for the tarnished hearts

𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒊'𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒆

prompts used: "letters tied with my heartstrings", "sun-soaked earth"

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i've visited the cemetery

where all the good things

i've let die

now restlessly sleep

in its regretful arms

of chipped stone and ivy.

i've fisted the dirt

in my hands

as if i can

uproot the past,

tasted the demise

sharp and bitter

on my tongue—

anything sweet

would've choked me

(do i deserve relief?),

i needed to mourn,

ease the troubled gravestones

that mark my timeline

with letters

i've tied with my

torn-out heartstrings.

i barely felt the absence.

who needs heartstrings

when there's no one

to pull them,

tug you close, closer,

to tie their own

to yours?

who even needs a heart

if no one

will live in it?

it's a dangerous game,

living between

someone else's heartbeats—

you never know

when this home

will be set on fire,

and you'll taste

all the dulcet shades of love

at once

before it's reduced

to sweet ash,

and you'll wander

this sun-soaked earth

for eternity,

lost and unhinged,

your skin

mistaking every touch of warmth

for calculating cold.

i didn't see the sun

on the horizon

as i cried glass-shard tears

into my cut palms,

peered up

only when the moon

joined in on my

melancholy

and we mourned

together

beneath faded stars

that are deaths, too.

does anyone know

if you've passed

if you still shine?

glowing,

blinding

all the senses.

love,

mari