Five

It is all revealed in hindsight,
In the hints and glints of evenings
You intended to keep private,
How I never slept so poorly
As I did lying beside you--
Your snoring kept me so uneasy,
The simple sign that you were breathing
Left me restless, never knowing
You had drained me,
Left me, foolish,
Dry and breathless,
Left me lying in a bed
I've made before.

On its slow and steady creeping
Before finally hitting home,
This spiny gift that keeps on giving
Steeped in time to strength
So bitter. I would gladly
Lose each moment
Of the hot and prickly shame
That trickles, like a teacher's scolding,
Through each vein from head to toe.
You have let go, but I can't shake
This cruel token, like a splinter
Deeply hidden in my ribs,
The heart intact
But bruised and branded
By the pink and tingling
Handprint
Of an old persistent slap.

Riv

Chrindy

TK

Forgive yourself these bites of bread and
Lay aside the guilt

That's spread like butter,
Thick and ready now

To slide along your spine,

Melting with the blue and blinding
Flames, the shame

That rises from your gullet
Pausing at your throat. You swallow down
A painful lump of tears

To join the bread and butter
In the sewer you have made
Out of your stomach.

B. Brown

So what, we can't turn the world on its heel
And reenact the starts, the steps and stops,
The puffy breaths outside the bar,
The game of pool (on a snooker table,
Don't get it wrong)
We lost but really won.

(A technicality, but still)
Mine were the winning shots,
The stars aligned,
And if not for our six's kiss
On Lenny's stripe
On a its way to the corner pocket,
The game was ours, a tidy product
Of quite the partnership.

Lenny was an asshole, anyway.
He seemed the petty type
To press us for our spot.
So you, the king, abiding
By your code, abdicated,
Opting to avoid
Any kind of spectacle
(Though you were far better,
And you and I know
What really went down).

So when you leave tomorrow
For a town I've never seen
To hang your thesis show
I hope you come back
And crash on someone's
Slightly too-short couch.
I hope I see you around so we can
Find another bar that has
A party hiding in the background,
Talk about the cigarettes
We should be putting out,
Or something equally profound.