Skinny

Not a morsel of food
has passed your narrow lips in days,
so how come the girl in the mirror
is fatter than ever?

Your mother pretends to mean well

as she hands you a loaded plate,

but in reality she's just desperate to fatten you up

like the prize pig you truly are.

Only water will suffice,

for anything else is a poison,
regurgitated once the humiliation is over,

to clear the evidence of weakness,

the shame of giving in.

The others
with their model figures,
their size zero frames,
they do not understand how it feels
to be so disgusting.
They say you are one of them,
skinniest of the lot even,
but you know they are just teasing.

Five hundred sit ups is not enough
if you want to combat that stomach of yours, love,
those mounds of repulsive gloop
you have brought upon yourself.

600 tonight.

Gentle

Come here, old harpsichord
let me play your strings.
I will be gentle, I promise,
for I know that they have not been touched
in a long time.

Gently sliding off your cover,
peeling away the last of the defensive layers,
I promise I will not hurt you,
only try to make things better.

I run my hands over each
individual string, so weary,
yet enamoured to my touch,
teasing out soft notes
that stretch you almost to breaking point.

You bend to my touch,
ever willing to fuel my passions
as I begin to pluck steadily faster,
your sound and my heartbeat in perfect harmony.

No longer sure what belongs to me
and what is yours,
we ascend into the ecstasy,
a symphony of lust,
my gentle cries echoing your vibrations exactly,
our souls entwined together,
lost in each other.

Slowly but surely
the music ascends to a crescendo,
and we are both at the gates of St Peter,
the paradise we have created for ourselves.

Keep me here, let me play.

Cheated

A brunette
with an August birthday
finds herself in your arms
but which one is it this time?

Your hands
caressing her skinny figure
skin so thin you can feel her ribs
crushing beneath your relentless fingers.

She waits, hurriedly anxious
as you prepare yourself,
fearful of the consequences of lust,
how one night can turn into a lifetime.

The unfamiliar bed
which you have seen so many times,
but never laid in, this way, with her,
has room for both of you tonight.

Electric touch keeps the both of you in raptures,
devouring the very essence of each other,
with soft love bites,
everywhere.

Soon there will be nothing left,
both of you reaching the fleeting peak of elation
only to begin the descent into shame,
for you are far too young to really know
what you have just done.

But for now, as you hold her,
she is the entire world to you,
and I do not know where I stand,
or if I can even stand at all.

Girl

Those hours you spent
doing your make up,
fixing your hair,
would have been better spent
with someone who truly cares.

I wish you knew
that appearance isn't everything,
that looks can deceive
in the same way that a charged look across a crowded room
can destroy the hardiest of souls.

But
you don't understand,
the girl with everything,
striving for perfection in front of a cracked mirror,
it can never be so.

Keep trying.

Second Chances

Sometimes
I wonder what it would be like
not to feel.

To live one day
without the restless torrent of emotion
beating down upon my already heavy heart.

To go through life
as free as a bird
unrestrained
captivated
by whatever should take my fancy.

Then I think about you
and the marks you have left
on what was an unblemished soul
and I wonder if it's worth it,
in the end.

The Passenger

The train
with all its stops and starts,
a mechanism for a hungry heart
with nowhere to go.

Each stop is a start,
never knowing where you will take me,
But each start is a stop
when there is only so far to go.

Yet I let you board the train
not knowing where we are going
or how long the journey will take.

It is this trusting faith
that will be my downfall.

Dedicated to Liam Temple, for starting this whole crazy idea.