i.

pour out your heart between the rotting yellow stars;
her smile glimmers like diamonds & denial and the confusion
is burning acid in my stomach. chimeras of hope & jaded
illusions of happiness dancing like a circus show before my eyes,
a fanciful parade of wishes, wanna-be's, and lies
and i'm choking back the darkness as it rises from my gut.

("don't fall, little one;
the truth is a sinkhole & they say it never stops.")