Scarlett Gray is a freelance writer living in Dallas, Texas. Her work focuses on the personal and the provocative, detailing pieces of her life with realism and raw honesty
Trouble in Paradise
I want to touch the hem of your soul,
the rough edges,
frayed, tangled, deconstructed,
lift the pieces of you that drag on the floor, wash them, mend them,
soften what wants softening and
stitch my name across the tangled seams
of the sides I took in for you
when you said you didn’t fit yourself anymore.
Is it true that what you want is
for me to unravel?
Trust was never my strong suit,
and staying true was never yours--
a match made anywhere else but in heaven yet still, most nights, it feels like ecstasy.
When you’re angry it’s as if
the fountain of youth flows in my eyes
and each time I cry, you’re given new life. But when you speak, I feel the warm sunlight pouring off your tongue,
your thoughts dripping of spring daylight, setting me ablaze in the kindest way.
Despite the odds, your hand
on my face feels like a promise of paradise. My heart pumps out beats of fervent tenderness.
You’ve always feared commitment
and I’ve always feared change.
Is this the beginning of trouble in paradise?
Sneaking around in the scalding Texas summer,
moon spilling into our motel room,
tangled in the jazz pouring out of speakers by the lobby, you lingering on me like it’s all you ever wanted
in the world?
Are we flirting with the fear,
lost somewhere
in between the love and the lust?
You tell me my lips taste like rare poetry
that you want to read
over and over until you know every line by heart.
But in the daylight,
do you still feel a spark?
Or do I become your friend
once I put on my clothes?
Tell me what it is
you really want to say to me.
Is there a dissonance of feelings or feelings of dissonance?
What would it take
to find true harmony?
Your love settles deep in my skin and I’m still healing.
Show Me My Answers
I walk through a canopy of trees
In high heels that I can no longer feel beneath me
The grounds shift, and the skies open
Revealing more light, more vibrancy,
More luminescence and lucidity
Pouring down on me in the form of soft, twinkling rain Like a drug-induced baptism
Were my eyes closed until this very moment
In which light and sound and color all combined Into one presence
With a pulse, a heart, a mind, a consciousness?
I am a wave
In the midst of many more waves
That move against me, and with me
In a way that somehow makes sense to us
The world feels surreal, but in the same breath, More real than ever
Is this all one long dream?
Will I awake to find desaturated tones,
Harsh edges, and an all-too familiar confusion?
Please, let me feel this way forever--
Otherworldly, angelic, ecstatic,
Blinded by the things that my narrow pupils never noticed How have I missed so much of what’s in front of me?
I hear your voice whispering in the wind,
Rustling through tree branches, trying to guide me I promise, I’m listening
Show me my answers