Halcyon

skyline version of you

You left your hoodie and your chaos on my floor,
I kept both, can't tell which I adore more.
Your champagne-coloured confession
beneath the ink-stained sky,
and the midnight mascara run that followed
I still can't decide which hurt worse.

You say you've moved on — oh, that's cute,
but your ghost still hums my favourite tune.
The wine stain never left the rug,
nor your number my speed dial.
I envy the girl I was before I met you
there were stars at my feet;
now sequins sparkle from the gutter.
Why'd you say forever when you meant Friday night?

We were crimson, reckless, sweetly doomed,
I still taste the night we filled my room.
City lights blink like they're keeping score,
they saw you leave and I locked the door.
I dress in silver, you dream in red,
every poem I write is something you said.
The skyline remembers how you kissed me wrong,
velvet regret and diamond denial,
why didn't the starts grant me a retrial?

Both affection and affectation
differ by just a single 'at';
but that 'at' made all the contrast
when you lied, said you weren't at the motel.
Oh, these glitter-stained skylines,
how did I survive elevator silence before you?
I wore your lies like designer suits
our love was too pretty to survive daylight.
When glass towers swallowed the moon,
our skyline sighed in neon.
We kissed like deadlines,
so heartbreak came running in high heels.

I dance better in disaster's light,
than in daylight's truth,
you can't haunt someone who loves the dark,
were we just midnight's miraculous spark?
a thousand windows deck this city,
but none of them look in,
silence dresses best in sequins,
glass and grief both shimmer,
I loved you in panoramic,
but you loved me in preview,
the skyline clapped as we fell apart.

When the night forgets your name,
I'll still remember,
because heartbreak was the price of the view
from the skyline version of you.

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