All children must grow up, we’re powerless against it
with all the flowerless boxes we bury.
Oh, the fits we’d throw, and all the bottles.
Does the ocean have a mother? What is pain?

Will you break from me when I start crying?
All the lies that I tell are true.
And when you break the skin, there’s blood underneath it.
They threw my scissors away to give me life.

And a flame grows. And the car is parked on the lawn.
And I say that I love you.
Please love me—don’t give me reasons.
Don’t give me bandages and lies.

When I was seven, I fell in the water
fully clothed, the winter ice formed all around me.
I watched the world go on, babes in the sunlight,
and all the warmth I could not feel, it seared me.

And the joints groan. And our hands know.
And I say that I love you.
I’ve waited. My breath is bated.
Don’t give me bandages and lies.