Blue toes.
Street hoes and
a bloody nose.
A bag that blew in the wind
became the only thing holding my top pieces
to my ends.

I grew from you.
A branch broken off,
I grew out of you.
See-through,
I clung to what I knew.
Chopped down,
I could only see from the tiniest
point of view.
You never knew
anything I could do.
But you'll never forget that your weakest branch
grew out of and into
something much bigger than you.

Now dissolve me, two tabs on your tongue
A herd of shepherds to herd the sheep, sleep now my only one
Broken sweethearts who sleep apart
Both still pine for the other's side spine, spoon as sleep starts

And pulse to pulse, now shush

She makes the sound, the sound the sea makes to calm me down

I am see-through, soap sliver you're so thin
As I begin rubbing lathers up your state worsens on my skin
And gold, fatless finger to lip, one two three four hush

And pulse to pulse, now shush

She makes the sound, the sound the sea makes to calm me down
She makes the sound, the sound the sea makes. I'm tired now

I'd rather be good than bad. Do good than do bad.

Mother, it was they who led me to your door.

The nuns taught us there are two ways through life... the way of Nature... and the way of Grace. 
You have to choose which one you'll follow.
Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.
Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it, too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way.
It finds reasons to be unhappy... when all the world is shining around it... when love is smiling through all things.
They taught us that no one who loves the way of grace... ever comes to a bad end.
I will be true to you. Whatever comes.

Short of breath

I stand here and continue to hit myself
over the head until I am brain dead
and gasping for breath.
I make these decisions, and I lay in my grave.
As childish as I have behaved,
shouldn't someone have slapped my wrist?
As the self-critical, tightly wound floozy I am,
I will stand here and dig holes into my flesh
until it makes sense.