ate, 9ine, TEN.

Phase 1: Ate.

Write your God-given name

Into the arch of my spine.

You wield a sharp tongue.

You tote your own font.

It's been a minute since you've read me

Front to back and forth

a story's been reborn,

one free from lovers' scorn.

Cover to conclusions.

Is it bad, I want you lost in between the pages ?

Soaked up in every slippery word,

I could color water with just the right verbs.

Please, take your time

Lick your fingers when you turn the sheets

You gotta have more patience.

Don't you wait for celebrations?

Read reviews for fan fiction, they been hatin'

More erotica fantasy, if ya ask me.

A thriller got you by the throat

A love that'll never let you choke

Words that'll make you cry I swear it

Make you feel something, damn it

Punctuate strokes with your exclamations .

Ink dribbling down a post I wrote...

Read between every truth of the lie

from my eyes .

The kids need more attention.

I can't cop pleas forever.

When you're finished ,

Lay it out on table.

pause to realize.

Even paper,

could hold insufferable weight.

Phase 2:

9ine.

I always knew it'd be me.

I fall headfirst and spill.

They asked how I could trust in those

that didn't trust themselves.

I carried on "too free", and naïve

I knew better and learned,

I followed commitments to impossible notions

still no hardcore conclusions, yet

on the effects of second chances.

Too many unavailable mother-lovers.

Too much had transpired between generations and space.

If we could just let go of the loose ties and feeble ends,

we could grab hold of something solid.

Many rooms for errors,

under ceilings too low for allowance.

The doubts still resided in silence.

I had love for you, but

We did our dirt,

We muddied up the waters.

That blood that dried beneath the skin,

held on awhile longer.

Passive connections with

aggressive lovin'.

I carried on, and laughed too hard,

spellin it all out, like a guilty person.

I drowned the flames in the wet wax.

I pinned my fire down in the coldest extremities.

(boi, she almost took my soul.)

I hadda hell the size of heaven - just like you-

when the battles started.

I found some peace away in meditation.

You were more present in my dreams.

I ran to long vacations.

I slept and didn't rise,

until the worries rang.

I shoulda changed my number.

The ground once far below our cares,

was flooding closer with the glow of the phone

vibrating on the nightstand

with all the evidence of why I shoulda kept my love to myself.

I listened, humbled by obligations,

we took time for directions.

I knew this was deeper than your average love.

way bigger than the Little world we lived in.

I let it go, and all the hopes with it,

believing only what belonged,

would stay.

TEN

You didn't even put up a fight

Didn't think I was a prize worth winning

Someone worth having

A mate, soul callin'

I must've lost my luster .

We've seen the queens turned to jesters.

In my own eyes, glorious.

blindfolded, into submissions.

Collecting dust and neglect ,

long forgotten when you took the path.

Another ways to go.

The safety of the plane.