‘the stars glow even brighter when they’re not there’ by Rohan Chakraborty
it’s in those last moments whilst you are succumbing to the poison that you realise that it was only when the snake unhinged its teeth that you see the true form of beauty and all your shackles allow you to do is clang with regret
smoke seems to rise from the walls
but all i can see is the whites of tim’s eyes
as flames lick, spark youth in glaze…
my parents visit me in my dreams, ask me to
come home for the weekend; i say yes at hand’s back
and remind them to stop coming after visiting hours…
and every night the girl in the corner gave me
a goodnight’s wink, yet for the past few nights it seems
she has disappeared under her sleeping bag, foxes scream…
in my hand lie scrapped prescription slips, recovery
leaks from fingertips, yet the montague had too taken the sip…
but how much d’you have to smoke to feel that kinda kick?
friar lawrence came hunting for herbs last week, but
no case; we all hid in the chamber and choked ourselves;
the taste of reality driving ethereality insanity to a squint...
snorts make men seers, behold as his corpse descends!
the moon grows a face and sings a ballad of the fall of a knight,
but night becomes day and he moans as control reasserts itself…
my arms are shattered from spikes and burnt by blunts, still
the girl whispers to me i make her blush; my parents look on
sternly, mouthing scolds at me from another brainwave…
i feel free when i smoke and i smoke until three…
suddenly dense air and numbness sparks sense, sudden
sum of all things that exist strikes me in the head, the
animalistic lazarus panting and awaiting arrival, now arise child!
but as your blood runs deoxygenated and you begin frothing at the mouth you slowly realise that the taste of water and the kiss of venom are not that much different and you’re better off seeing colours with diseased pallor than remaining mediated in the calm of it all, no?