by Justin Wetch
But now I join the song your galaxy sings
I’m falling freely into your orbit.
WHAT I FELL IN LOVE WITH
I fell in love
With the edges of your lips
With your scratchy morning voice
And the detail in your fingertips
I fell in love
With your silly shy smile
With your hair in the sun
And your summery sense of style
You brought me to places
I’d have never thought to go
To a trail near the river
Where the water runs slow;
To a mountain where all we heard
Was our voices’ echo;
You showed me inward beauty
That doesn’t show in photos.
I fell in love
With more than I could need
With a deep soul
And a face I couldn’t leave;
I fell in love—
If I may tell it true;
I fell in love
With every piece of you.
SOMEONE ELSE
I walked up to your door
With roses in hand
Ready to ask
If your heart would be mine;
Might we grow together
In the sunlight of love
Like two oak trees
Standing strong
Against weather and change?
But when I came to your door
Pausing to check again
My appearance
In my reflection
In your window
I froze
Like a blue jay
Who has forgotten
To migrate south
For the winter.
In each others arms:
The girl I loved
And another man.
The wistful gazes
The romantic dances
The rain kisses
The contented smiles
Everything I wanted
You gave
To someone else.
I dropped the roses
Trampling them
As you did
Our blooming flower;
I left angrily
Without a second glance.
Oh, the pain of reality
I cannot stop loving you
But you’ve given your heart
To someone else.
Oh, how it destroys me
This simple revelation:
You’ve given your heart
To someone else.
TO LOVE IS TO LIE
Love is just two people
Plastering perfect masks
On each others’ faces;
And it only lasts
Until the masks crack
And the fantasy ends.
Promises of forever
Resonate for seconds
And die with the echo;
Sweet words sprout
But decay with the seasons
Like saccharine fruit.
To love is to lie
Sweetly, then bitterly
Further down the road;
As the knife is pulled out,
Leaving the heart as empty
As it was to begin with.
The most pathetic of lies
Are the ones we tell ourselves,
Desperately clinging to hope;
Namely, that passion
Is more than an illusion, and
Love is more than a lie.
TO LOVE IS TO LIVE
Love starts as a feeling,
But to continue is a choice;
And I find myself choosing you
More and more every day.
Like two flowers
Which begin from separate roots
But entangle and grow as one
We are stronger together.
You make me feel
Like I deserve the world
Even though I have nothing to give
But love and laughter.
When I look into your eyes
It’s so easy to forget
What it was like
To stare into life’s darkness
When I listen to your laugh
It’s so easy to forget
Every pessimistic word I ever said
About love and romance.
REACHING ACROSS THE DISTANCE
I’d die before talking to you again.
No, I mean
I would have to be dying
Before I could muster the courage
To reach out to you
Like a bridge across an ocean
Between two far away continents
Reaching across the distance
Like a candle
Hoping to illuminate
A universe of darkness.
Once again I’ve put your number
Into my phone
And all that is left
Is for me to press
The call button,
And just like that
This needle would drop
Into our austere silence
Like a gunshot
Fired
Into a hushed abyss.
But for the thousandth time
I clear it away
Like a flamethrower
Declaring this chance
Of rebuilt bridges
To be so much kindling
Just more fuel
Sacrificed at the altar
Of chance
And possibility.
Are we like two stars in a constellation
Seeming so close
And making so much sense
Yet in reality
We are separated by lightyears
And shall never meet?
Except, perhaps
In that sacred space
Between dreams and reality
Called hope.
PARAPHERNALIA
With shaky hands I adjust
The instrument of my addiction
I breathe in, in, in
Eyes fluttering as
The waves of pleasure hit.
My brain sloshes to mush
Hands finally become steady
I see my exhale in the moonlit air
Rolling my head back
In pure release.
You are my drug of choice
I know you’re no good for me
And though I swear my lips
Will never touch you again
Here we are, here we are.
Your whispers, like electricity
Flirt with the edges
Of the neurons in my brain
Taking captive my will
Into a vortex of your smile.
Passion drips in the humid air
Like moonlight peeking through
The gaps in the arms of oak trees;
Flittering a monochrome painting
Onto the soft, leaf-ridden floor.
The music stops and the dance dies
Your chemical abandons my brain
And I hold my head in my hands
Regretting, as I do every time
That I have succumbed to your siren song.
As we lay next to one another
I stare into your tresses of hair
And imagine that I could twist them
Into a hangman’s noose
And end this cycle forever.
But that thought passes quickly
And I escape through the cracked window
Swearing you off for the thousandth time
But still knowing, deep down inside
I am addicted to your essence.
FOREVER
You see flaws in every face
If you look long enough.
That’s why I’m so afraid
Of the word ‘forever’.
Forever is long enough
For sunrises to become stale
For fire t
o become tame
For a favorite song
To become like nails
On a chalkboard;
Forever is long enough
For passion to waste away
Like grapes into raisins
Under the beating sun
Of countless days.
Every promise of ‘forever’
Brings with it a tainted air,
A perfume of dishonesty
Reeking of roses wilting
For even beauty has limits
And its seasons.
I don’t want to look
—Some day in the future—
Into familiar irises
And find handcuffs
Where I used to see stars.
So I won’t take forever
For granted.
Let us love like the spark
Between flint and stone
In reckless abandonment,
Promising no eternities,
But promising only to seek out
Upon each day’s sunrise
Something to choose to love
In each other.
MUSE
Blood becomes less blood
Sky becomes less light
Ash becomes oxygen
Mind becomes a metropolis
Where the streets are named after you.
I get lost on these streets
Like I do in your eyes
The back of my hand is lost
To memory in your mind
Be careful not to fall from
On my mind with heels that high;
Brain turns to mush
Tongue turns to a tie
Eyes turn to beacons
Lips turn to ships
Which find each other in this darkness.
In a moment you’re my muse
My Aphrodite, a greek sculpture
Your arms might not be heaven
But they’re sure as hell closer
Than here, but like purgatory
Bliss doesn’t come without torture;
Two became one
But then one became two
Embrace becomes a standoff
Eden becomes Earth
And perfect unity falls out of sync.
I used to paint my muse from up close
Now I can only admire you from afar
I used to drink from Pirene
Now I pick poison from a bar
My muse, my muse, how did we fall
From what we were to what we are?
THE HEART COLLECTOR
I'd be lying if I said I didn't want you
I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish you were mine
The truth is, you stole my heart from afar
The truth is, you still have it.
You took a piece of me when you left
I had cupid's arrow straight to the heart
When you pulled it out without a care
I said I loved you as I bled out.
Your eyes could make the brightest
Of the brightest diamonds jealous
And your lovely smile
Could melt the hearts of the cold.
I held my arms open to you
I wanted badly your embrace
But you walked on past without a care
As I stood in the wind, alone.
I stood with that pose for a thousand years
I stood, waiting for two to be one
But never did you deign to glance my way.
I froze when fall turned to winter.
A statue, standing against the snow
A monument against what love is
I watched couples walk by on the street
And glance suspiciously at their lovers.
Then spring came at last and I
Finally melted, finally became free
I fell to a fetal pose and laid
There for the whole summer.
I saw you walking past as I lay
There, thinking over my life
A new man at your shoulder.
You pushed him up against a tree
And added another arrow to your collection.
I watched as he fell the the ground
I watched as he tried to rise again;
I realized you were addicted to this art
I realized this was your one true passion.
You had no love for the hearts you stole
You only loved the moment of leaving.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't want you
I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish you were mine
The truth is, you stole my heart from afar
The truth is, I finally took it back.
HIGH ON YOUR PERFUME
Call me obsessed, color me consumed
I’ve always been the type to notice
The smell of a rose in bloom,
But let me confess, this is new
You’ve stopped my heart, let it resume
And I, to finish, must tell it true
I’m high on your perfume.
Like a mouse tempted to cheese
An elixir of life that must be tasted
I toss away all fear and unease
And oh, the risk that the trap will spring,
I breathe it in deeply like an autumn breeze;
You locked my attention on yourself,
Took it all; and threw away the keys.
Breathe in, in, in, can’t get enough;
Excuse me if I linger a second longer...
Eyes gloss over with a whiff of lust,
You bite your lip, I can’t resist;
We close our eyes, we do, we must;
Now that I’ve tasted who you are
I’m addicted, I can’t get enough.
EYES OF THE WILDEST TEMPESTS
There is a woman of exceeding beauty
Whose occasional bouts of temper
Can best be likened
To the wrath of God.
When cosmic irises transform
Into the eyes of the wildest tempests
When meteor showers in the heavenly bodies
Cascade into a devilish hellfire
Do not even look upon the result
Lest you be turned into a pillar of salt.
She cries when she is angry;
Is it not odd how that act
Can be either a gentle rain
Upon remarking colossal art
Or a torrential righteous flood
Vowing to drown the Earth in fury?
But after the storm calms
And the scorched earth has regrown,
Old testament fire
Turns to new testament wine
And past sins have been forgiven.
A FOOL’S ODE TO HIS LOVE
I cannot help but say
That I have fallen in love with you.
Perhaps it was your voice,
Whispers which hinted of music;
Or the way your eyes sparkled
When you spoke of passion;
Of my endearment to you,
I am witless of the origin.
I found a night’s sky full of stars
In your cinematic eyes
And heard a symphony
In your laughter.
Your lips are like a cherry
Begging to be tasted
And to caress your face
Is to feel sunlight.
You are a ray of sunshine
In this dark world;
While the day is young
I must suntan.
LOVE & LOGIC
In math and science, we learn everything has a reason
It’s physics, it’s gravity, it’s a reaction going to completion
But I cannot divine, cannot figure out one thing
The reasons behind love; surely it must be something!
There are others with pretty eyes, but I like yours best
But why? Perhaps just because they reflect
Th
e moon and stars with such timeless ferocity
Or our own hearts in orbit with increasing velocity
There are seven billion faces smiling in as many ways
But if I don’t see yours, I consider it a wasted day.
What is it about you that’s so irreplaceable?
You’re an original masterpiece, the signature unmistakeable.
In love, it seems every heart has it’s own locked door
And each of us has a key, but we know not which one it’s for
Perhaps that explains the feeling I feel about you;
Perhaps that is why it is so impossible to subdue
My relentless adoration for the person I see
Even though the reasons are buried in my psyche
But maybe love doesn’t need reasons or a list sorted,
Maybe it is what it is, and the reasons why aren’t important.
ANESTHETIC
Mind blurred by the painkiller I was on
Didn’t even realize open heart surgery was happening
But suddenly I’ve snapped to awareness
And now I feel everything.
You were the anesthetic
That dulled life’s pain
But you left a void in my consciousness
And now nothing’s the same.
Pulse has gone to a flat line
I’m screaming but no one hears me
Vision fades to black on black on black
Mental burns to the third degree.
Everything's vivid and burning
Bereft of the dullness that kept me
My anesthetic has worn off
Your place in my mind is empty.
WRITE YOUR NAME
I came up with a new reason
To write your name today
I plagiarized each letter
From a love note you wrote me.
The scent of ink was sacred to me
In that relapsed moment…
For a minute I could pretend
The paper reminded me of your skin;
I could pretend the glimmering ink
Was the moonlit lake
Of our summer night.
But the pretending crumpled with paper
And I threw us into the trash can
For the bridge between us is long burned
And it’s time I accepted that.
COLORS
I used to see a sunset
And marvel at it’s beauty
The sight of the sun dancing down
Was enough for me.
I used to sigh with contentment
At the taste of a fresh grape
And smile at the colorful leaves
On the ground, with their many shapes.
But then I looked into your eyes
And I was colorblind no more
With the perspective you gave me
Your voice became my life’s musical score.
