Of Collateral Damage (And Other Loose Ends) - Parenthetical Girls

Pinch your cheeks so flush with light

leaves little dents so ill-defined

A finger bound in knots of twine

To ground the things that slip your mind

Pale your wrist stays, blue on white to

Match the shapes beneath your eyes you

Fake it through those trying times and

All that’s left are laughter lines

Spends much time or do me right where once it’s no longer bright enough

To catch your paper heart alight consumed in burning white I lost your

Letters in that fire and though the memories of that touch that cling

The weight of your self-interest passed between two bodies brush

Lest this messed your makeshift dress with the faintest smell of this

And just beneath the perfume on your neck is the faintest smell of death

You take your faith and circular reminders that say someday you’ll rest

Elaborate fantasies of bloody knees and empty providence

You owe your life to promises forgotten, makes the things you never kissed

In retrospect it all seemed so so selfish, well fuck this, fuck this, fuck this

Pale your wrists stay, blue on white

And pinch your cheeks 'neath sunken eyes

Leaves little dents so ill-defined

A finger seen as blue design

A finger bound in knots of twine

to ground the things that slip your mind