This is a regular column featuring original poetry and fiction by and for teens, provided by Figment.com, an online community writing site for young people.
By Domi
Your eyes,rimmed with the bruises of a night skythe metallic glint of stars in the cornerswhere I have never seen tears.
Your eyes,widened in every picture I have of usthe sun-washed blue of thempale against the bruises of a night skywith stars in the center of the pupilwhere the camera flash left its scaryour eyes were scarred last winterminiscule rivulets of blood trailing alongyour eyes.
You don’t sleepbut stare at the bruises of a night skyand compare the even tone of the oneto the ones on your heart.Your heart crimson like your eyes last winterbut at least it still beatsit has rhythm and liferegardless of how much you press on itto suppress its beatsit thrives somehowadding the color toyour eyes,staring at mine like a promise.
Promise you willremember the thirty blocks we walkedwith the bridge in the corners ofyour eyes,dry and wide and bruised like my knucklesholding your hand while I asked you for helplike you never do.
Your eyesare rimmed in secrets toothings you are not willing to sayholding your breathuntil it freezes blue inyour eyes.
Your eyestuck their secrets awaybehind shutters(the clicks of camera shuttersfreezing you in a photograph)the single image I will always rememberis your black coat, your back,hunched like a child in my lapfalling asleep on a busone broken half of headphones trailing to the groundwe littered in candy wrappersyour small hands handing me candy wrappersyour eyes asking the bruises of the sky outsideto hand you something toobut my hands are emptythey always are because theycan’t give what you need to be givenmy hands press the corners of my eyesin frustration with you
my handshold a curl of your hairand hope someone else willbecause my words are not enoughbiased you think they liea friend telling a friendone thing and anotherbut we want truth from only certain peoplebelieving it’s only truth once they confess it.Your eyes confess lesstucking secrets away behind shutterswhile you keep walking(while you keep walking the world keeps spinning)you are graceful slender and poisedand I remember your small handsinside your pockets
your black coat, your back,hunched like a child in my lapand you were breakingthe posture, breakingthe dawn cracking the skyand its bruises like skinthe sun being redred rivulets in your eyesand I’m begging you to sleepbecause those are the only wordsI allow myself to sayas you ask me quietlywhat’s wrongagainand I am good, I am good now,because of you.
But you,you are too pretty to deserve this messyou deserve to be ripped from your rootsa tree holding on to what poisons ita flower waiting to bloom and unfurl its petalsyou have blossoms in your eyesLera,your eyes,blue like they hold secretslike they hold love some people will never knowbecause they are too scared of you and your strengthyour strength forgets itselfit needs to be scarredwith stars for oncelet go the shattered glass its made of nowgrow in shatters like they tell me to.
Your shatters I don’t understand and I won’tbut you need to understandthat you are a constellation of your ownyour every bone connected to the airthe air vibrates around youbecause you are so prettyso pretty and tired and you don’t understandthat I am just worriedworried even when there is nothing left to worry aboutand you need to understandthat you are a constellation of my sky
you and your laughter,you are little pin-pricks of lightthat these words cannot give justiceyour laughter,thirty blocks,your head on my shoulder,thirty blocks,it’s not worth it remind me it’s not worth ityou are worth so much morethan I think you knowadjusting limits and time
and you are brilliant,like a constellationlike your smilelike you, brilliant like only you,your good intentionsyour solid star of a heartscarred with constellationsof our laughter.
Your poise, your posture,strength keeping your spineso straight you will grow wingsyou have grown wingsthat have constellations of wordsthat don’t exist in this languagethe language that limits your strengththe strength that is unlimited by bones and muscleand it beats like your heart with your wingsas blue as your eyesand you will never be bruised, you never really were.