tiny pretty things

the moon is huge and yellow like a streetlight
shining on walls like cardboard; outside inside
i like this honest little space
happy birthday yesterday
no one noticed; it's okay
happy birthday yesterday
happy birthday yesterday

i want to give you tiny pretty things
tiny pretty things
tiny pretty things like feathers
and small glass beads from far away
dried and old like sprigs of heather
a tarnished charm that brings the rain

there is lightning like taught sinews in the sky
i'm knowing we're magic since we're still alive
i like your honest little face
happy birthday yesterday
you're just a ghost but it's okay
happy birthday yesterday
happy birthday yesterday

i gave you all my pretty things
tiny pretty things
tiny pretty things like feathers
an eyelash from crying one time
dreamcatcher with animal skulls
muscle from a preserved heart

i gave my tiny pretty things away
happy birthday yesterday

it was like losing a favorite necklace

Slipping off like the times midwinter
jostled mercury like pearls down
my jacket into the lapel slithering
unnoticed to vanish, for

Fate: it was the
Fates condensed and meddling spinning;
she/they know
your weak spots but knows (know?) I
tread the fault lines searching for
quiet possibility lurking there, fuel
for reparation. It is known I know better -- I am
not blinded by love nor soldered
tight in obligation to you, to
love -- you're
like a piece of jewelery, like
my very favorite one
but I can still take you off
or lose you
or even change my mind about you sometimes;

you will not always match me
you will get in the way
you will be itchy
and you will make me remember things
that have nothing to do with you
things that are long dead.