″One Was A Book Thief. The Other Stole The Sky.“

there are some stains only a dark rain can make.

Stacey Waite, from “when someone asks if you believe what you just said,” the lake has no saint (Tupelo Press, 2010)

the things we learn right before midnight

what's keeping you from sleeping?

nothing. i'm just not ready to hit the sack.

why's that?

you really want to know?

yep.

okay. but i don't want you to think i'm crazy or leave this bed running, alright?

i wouldn't do that.

right. okay. hmm. so, 24 years ago, on the eve of my birth, my mom decided to deliver her child in a graveyard. the city's farthest most forgotten graveyard. she's an artist, though; a lover of contrasts & a chaser of the dark.

oh

july 21st, lost in the depths of a summer night amid traces of grief, sorrow & dried petals, my mum gave birth to a baby she’d almost immediately hold between her arms. i don't remember this of course, but i've been told she murmured:

'hey, little one. i need you to think of death as your friend. a mutual. an ally. a confident.'

from that day on - my entire life, basically- i've never slept before midnight.

i stay still by the side of my bed, patiently waiting for my oldest friend to come sit by my side.

once he shows up, we tell each other how life treated us that day in our own sides of the realm.   we then hold hands & together, we end the life of yet another day.

- @skinthepoet

brain rain by .simstorm Via Flickr

ART HISTORY MEME | [1/7] sculptures; david

Lost to be found

It is cold in this thing we call a body. / Who will tend to the fire with so few hands to go around?

Alison C. Rollins, from “Skinning Ghosts Alive,” published in Tupelo Quarterly (via lifeinpoetry)

the dirty & the imbecile

my heart, falling victim to a kidnap my own head had devised,

cries a thousand fears under a flickering lamp.

my heart, freed from a crime my own head once orchestrated,

sings hallelujah in the rain.  

- @skinthepoet