Two Sides of the Same Stained Glass Shard

violets bloom in my bruises. violets bloom in her bruises,

rainbows reflect in my tears. rainbows reflect in her eyes,

sunbeams peek from my pleas. sunbeams peak from my pleasure,

stardust sparkles between blows. stardust sparkles between her thighs,

i silently beg her not to stop. i pretend not to hear her.

kitungsi tales, we were a match, set ablaze.

gold dusted whispers, hoping this time, vase dropped,

the moon, however fragile, her floral ceramic musings,

will save me never the same,

from the sun. after i put her back together again.

i crown myself queen, crown, ruby red,

over and over. swims in the river styx, bled all to put it on her head,

echoes sirens’ lullabies, pray Styx

bathes in ancient remedies, on my knees. devours my little sun goddess,

gnaws on my own bones, bones and all,

hoping, dying. decaying for more. introspective meal to chew on.

she breathes life into me, i need her like

like Venus toys with pretty mortals, Eurydice needed the snake,

placate, pleasure, pretend. brutal, blithe, bleak.

porcelain shards, the shattered glass of my heart,

pomegranate’s blood, ripped photos, divorce papers,

wrists ripped open, scars covered, hiding.

a merlot river of yesterdays, her bright future is my past,

moonlit sacrifice of my present. can’t stop our repeated mistakes,

i am both the dreamer and the dream, she’s both the fixer and the broken,

the poet and the poem, the therapist and the patient,

forever caught between the worlds, and i cannot admit,

her’s and mine. it’s all my fault.

a marionette, direct her,

all for her, make her a star,

Melpomene and Thalia, Melpomene and Thalia,

strings pulled by director’s hands, a muse in my show.

dance to the tune of approval, and lead our phantoms,

changing costumes, waltzing,

changing faces, in a three-fourths slide.

to match the whimsy of others, sculpt her, in my image,

a mirror, a portrait, polish in my mirror,

a doll in a gilded cage, paint her–fresco

reflecting only what she wished to see. –on my louvre walls.

Jordan Gilpin