STAR-SHAPED HOLES

Her silence was as red as the blood on her hands,
& her words were miles from day and night
Her eyes held pieces of the sky,
but we never saw her in the dark.

She told us to reach for the stars
when we couldn’t see them,
as if we’d pry the eyes from her head
when they were suffocating black
with only the star shaped holes in the sky
To let us breathe.

She fed us white lies
that tasted like syrup
Until we tried to speak,
and then the candied words
Turned bitter in our throats

Gave us promises of home,
So she could paint herself gray
and make us believe she was golden
While she played her game
Of locked doors
and locked mouths.

She didn’t get that we
Could never reach the stars
without getting burned,
Could never find home
because home was never real for us,
& could never stop running
because we were always going to be chased.

We
were
never
going
to
make
it.