Legends of the Fall? Not Quite

Published on by Tosha Michelle

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The one I crave isn’t aware of me.
The man I long to hold,
my lustful thoughts lodged
in his belly like hunger pains
forgotten, forgets me.

So I become my heart’s curator
of insignificant, seeing love
this way, through blotted out clouds
and a tenuous contract that I’d never
break. The weight of words growing
heavier with the passing of each year.

Other men perform hard labor
trying to win my wilted hand.

I wish for the hush of his name.

I imitate the motions.
Living means dancing
like I know the choreography.

Then no one notices
I’m with the wrong partner.

Even now I still love the unbearable,
the unbridgeable distance
of the choreographer of my destruction.

I strike matches against my chest.
I peel back my flesh
and wear my the despair out
on a Saturday night.

Languidly, I wobble around
in my heels of suburpia
I write to dreg my nonsensical senses.

Shouldn’t art and love destroy us?
Saturated us?
Redefine us?
Burn through us?

Dark body of my soul fall through
this lonesome space.
You are the ache in my ribcage.

Come read my dreams back to me
on crumpled sheets of paper.
My heart its own Museum of
Unnatural History. I can no longer
separate desire from truth.

-Tosha Michelle

88 thoughts on “Legends of the Fall? Not Quite”

  13. Interesting and both teasing and pushing. The striking matches across a chest as well as possibly drown, change or burn us for our insolence. Knowing choreography suggests knowing the expected while out order and is at least a double. Nice to think while sleepy as all hell:)

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      1. I don’t know that it is. Maybe underneath the veneer. Maybe many women don’t know what the underlying desire is…I can’t speak for them, yet I often feel & see the parallels between our written desires. It’s lovely in its pain.

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  22. Oh gosh, this is so good, I think it’s my ALL TIME FAVORITE! Nothing about it is funny, yet you write about me, did I sign a consent form? Since I have to the privilege to laugh at myself, I must tell you hit every high note! Every low note too! You are just too much, thank you, The Academy thanks you as well. Have a wonderful Thursday. ~ Mia xo

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