I belong to a stranger

Like a tin of paint
I want to empty myself on the walls of your heart
in colours dark and bright and crimson
like the moon when it menstruates
and the clumsiness of my childhood
streaming blood down my knees

I want to draw my fears in pictures,
wrap them in your arms
that you may hold them
as if
they are your children

some days, when the sun shines brighter than usual,
I dream in colour
about moments filled with laughter and wrinkles
etched for a lifetime
on our lips
as we flash by in sepia
in dreams that were
to become

then the clouds draw in,
casting shadows on your face

you become the stranger that you are.

I shatter  

again

and again

and again. 

 - Alvené Appollis-du Plessis