if i ran to the house where the tiger butterfly swam to, would i be out of my mind? well, that’s where i sleep and that’s where we meet my calloused finger tips trace the veins of your secrets we metamorphosise in cycles, always reborn and recycled and despite the growing pain i would do it again shedding our dry dragon scales as we amass legends and tales and despite the moving pain i would do it again and again infinitely again and again i’m crawling and squirming, i’m having a blast away from everything that was holding me back one day you’ll know how the silt and the smoke spread all over me if i ran to the hill where the tiger butterfly swam to, would i be out of my mind? we placed his ashes next to hers and then they alchemized and turned they alchemized and turned they alchemized and turned i’m crawling and squirming, i’m having a blast away from everything that was holding me back one day you’ll know how the silt and the smoke spread all over me i’m crawling and squirming, i’m having a blast away from everything that was holding me back one day you’ll know how the silt and the smoke spread all over me

the waves engraved beneath the boulders that you’re buried under eternal flames that blast their rays at our unknown futures you stared at the curves of the water on my wooden mask that I tied behind my head on a pillow of a tangled mess lying down on beds of storms of uncertainty, pouring out a lack of clarity i closed the tides of my eyes to feel you watch me sleeping we’re a flock of cranes, always in the clouds looking for the lunar eclipse, constantly constructing an army of oral histories, with the weapons of our enemies to reincarnate them into our comrades i closed the tides of my eyes to feel you watch me sleeping catching sparks of inspiration like fireflies with sticky sharpies on backs of torn cardboard packaging the perfect insurrection fire starter for starters we’re always in the stars, we’re constantly deconstructing i closed the tides of my eyes to feel you watch me sleeping the waves engraved beneath the boulders that you’re buried under eternal flames that blast their rays at our unknown futures the waves engraved beneath the boulders that you’re buried under eternal flames that blast their rays at our unknown futures

bowing to all of those that guerrilla gardened the dirt road to help me hold myself at the barest of my vulnerabilities placing my diced guts in front of crowds of strangers, honking cars and extractive industry i'm crying out.. earth, meet my tough skin again, a couple of old friends it had been too many life cycles they almost didn’t recognise one another crying out halmoni’s homemade SoySauce they’re tears of joy, they’re tears of joy i will return, this is my deepest promise it’s a stellar ploy, it’s a stellar ploy crying out halmoni’s homemade SoySauce they’re tears of joy, they’re tears of joy i will return, this is my deepest promise it’s a stellar ploy, it’s a stellar ploy crying out halmoni’s homemade SoySauce they’re tears of joy, they’re tears of joy i will return, this is my deepest promise it’s a stellar ploy, it’s a stellar ploy

i stopped excusing the way you hurt me on your past and the ground from which you grew i can’t keep numbing out my senses and take you at face value i’ve been counting all the streets i now avoid passing through in the terror of potentially running into you and the lies that you shared with me when i held up your truth cause i can’t keep numbing out my senses or take you at face value another full moon flies by, and i descend deeper into my truth i grow closer to my songs but farther away from you and i grow fonder of the spider that moved into my room when we crawl into my bed, my fears no longer loom and the corners full of threads spell out what i’ve got to do as you watch us spin our webs and the cards that we drew but i take a double take every time my eyes see through ‘cause i can’t keep numbing out my senses so i’m taking myself at face value

yearning on the bark: my legs were crossed on the tree roots that were bursting through the sidewalk my claws were carving portraits of yearning on the bark the pain of this loneliness becomes a new form of martial art oh, tiger, tiger, our separation is teaching me a lot i don’t want a love that holds me back but wasn’t love created for just that? i’m so tempted to give into the mischief on your grin it’s taking the heavens within me to hold myself back the dried up mugwort that grew despite the grass seeps into my veins as my scales burn off climbing up the tree trunk soaked in acid rain to hold my glowing orb inside my mouth from the ghouls that feed off my pain oh, tiger, tiger, i almost believed them when they said our existence was strange i don’t want a love that holds me back but wasn’t love created for just that? i’m so tempted to give into the mischief on your grin it’s taking the heavens within me to hold myself back oh, tiger, tiger i want us to burst through the sidewalk and grow despite the grass side by side while we’re our own chosen oh, tiger, tiger i want us to soar through the painted clouds of stillness over the waves of perpetual motion ‘cause i don’t want a love that holds me back but wasn’t love created for just that? i’m so tempted to give into the mischief on your grin it’s taking the heavens within me to hold myself back your tenderness: my steel toed talons start to look just like your paws we were getting so lost in each other, but you had the upper claws i picked out and carried your thorns for you, you would lose blood and my back would bend we were losing sight of where each other’s own tales begin and end even though we both know that your teeth were sinking into my keratin lips i hear the chorus say “THAT WAS UNFORGIVABLE!!!” but i truly know that i can’t let go of my faith in the way i haven’t seen it all yet, but i feel you the most i can’t help but live on both sides and your tenderness is a ghost that is trying to reach you through me your tenderness is a ghost that is trying to reach you through me your tenderness is a ghost that is trying to reach you through me

can you see the metal dragons flying around the midnight periphery of your young ocean memories and the dirt of the land that you inhaled from which your summer saplings wailed and grew into a name you never failed to carry i was seeking for the corners where you hide to sing to you inside and follow the fallen petals that lead us to your guides you had never met them before in your life 'til you listened for the forest tides and all the tree creatures that sang along twin flowers sprouting in knots intertwining in cycles around the softest stone this season i’ll change my ways 'cause we’re stuck with the blooming flame that’ll burn us to the bone but we’ll learn to embrace it can you see the metal dragons flying around the midnight periphery of your young ocean memories and the dirt of the land that you inhaled from which your summer saplings wailed and grew into a name you never failed to carry you grew into a name you never failed to carry

you called shotgun as i listened to you both roll down the cracked windows and smoke out your broken hearts shaking your fists in the air at the parks board and second hand words of city despair were filling up the car i watched the urban landscapes turn back into the land and left the shredded bits of my heart break buried in the winter sand and I realized how our boundaries do protect our softer spots we went our separate ways, but we never left each other’s thoughts now i’m looking back at everything we asked for as my legs cross this overpass my fingers lock themselves to the fence looking out towards the empty tracks i shout out your name cause of this chronic pain that your kisses would attack that chosen name, your one true name, let their echoes summon you back! well they still do nightly karaoke and i belt out your go-to song to the vast ocean of voices cheering me the fuck on you used to say that it’s a different world inside that dive bar, that every space is a reflection of the ways we group the stars and i’m still stuck here in this aching body trying to figure out what these threaded moments and my fleeting songs are all about can’t unlock my fingers or get my legs to uncross and hope teases me every fucken time that i get lost as i refuse to bus and choose to wobble through the alleys where i’m sinking and under my deepest shallow breath i repeatedly wish for us all to stop hurting

i didn’t mean to bite your face i’m trying to keep it together by sewing organs back into place my guts are falling out the chemicals we’re breathing in i’m trying to exhale the words so that your eyes can hear me out (i’m wailing at the stars) i walk around these crowded streets and i don’t feel like people see who i really am i’m finally getting used to embracing it i’m finally getting used to the stares