I want to swim across the chapters of a book,
My mother used to read me stories about mermaids
And how they hid themselves from the rest of the world;
So I hold my breath like a lover
And slam the garage doors of my eyes shut,
Enough saltwater has already pruned my pupils,
And I jump in between the lines on the page,
And in that second before I slipped inside the waves
Like a little girl stepping into
Her very first black dress for her fathers funeral,
I learned what airplanes dream of at night

But I’m not floating in the lightness of cresting letters,
I sink to the bottom of the sea
Where words of hate plucked from bigots mouths
Are laid to rest at home with Davy Jones;
People have been filling me with rocks for years,
That’s why my bones rattle when I walk
I’m all filled up with their stone cold stares;
But there is a boy on the surface
That has been tying pebbles into his shoelaces
Trying to understand the heaviness of my heart
And recreate the pounding of the drums of war
Inside the treasure chest of my torso;
His mother read him stories about pirates

So I hope he doesn’t come looking for x marks the spot
Because I only dug holes into my wrists
And the silver lines left over look like a letter,
And if he opens the lid of my ribs
All he’ll find is a pile of skipping stones
Beaten smooth against the coast line of my spine
But you cant make rubble skim across the waves,
Believe me I’ve tried,
I thought maybe I could pin my name
To a piece of what used to fill the craters of my smile
And maybe it could kiss the moon goodnight for me
For all the times she sang me a lullaby,
And maybe I could make a falling star
So that at least someone could get their wish
But my throws fell short, I am always falling short,
So I settle for floating on my back
And looking for the title of my story in the stars above;
Maybe I’ll find it one day.