Clean; August 31, 2025
My sheets are stained with sweat and regret,
Your heady scent lingers on my pillow.
The sun was woken angry;
He sears your memory into my skin.
Then, suddenly, the bubble pops.
I catch a glimpse of my ghost in the mirror — a doughty smile,
Eyes that have rebirthed a lost soul.
And I can no longer smell your scent,
Or feel your presence on my lips.
You are now a second in time
On a watch I’ve seemed to misplace.
-AKF
Jump; June 14, 2025
Your silence is deafening,
As I stand at the edge of the cliff,
Tempting the sea to wrap me in the waves
Crashing against my ribs, I ache.
The wound encompasses my being,
Threatening to bleed out.
I feel your ghost across my cheek,
The beating of my hollow heart
Shakes the ruins of Camelot.
I watch as the swells tempt me like sirens,
My toes teasing the hem.
The sun blisters the alabaster rind
Of my knuckles, gripping and grasping
At wisps of forgotten paradise —
My skeleton too stubborn to admit
It’s finally time to jump.
-AKF
The Storm; September 9, 2025
The thunder starts slow, As it shakes my home from the ground up.
Glass shatters on the floor; The echo of my masterpiece unanchored, Making its descent down the rabbit hole, As our castle falls to ruin.
Until it’s just the bones, Exposed, denuded by just a whisper of your name.
The storm of the century, As I go down with the ship Bereft, drowning in the poisoned water of my reverie, Still singing my devotions as the water fills my lungs — A song so sad even Ursula can’t bear to listen.
-AKF