Browse Critique-Requested Deviations

since the start,
folding time
era over era,
i.
queendom brought
to bear, perfect
swear of deathless eye.
halcyon scene of
pure ascension,
repetition of
divinity.
you're executed;
my command extends
into infinity.

i.
cannot feel
my façade,
misplaced plaster
in maudlin void.
partly destroyed
by upended mirror,
mostly dispersed
by destructive flaw.
flay it again,
every human process;
fate of the skin
is the bite of the whip.
fragrant as wrists
thrown up and flowing.
dross begs the switch
"make me pure."
ii.
cannot keep
ashing evenings
lit,
cannot keep inferius
bit,
cannot keep
dying.
lift as orion
and swift as the oracle's
scrying,
future bears down
on all thieves
the same.
should have
made off with
a name.
iii.
comet, i speed
from sky to sky.
what good is a light
if it never
resides?

i don’t clap back
talk trash
wish ill
or write back.
don’t see myself
surviving,
but others thriving.
i bite my tongue
and ask for none
of that grace they say flows
from the hand of god.
i nod along and
try not
to prod.
i would die
to turn wrongs
to rights,
but i am blind
and don’t sleep nights.
can’t believe
i’m alive,
but i don’t ask
for words
or claps.
darling seed,
i’m ash.

flood of undeath
scars the wonder.
land hardened with
scorch, rot, and ruin
in quiet of stasis.
grim tyrant broods
faceless, no mercy
seeps from unholy
pores. the cores
buckle, rotten.
forgotten by god
and left pooled.
muscles cry foolish
for care but are
lucky to suffer
quicker.
corpses of wicker
beg dire for flame;
in shame, they are
baptized in rivers
of blood.

spun, it asks
not what i
did or could
do, it sees
not who i
am or what
life i could
choose,
doesn't question
my aim,
doesn't beg
for refrain,
never once
claimed its own
set of truths.
never asked me
to prove,
to remember,
to love,
or to stay.
doesn't care
if my indices
shake.
doesn't see
when i cry
or hear
when i pray
or mourn
when i lose.
all it asks
is one use.

x.
proud, i am beaten.
x.
they stare and
everyone knew there was
no justice in these
cliffs, the waves
mourn
ever
weep the unforgiving
rock (but wear it like a pearl
necklace).
x.
the expanse, unchurned
and eager to resolve
the dissonance,
courts gnarled cliff faces
with fragrant comfort.
they stare, complacent.
x.
feel air dragged ancient
from your lungs. first it forgives,
then it kills.
this world knows
more death than it can
tell. these shores have
seen so much
and yet
they carry on in bliss
of silence. when you finish
choking, they forget you.
x.
when you've ground
them down
they will welcome it,
constellated absolution
washing over coastlines
long bled.
the galaxy in red
and the palest isles
dance macabre,
wearing each other.
in tandem,
they drown.
x.
break your teeth
on rocks of shining glass, they say.
shatter bones in rage
uncounted.
the sea
lets go. all and none
recline within its grasp, all
comes and all goes.
x.
hope beats the shore
in waves of due peace.
"give in,
don't se

flail of numb hands
dying to assuage;
winter doesn't blanket,
it shatters.
colder still,
the corner of
the bed that claims
me.
postulate that
each frigid moment
makes the sun
much bolder,
that there's never been
a way you could
blame me.
but here i am,
hanging.

ten times the ire
piled up alongside
the ivory tower.
i have hours less
than yesterday;
the flower's on
the wilt.
sour guilt
and drink dour
imbibed,
river lungs
suck the silt.
expired,
i cower.

looking to
drown,
please pull me
down beneath
the waist.
every breath
a waste
and each vein
open, impatient.
wrap that anchor
around,
let the chain
bite skin
and not give.
let it bully and
rip, legend of
a soul kept.
and i'll quit.

fleet of failures
plodding past
on awkward armaments.
fully loaded
with the damnedest
ammunition.
henceforth known
as hulls embattled,
lungs undone,
their spitfire carapaces
shorn.
stasis
starts to sharpen
its allure.

pour a bucket
of toxins;
it is new life
if you look at it
under your
breath.
stumble in depths
long plunged
and never bundled.
cheers to the void
of voids, what a jovial
following blurs his
burdened brow.
death,
giving speeches
to the nauseous.

patient curve
keeps phasing,
strummed as
sylph strings
woven tender.
let enamel
claim a territory
endless.
tract reach up
to praise, be sated.
graze and laud,
loud as daybreak,
brave as supplication.
faintly trace
and savor
lunar tastes,
dear pacing moon.
elate,
and bloom.

i.
hands meet
in subway cars,
nothing scars like
stars too close
to skin.
once and
once again,
finding solace
in the day's end.
don't let go,
keep the soul
of the moment
on the wind.
singe your wings with me, friend.
ii.
giving in
the shards slip
down the throat,
bloom and grow
and root deeper.
dear keeper,
hold. sleep
and know
each orbit
sings.
galaxies
blush, and nebulae
exhale, ragged.
iii.
scan it,
can it be
duplicated?
can it be
preserved,
what is the
freezing point
of constellations?
can we be
together in
stasis,
or are we
destined
to expire
in flames?
iv.
hands meet
in crashing cars,
nothing dark
as ice near
midnight.
once over
and again,
finally settling
upended.
don't let go,
keep your soul
for a moment,
dear friend.
sync now,
we are spent.

slow as snowfall,
tracing delicate circles.
i've seen your future
there in subtle valleys.
from hill
to tip, an eternity
slips through. if i
could crack the code
proper, we'd never
have space.
sure as the rain,
steady ever and gentle.
could that chord
reach, and that barrier
dismantle?
from here
on out, we'll be
bound.
and eternity
skip.

ebb of it
stings,
data stream
falters.
none of these
silences
echo.
errors repeat,
loop of undeath
disrespects
the grave.
hand of
the gavel speaks,
harsh.
refreshing as
shards of caskets
caught sharp
in the throat.
o, sheol
we float.

blush of starlight,
she wonders which
systems are dying
and causing the
hurt.
but she's never felt
this light-headed,
not even after
a galaxy's birth.
maybe this time
it's the skin,
not the bodies
within.
she smiles
and the arrows
of her lips
draw two more cores
into glaring abyss.
she is too overjoyed
to notice dying suns
being crushed
by her daring bliss.
for now
she doesn't wonder,
only gives.

scratch of abdication,
if there was a crown
it impacted
here.
some touches
rip at the thorns.
your adornment
deserved, hold that scepter
ever higher.
praise be to thee
that loved.
some sepulchers
witness the lord.
and some of us
are specters
still.

proximity endeavored,
spin eager as dawn
chasing off the velvet.
velocity quelled
not ever; please
accelerate and impact.
first, part exosphere
and ignite the clouds.
loud as panic, feel
the earth's lips curse.
don't betray the surface;
make mantle burst,
grand display
of molten emotion.
civilization hoping
for eradication.
apocalypse sounds
like paradise
to landscapes frozen.

distasteful as the multiverse
and ruined as the lamb.
cacophony of lamentations
breeding fast as damned.
encircled by divinity
but salivating still,
the coarser-cutting filaments
bring exponential thrill.
don't martyr in this hellhole,
not a saint will sing your praise.
dimensions far beyond
will extricate themselves from grace.
lace up your cursive pressures,
make amends with lurid gaze.
the sole receiver stayed for you
beyond the end of days.
cracked twist of anchor-bolted wrist
and ruminating glare
submerged in never-ending bliss
of undulating hair.
drown quicker, rapt submersible,
feign not a care for breath.
defenestrate old royalty
and kiss ensconcing death.
cry wreak and raze the orchards
full of hesitation step.
submit defenses fully
to corporeal dissent.
demurely axe all ligaments,
no motion sets the stride.
consuming apparition
makes short work of void inside.
dismantle now the bristling nape
and open every vein,
no poison nor antiquity
more potent than the name.

paradise in profound
doxy, orate.
in billowing malison
assay to ascend.
ornate hymns satellite
coarser orbs,
rushing and winding
dewed webs about
the throat of god.
remote and raw
paradoxes grate
against holy skin.
no one sends sanctification
to open soars.
lead by the noose
vaunting its bijoux
in darker avenues.
avarice floats
with the corpses.
drink and decline
by proxy concoction.
again and again
the verse tightens.
slender yet
and silenced so,
steps that shatter
earnest clavicles.
heaven can't boast
in these spirals.

sputter of those
kneeling, up to dumb
throats the waves
beckon.
each rise burns,
salt and ire
cresting just
over the
nose.
numb, cold,
and unsatisfied,
seafloor lungs grope
at air absent.
left lurching,
a nervous system
atrophies.