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there’s nothing admirable in a last kiss,

a dying wish, a final fateless laugh.

tealights hang from your nails, sprinkle beams onto backs

bring a tragic, tired girl to her brink.

there’s no happy-ever-after for defiled jasmine flowers

for the ones who believed without proof-

my blindness made me lose my temper

i am nothing but a lost cause, a bad mood.

there are no awards for cardboard boxes

limp from too much weight, no prizes for plastic bags

that only asked for a moment’s break and then

they break and people ask why i thought she was fine

she’s not fine, she is thick red marks on what she thought she got right

she is we regret to inform you she is staying up at night asking

how did it end up this way?

in the morning, she is just as she was

a smile on her face, hidden pain and timeless grace.