roses in the wintertime ✓

life and death

this is just a lively city
full of people dead inside
i said to him,
staring down at the city lights

am i dead?

his warm breath swirls in white,
spelling out words
my plain eyes cannot decipher

i want to speak

i want to tell him how beautiful
ruins look from afar

i want to tell him that i think
the city lights
are like the stars
down in hell

i want to ask him to sit
at the edge of a cliff with me.
with death a hundred feet below us
and life a hundred feet above

i want to pick a wild rose
off the thorny bushes
he warned me about

i want to twirl in my boring dress
and raise the boring dust
with my boring shoes

and i want to run into his arms
and let the movement of my lips
tell him
that he is not dead.

because he is the only thing
that makes me want to stay alive

kylie szenski