
Laura Tuthall
Prophecy (2013)
please don’t leave
just stay asleep here
no I, I won’t be staying long
I’ll be gone
before you learn the truth of me
remember when we walked across the moon
got shadows on our shoes
and tried to wash them off
with the memory of wilderness?
but you forgot the towel
so the cleaning didn’t count
I can’t go anywhere these days
without staining cobblestones
yeah all we ever were
was a headache at the hairline
trying to separate the face
and frontal lobe
why spend your serotonin
hoping to be whole?
this is all there is
don’t ask for more
I don’t want to know
your words aren’t safe for souls
take your keys and verbal weeds
and leave their paper leaning on the stove
remember when the wilderness was wild
a tadpole in the tide
incapable of stagnancy
through no choice of its own
you say that nothing good is breakable
but china cabinet corningware
and I reply that shards
are more valuable than
smoothen-edged deceit
cuts are kind to me
take your delicate desire
and bake it in the oven
‘til it bleeds
your violence is in vain
the clearness of your caustic repartee
is plain as daylight
so why do you waste your precious tune
on winding up the room
and spinning me away?
okay but please don’t really leave
just stay here
and help my breathe
no I, I won’t be staying long
I’ll be gone
before you take the rest of me
I guess swimming through
the awkwardness of time
is lost on empty minds
there’s nothing in your head
but dead foliage so why
why waste this brilliance
on bandaging the wound
burning up the bones is better
that’s enough for now
your thoughts alone are loud
take your rhymes and roundabouts
and leave them with your clothing on the floor
this is all I see
don’t wait for more