to the boy with yellow highlighter nail polish—

a jade moonstone crystal contours your neck,

etched with your signature written

upside down in amethyst kitsune ink.

it was in the calligraphy of downtown angels,

words skipping through the page in

paperback abandon to the

tune of sanskrit fireflies.

how i long to capture the peach

schnapps sunrise and tattoo it

into your rain puddle irises

so that you will never have

to sleep in the dark.

i remember how you used to do

oldschool kickflips with your

skateboard near the stairs

by the cafeteria.

everyone thought you'd

end up in a hospital one day

but instead,

you became a slave

to lowercase gambit.

the words you quilted upon my

fingertips sprouted

spring twigs, orange

leaves and dragonfly wings.

where were you on the eve of july 31st?

we were supposed to meet up in the

old tobacco warehouse where we

used to work as children in the fields,

wearing garbage bags to protect us

from the side-effects of nicotine

even when we didn't smoke.

people say you drowned yourself

in pepsi twist and cherry coke

but no one knew what

truly happened.

they didn't know that you wrote

a confession at the back of my

school yearbook and the secrets

you supposedly posted on the

bathroom walls on campus

weren't true.

i wish i could have sheltered you from

your demons but i guess monsters

love to play with shotgun theories

and you ended up stuck inside

my head like a pink revolver bullet.

-,-',-'-,'-,'-,'-,-

inspired by: alex turner