.

Each humanoid figure around is the same – everything but a real threat.

We submissively march to the music and lower our eyes when it stops.

Some ashy buildings appear on the horizon just as my stomach drops.

I can sense the electric nervousness strings overtaking the numb crowd.

This is the moment we could run for cover – only if we were allowed.

Instead we brace for impact as cement fills the streets, we are tongue tied.

We’ve been taught since a very young age:

When the city calls, you must always be ready to die.

-JW

Careful What You Swear By

Photo by Photography Maghradze PH from Pexels

If you promise a pound of flesh, you must deliver.

If you promise two, you must also give away the liver.

Even when you do not recall a blood oath made,

You must pull yourself into pieces

In the spirit of fair trade.

When the devil comes to collect your debts again,

Tell it to go and bleed dry your best friends instead.

To survive, you must really focus on existing

And you cannot do that with pride

Or morals in your system.

After all that has been done, you should remember –

One day you will not be able to blame your bad temper

For wilfully slipping deeper into the machine.

But you cannot admit it

So you swear by the silver screen.

-JW

Barely

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

The glitz and the glamour are ruining our youth –

Too much lipstick, too short of a skirt,

The heels are too high, the words are too brute.

You can’t be book smart if you’re also a flirt.

The anarchism is teasing their brain.

No politics for teens! Stay in your lane.

Shut it, what do you know about pain?

Let’s all follow The Dream and stay insane.

The information is spreading too fast –

When I was twenty, I had a blast.

Now they’re opposing. Who even asked?!

When opinions are given, theirs should go last.

(The reality is changing them too early.

Time is running out, most of them aren’t treated fairly.

But you would rather look away than answer sincerely?

When you claim the youth is pampered, I would say – barely.)

-JW

Tinseltown

Photo by Designecologist from Pexels

A-listers with bleached morals and dead eyes –

They munch on diamonds while I’m forced to eat led pies.

Lies. Sabotage. Saying I’m a carbon copy.

The next I know – he wants to make me into a trophy.

Is this the place losers are produced and turned into stars?

The slower they age, the faster they drive their cars.

Fake condolences mixed with beauty tips from the rotten.

Everyone without a dollar to their name trying to get their shot in.

“Hollywood infected your brain,” Marina sang in the rain.

It also spread through the bodies of many, even the sane.

But tinsels don’t cast a reflection in the darkest place.

Fabricated ideals remain untrue, even if manufactured in lace.

JW

No Pressure

Photo by Alan Cabello from Pexels

I must be missing the substance of all your allegories.

The sentences peel my skin with disgust when they say:

“You’re a lady, you should have some better worries.”

“Are you dating and are you planning a kid, tell me!”

They need to hear my convenient answers.

But everything I want is for my mind to be handled safely.

Crawled out of the hold of anxiety, beat the monster in the mirror,

For a year and a half I’ve been able to breathe without pain

But the pressure is quietly kicking in, it’s a silent killer.

Why can’t I simply be undecided and live one day at the time?

Why can’t I have the choice and the cash,

why can’t it all be mine?

Why is my every step analyzed as if it’s colored in lime?

-JW

Rusty

Photo by Etienne Marais from Pexels

Devil only got in trouble because she spoke the truth.

As the barks of bad reputation got louder, we reached for the passion fruit.

Way down we go… I would do it all over again, bathing in holy water.

Not once will I scream or beg to the father.

Disobedience will become my alma mater.

***

I’ll be your friend until the heated end. Until the last leaf in the tree turns into dust.

When air turns to smoke, I’ll hold the corners of your mouth up until my palms are covered in rust.

Pollution will smell like musk.

The end will be easy though – surroundings will fade,

Your soul will get wanderlust.

-JW

Faux Grieving

Photo by Ian Panelo from Pexels

When the light has left for the day – and so has reason,

I patch up the cuts in my stomach, clean ichor from last season

Of the witch,

Where I was the last one standing up to them, soaking wet,

With filth under my fingernails. Yet they didn’t see me as a threat.

They read into my words but they misconstrued the meanings.

Dictionaries are useless when it comes to faux grievings

And holding onto to things so tight they pinch your carotid

Until there’s not a single vessel left that’s solid, unrotted.

“Choose your fights carefully,” they say, guns blazing.

The ironies this world can teach deserve a proper razing –

Unless, of course, all things corrupt are also built from good intentions,

Spoiled by too much trust and lack of attention.

Aiming a revolver in the sky is not a choice many get to make

Although we’re told that going our own way is a piece of cake –

Wedding cake, probably, as there isn’t a faker symbol in the business

Of selling out souls for pennies at time, just to end up with a grimace

Full of ghouls and a grimness.

-JW

Not to Sound Banal

Photo by Prateek Katyal

I always fall for people that I let too close to my chest,

As if vulnerability is some kind of drug I need to test.

My empathy is the worst of my foes, a real placebo effect –

It has misplaced my senses with fragile defenses,

Impossible to detect.

Have been feeling defective, yet finding new ways to cope,

Subsisting by flirting with people whose morals are broke.

Now I’m sure that whoever likes me can never be whole.

People with ideals are as far from me and as frigid

As the goddamn South Pole.

It’s been strange how I’m feeding my egos with lovers I tease –

With some I’m just playing, but some I put right on their knees.

We all know that worst things in life come strictly in threes:

One lost soul, one misguided bishop , one sin

Well hidden in the diocese.

Let’s take a ride, baby, let’s rocket right through my bitterness

Masked as temptation, poorly hidden in wraps of my selfishness.

I would still take home every soul who has lowered my walls

As I’m not capable of walking away from tragedy,

Not to sound banal.

-JW