Member-only story
Painted Melancholia
Poetry
there’s a cocoon of heartbreak nestled in my chest,
each vibrant pang of longing casting shadows
against the realm of what I know myself to be.
when you said the words that slayed me,
I thought I’d never be the same again
because the shell of what I was
defined itself so cuttingly by your words.
once, looking at you made my heart spring
alive with the colors of autumn leaves,
and you were just as fleeting with your whims
that woke me and broke me and cast me aside.
I shattered myself into neon fragments
just to shine some light on all your gray.
I wanted to be your everything, the pieces
to wrap around you in a warm embrace,
but what I didn’t realize then was how
a single lightbulb couldn’t save a city.
you were a fortress moored across a bridge
that you burned so that I couldn’t cross —
making you the one thing I couldn’t have.
