hostage.

I heard you on the stairs
so many nights
stumbling after midnight
the shadows of your demons
proceeding you,
scaling the walls
creeping across our bedroom floor

they don't live here anymore.

no, I am not afraid.
though I carry your words
in shattered pieces
close to my heart,
fragments that I am
slowly plucking away

© 6.24.13 heather brager 

tenuous.

down a cobblestone street

near Strong Avenue

he pauses to look over his shoulder

at a tender distraction

her soft ass and trendy glasses

she smiles near the corner

waiting for a faithful lover

*

I am just a porous heart

several bent vertebrae

carrying the weight

rarely contiguous

to the whole truth

never quite absolute

just pain and wanting

© 6.18.13 heather brager

a second death.

tide has obscured
the bagged body
black plastic swaying
in foaming salt and bile
among the rocks
caught numb and helpless
near the end of the pier
the frayed cord around
a powerless neck
hung in the current

© 6.10.13 heather brager