You Fade. Kathryn Dixon · May 3, 2012

You fade…
Like a bruise.

Like the ones your mouth left on my neck and shoulders with its lustful pressure.
Your teeth, which brought moments of bright pain/pleasure,
Are now bared in an artificial, animal smile.

Your lips, which parted to taste my skin like it was salvation,
Barely part now to speak to me.
You whispered my name like a prayer.
You screamed it like a curse.
You sighed it in contentment,
And now you won’t even speak it in passing.

Your hands, which half-playfully pulled my hair…
Now won’t pause to brush it from my face.

All these parts of you,
None more telling than your eyes.
Those new windows, which once let me pry…
Now have blinds drawn tight behind them,
Leaving only a pretty, shiny reflection-
A passing, glancing imitation-
Of the passion they once held
When they beheld
Me.

No color left to them but the muddy colors of
Boredom,
And possibly mistrust.

You fade…
Like a bruise.
Like the one you left on my mind with your brilliant conversation
And beautiful, rusty prose.
Like the many you left on my tongue…
Which now can speak nothing but trite and meaningless words,
Which now can barely remember the shapes
Of all the shimmering, liquid phrases it spoke to you
That seemed so important at the time.

You fade…
Like a bruise.
Once lover and friend,
Now barely one
And never the other again.

The Daily Beast: To the Woman Warrior I Did Not Know. http://goo.gl/mag/Ag3V1kh

How To Greet Death

Greet death

with your hands in your pockets,

slouched back, cool,

collected, and confident.

Wear a hint of a grin

and a dash of cologne.

Say What took you so long?

Say You’re behind the times, man.

Say Dead is the new black.

Coffin is the new condo.

Pallor is the new tan.

La vida muerta.

Greet death

with a fistful of black-eyed susans,

butterflies in your stomach,

and two tickets to tomorrow’s sunrise.

Wear your father’s cufflinks

and your mother’s wedding ring.

Say I brought these for you, babe.

Say Kiss me, kiss me.

Say But wait until the sun comes up.

Just until daybreak.

I want to show you something.

Hasta la muerte, te amo.

Greet death

with a knife at your own neck,

chin up, throat bared,

cardiac in overdrive.

Wear nothing.

Wear nothing.

Say Bring it on motherfucker!

Say Only on my terms.

Say nothing

and open your throat.

and bleed to completion.

El final, el final, el final.

I wanna kiss something. And rub up against something. And stuff and junk.