Based on the real life events of JETs in their quarantine hotel.

Green Tea Kingpin

GreenTeaKingpinVol2

Some nights, I wear a scarf knitted from razor wire around my neck. 
When a strong wind blows the blades kiss my skin till it bleeds. 
I've come to see this as a reminder that it's okay to feel vulnerable
As most day I turn myself to stone
Shut down my floodgates. 
Disappearing into daylight had become a bad habit of mine
Like the craving for a cigarette
I guess I'm just afraid of falling from the tips of fingers. 

On some nights, you find an affinity for stargazing
Track the many motions of suns with your lips
I've heard you speak in the dialects of new moons
Your mouth a welcome mat crater for weary travellers

You entered the world like dogwood trees in spring
Turning my granite limbs into stems of sunflowers
Redefined my perspective of love
Love is not a stranger with a bow and arrow
But is a fine-fingered seamstress
Weaving her string around my crooked ankles
Which would explain why I feel tendencies to fall face forward. 
When we first met, I was a tripping hazard
I plummeted 
Cracked the stone of a man I hid behind
And shot forth a fountain 
That led to a riverbed
That carried a rose-colored seedling down my channel
It landed on your shores
Planted and grew into my cherry blossom tree
From my strongest branch you hung your swing
swaying with the wind
The rope tied tight and gentle around my wrist

I knew the world wasn't flat
There were too many rolling hills in my bark
Too strong of a center to my roots

I began falling, feet planted
When I opened my mouth to show you my ocean
Into which you placed a flower pedal
With your name scratched into its skin
It danced on my blue whale tongue
Then was swallowed whole
Now, there are watermelons in my belly
With a name still etched into their smiles

Where you gardened, I blossomed
Broadened my perspectives of knowing
Songs had a capacity to hold more significance
Time and space started questioning their consistency
A black hole, light-years away felt satisfied for the first time
Gravity abandoned us and you let go of your swing

Your swing is not a fleeting memory
It is still hooked amongst my leaves
Like two hands puzzle fixing themselves together when the ground gives way
These hands are chain tight
Sharp enough to cut
And although I wince from the pinch of perfect pain
You are not afraid of falling
Where I wear my scarf you wear your scars
Laying with the wet stones of your channels
They serve as a reminder that being vulnerable hurts
But skin is tougher than bark
Has held us together all this time
Has never let us go
So swing with me
Rock me in your riverbed
Shed your skin with me. 
And I will trade my neck brace for a flower pedal
With a name shining on the skin.
I will plant it in your ear 
So that you will always hear
My vulnerability. 


Liam Coady

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