gnash, how you appear to me in my dreams & Alive to the Universe, Dead to the World

Poetry by Zoe Stein

how you appear to me in my dreams

apologetic

frantically professing your love

grown out hair

sparkles everywhere but your eyes

heavy footsteps crushing dandelion stems

where metal is rusting under scales of white and red

kneeling on stones almost swallowed

by the glowing waves faintly trailing behind fish

a promised wish i sit and watch

as it rots among a million others

now bleeding into my eyelids

seeping beneath the cracks in my skin

the face of a god

i have never believed in

a whistling in my ear

following the sharp cutting of breath

as i inhale your final lies

fingertips tightening

like the current enclosing my neck

kissing my skin farewell

gnash

my eyes reflect the colours you’re projecting

i don’t carry my own weight

trace words in ribbon as they fall

to give myself a taste of something saccharine

withdraw from the gaps that you create

mended by the face i dream

fingers wrapped around my throat

where the last of me resides

as missing syllables compose

on the corners of my lips

you challenge me to find

a sharper thing than teeth to pierce my skin.

coughing up the sweetness

into sequences of my confessions

bruise your skin to watch me choke on guilt

when i’m the one it touches

bury promises somewhere already broken

the cracks in my teeth

i swallow heaps of poison when you

give me something new to feed on

divert me from dimension

when i tear myself to find you woven in

fragmented lessons of the person

i will never be again.

Alive to the Universe, Dead to the World

Inspired by Pigface’s “Nutopia”

There is a sliver of a city inside this machine.

A buzz rippling through pavement,

overrun by flickering street vermin.

The heavy feet of a woman

repeating each step mechanically,

accompanied by a man

suffocating in solemn skin.

Her feeble voice fused

with a faint hum.

Pupils infested with static.

A halo of incandescent light.

All the stars that once lit up the sky,

and this is what we wished for.

Windows like a million eyes

all blinking simultaneously.

A futile craving lazily fed

in hopes it will subside.

Waiting like moths caught in spider webs

aching for light,

taunted by its reflection in the silken strings.

But the moon is wrapped in wires,

and I fear we are doomed.

Zoe Stein is a first-year college student in the Bachelor of Creative and Professional Writing program at Humber Polytechnic. Her writing is heavily influenced by her love for alternative music, drawing inspiration from the themes and lyrics of her favourite songs. Her love for poetry began when she discovered journaling, where she used writing as an outlet for her emotions. She continues to find ways to depict her real experiences in metaphors. Zoe is passionate about self expression, whether it’s through fashion, music, or writing.