Warpaint

You will not see me cry.
Charcoal lines and sapphire lashes do not weep.
You will not see me color.
Powdered and blushed to perfection,
Invisible; both pale of fear,
And flush of shame.
Where untinged lips invite,
Today their red will shake you
And you will wonder
How recently I have tasted blood.

-J

The general feeling on makeup seems to be that it's about wanting to enhance and attract, to draw people in. I often wonder, though if it isn't sometimes about wanting create a mask with which to keep the world out.

I Remember

I remember the moment you made my heart beat.
I remember the stutter,
the pins-and-needles, graceless thump that filled my throat.
Breath halted and caught, a sudden warmth;
The wary elation of the drowned who, peace made with god,
wakes upon beautiful, but foreign sands.

I remember your amber-green sparkling, smiling,
lit from within by a scrawled heart
and seven impulsive purple numbers.

There in that near-empty bar,
I faced you because I was afraid to turn away.
Pressed to the brick, turned in my chair.
Riveted to the way your hand rested lazily around the drink we shared.
I knew that if you touched me so,
Only to let go when I, too, was empty,
I would break like glass.

Spring drew it's deepest breath that year,
And blew us tumbling into summer,
into each other's arms.
Since then, a year, and more.
Some days a lifetime, others, a split second.
You hold me as you held your drink, that night.
Effortless elegance, smiling eyes, and gentle hands.

I face you now because fear has left me.
Safe at your side, rich beyond measure,
Riveted still to the way your hands move.
You touched me when I was empty,
And filled me to the brim with love.

-J

So, I think the subject matter here is pretty obvious. The funny part to me is that the first line is true. It was an exact moment that something shifted for me after two months of being perfectly content with 'just friends'. Eye-opening and scary, but ultimately worth the risk.