for the tarnished hearts

first poem for the collection!! <3 i'll make some edits later, so feel free to leave constructive criticism and/or your thoughts.

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for the hearts

that have rusted

into tiny music boxes

gently holding

the light, hollow notes

of a desperate tune

that hurts you

to hear:

a short, stumbling melody

some call "love",

but does love

have to be winded up

to sing?

twisted and twisted—

music boxes

can't breathe

on their own,

only allowed short gasps

when clicked open,

when someone

robs them of their music

under the cloak of midnight,

stealing away

before the revealing dawn,

shutting down

the now empty, gilded boxes

that hold a

hurting silence—

these are the hearts

i feel for,

the ones tarnished,

the ones

that had their precious steel

twisted and bent into

into something else

entirely,

the ones that can't love

just for themselves

is it possible

for someone to come along

to melt away the gears

and sharp edges

of your music box

and make it beat again

into the warm heart

it once was?

have love be

a song

that drifts

in and out

of silence

just as the cool tide

of lapis and frothing white

rises and falls,

and if the sun

should fall like golden silk

over our skin,

if the earth

should soften

for this fragile beginning

and for our uncertain steps

into the welcoming unknown,

if the stars should align

somewhere

out of our sight—

this song would crescendo

into something

full and bursting,

into something that would

wash our cruel worlds clean

with soft wonder,

into something

a machine, a music box

can't understand,

because it doesn't know

how love isn't meant to be

caught in a

merciless grasp,

sentenced

to a slow death

without a grave

love,

mari