Unprepared, by Amory McKeever

Lying under all this skin

phosphorus and oxygen

lungs that ache to breathe again

escape from this dungeon within

Carbon cages of magnesium

calcium structures deep beneath

this tired wrinkled sun-dried sheath

would break themselves for Elysium

Cease to beat that central muscle

that pumps the pain with such hustle

to every appendage I would sever

just to avoid that cruel forever

An endless element of cobalt blue

a life left barren without you

stoke the furnace that melts the ore

and craft the shells for this war

It turns out I was unprepared

for her methods that went undeclared

She came in like a Trojan horse

and slayed me with her intercourse

Convalescence, by Amory McKeever

The brief history of us

was rather dynamic

always changing, growing

but never organic

You were an android

a fake, a fraud, an imitation

just real enough for Polaroid

So I lost an entire year

maybe even two or three

before I found you out

before I could foresee

But you struck too soon

I was not ready

I had the information

but my heart was unsteady

Where I lacked the guts

you did not hesitate

took me down piece by piece

claiming checkmate

Though victory had all but vanished

I survived, I coped, I managed

but in the end I'm still damaged

I said there goes my future

I'll be trapped in the past

unable to move on

I'm all out of gas

Then I read every study

all the research and guides

anything that would tell me

how to repair my insides

But it wasn't a collection

of well written journals

that came to my rescue

to overcome these hurdles

It was just someone honestly

with a shred of compassion

as if by some prophecy

combined all the fractions

the pieces of my heart

into a new one they fashioned

then carefully returned it

back where it started

as if nothing had happened

so a new course could be charted

I thought victory had vanished

that I would always be damaged

but love is more than a bandage