(but I can't tell you out loud)

THANATOPHOBIA

Rapid fire thoughts transduce in slow motion

I gag on the words when they taste like devotion

and it’s true if cigarettes grew on trees I’d probably roam the streets with newspapers wrapped around my feet

but I’d be getting somewhere and at least when i looked down things would be black and white

and yeah you’ll cook up your last bit of inspiration

and i bet you’ll use the best spoon in the drawer

It’s kinda like the nightly ceiling fan staring contest held in my room that no one ever seems to show up to

It’s like finding out your wife was cheating after she’s dead

it’s like trying to slit your wrists without getting blood on your hands

it’s like having the best long term health plan on death row

Now this next part is critical

try not to hold your breath between the lines

and if your heartbeat becomes habitual

press a knife between your lungs

remember none of this is literal

suicide is the quickest cure for thanatophobia

By LUKE ROSE

LIGHTS DELUXE

Painted skies

lights deluxe

we’re not feeling sharp enough

choke the lungs within my chest

to rest my head on beauty’s breast

past love lingers overhead

just above the trundle bed

if you draw on my warpaint I’ll hold your mask

but we will not go to war

guilt stained smoking gun dripping on my future tense

this conflict has been lost

I’m fine

I’m fine

I’m fine

you won’t need to hold my hair back

you won’t need to be my crutch

I welcome the familiar rocky stride

I embrace a lunar relapse

By LUKE ROSE