the girl with the painted face
asked the boy with skin so raw
for the answer
to an impossibly vague question

a cup
a spoon
a mirror
a tree

he showed her the way
to avoid the collision
to speak with her mind
not her mouth

he told her the truth
dangerous as a gun
the kind that leaves bullet wounds
in your head

he gave her the weight
of the world above
but lifted the curse
of the world in their eyes

a container
a scale
a tissue
a chair

he sold her the idea
of a blind world
where beauty would be heard
not seen

?he sang her a song
with words that mattered
reversed
so they were only sounds

he shared with her the flaws
a single mirror holds
impurities beyond compare
in the glass - not the reflection

a pill
a finger
a knife
a rope

he taught her the art of walking on tightropes
high in the sky, above a sea of rejection
the way the wind will try to shake you
unless you force it away

he trained her to let go
to forget the memories clogging her gears
how to construct new bridges
over ones she had burned

he made her an invisible cloak
for the two of them to hide
to watch the world
through the comfort of the right person

she could have swallowed the cry of wrong choices
she could have crashed, and floated away like a feather she could have sliced the faces of those who need her
she could have hung on the string, swinging back and forth

maybe the ones we learn to love
are those we love to learn from
for each word that exited his mind
was stored in hers

he built a cast
around her broken heart
and signed it
“I am the answer”

I’ve heard it said
love isn’t born
through the sweet, dizzy nights
but the times hard as stone

a candle
a dinner
a valentine
a couch

many will wait
at the end, by the finish line
the answer will always
be running the race beside you

not all knights wear armor
not all superheroes wear capes
the real heroes are the ones
who unlock the world for you

the girl who was truly herself
took the hand of the smiling boy
and ran off into the light
that she had missed ever so dearly