Vessels

Though the creases start to crumble These old pages still run blue Currents pulse beneath the surface Pen-leaked ink that bled your truths Pen-spun words that writhe like veins Under skin and paper skies Cold to touch, crept through your core Settled clear in frozen eyes So I’ll read you like a book And I’ll write you pretty lies Just to fill the empty space That’s revealed between the lines Won’t you move a little closer? Let it spill into your ear The tide of breath that harboured All the words you want to hear Well I tried to kiss it better Blood and bones to fuse the cleft Bruised and broken, lips split open From the effort, nothing’s left So you say that I’m a sinner Preach of hearts and ribs and fists Well I may have made the plunge But you revelled in the twist Now you’re tearing at your wounds Sanctimonious with pain Because it helps you ‘hear the music’ Yeah, it helps you play the game If I pour a little salt Will you smear it in your eyes? Feel its grain twist round your lids As you soliloquise About the blame you tried to forge All the nights you wept and claimed ‘You can’t comprehend the world Balanced firm between these blades’ No one told you it’s a lie And the story really goes Constellations, superstitions Are that Ancient’s only load All the pretty rhymes and perfect crimes You try to hide behind Well they just serve to remind me How you once spoke those old lines – ‘Your tongue is as a rudder Guiding vessels safe through storms Moving mountains with inflections Making ripples in reflections Hollowed hull meets hallowed shores’