By Leighton Tanaka, TIWP Student

blood pours from the bullet, roses bleed
on the ground. stand
under the ire of the sun, slowly drifting away; eternal
rhythms of erasure.

listless and lamenting tea-stained walls
compressed between weeping, rising towers. suffocate
to replenish the weary, holding the ardor in between shaking,
fragile fingers. wind yanks
the dandelion loose. travel far to reach the summit.

leave crimson footsteps on hollow floors.
ripped apart, live forever, watch the stars run. nothing
but the red ocean churning below searching feet.

cover the ears, hear them scream, witness infinity.
the mind dies, bony hands reaching for a gentle expression
arbiter of insanity lies beyond the sea, rose long before
wide-eyed lovers collapse to their
uncut knees, as the desperate sun falls to the Earth,
knocking on the door of an empty room, echoing through the halls,
trapped in an inhospitable orbit.

bitter hands close eyelids fluttering shut,
tattered butterflies take flight from a sky slowly dwindling.

exhale smoke from
quiet lungs and delve into the unconscious
mangled splinters of restless thoughts.
faultless lay their tarnished hands upon ignorant ears
look up to stars yet unnamed, point as convulsing gales fill the audience
until the fatal lamp becomes ignited.

cacophonous chimes climb upon hesitance.
sirens of finales lost.
the aperture closes, the sun hails
the impartial, who cheers on
the pitied, who lives off
the insentient.

blue dusk falls on dusted skin, settles on rosy cheeks
feeble drops dive from hanging clouds,
drink
ambrosial desires and the bittersweet smell
of daybreak.