. Mange

They are the two most relatable and utterly contagious human afflictions: love and hatred. And passion is the the most ironic impetus behind both, which quite often causes these two emotions to be synonymous. It’s why we keep coming back to the ones that hurt us the most. Its criminals always return to the scene of the crime. Why the feeder rat runs over to sniff the snake.
I woke up outside and searched desperately in hopes that last night was a dream. But, scratches, bruises, bite marks…..These are all binding contracts that can not be refuted. I caught a glimpse of myself in an old dirty mirror and noticed my eyes resembled an old, worn photograph from the 1800s. The meloncholly it brought numbed me a little, just enough to go back to sleep for another hour or so. The animals sleep outside…..

She keeps me here because the thinks I’m good for her. As if I am the one that’s gonna save her, and that makes me the worst type of hero. The ones that lead you out to the fires under the guise of an innocent and loyal companion who doesn’t know better. I am the canine that destroys all her favorite things and she keeps letting sleep in her bed because I am warm at night. I am the wolf she mistakes for her shepard. And that alone must be enough because there’s nothing else. No comfort, No compassion. Just bent fences and torn dresses. Picked locks and talking our way out of handcuffs. Hours later, applying them myself.
Hours later talking myself into leaving.
Hours later waking up outside.
We are all the most terrible when we are alone. We are all the most unforgivable when the doors are locked. I’ve seen it all and talked them into most of it. Because I’m terribly afraid to admit that love and hatred are the same thing. It’s why I choke her when I kiss her. Comfort is the warm room where the greatest obscenities occur. It’s the parasite in my chest and the dreams tearing me limb from limb at night. It’s why I refuse to take you home, because I still haven’t found one. It’s why I sleep outside with the other animals.

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She was wearing her best dress and dancing to the sad rhythm of her loneliness. The bottom of her dress balled up in her fists. She was hopeless and asking for help out of her unbearable solitude. Clinging to every indifference like a child to its teddy bear, I looked at her and said, “I’m sorry, there is nothing I can do for you.”

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.Phantasmagoria

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It’s hard for me to conceive a more endearing word than this. It’s just as hard for me to convey the emotions and memories that it provokes. Being a logophile, paired with my own distinctive brand of compulsive psychosis means that words have always been more than just words – more than the ink stains on paper. More than odd sounds shaped by lips and tongues into proper vernacular. Certain words bring me sheer terror, just as others make me fall head-over-heels in love.
There are certain words that are closer to my soul than any past love. I hardly remember my first kiss, and yet I still remember the exact moment I stumbled on this word. I was 11 years old and thumbing through an old magazine I found laying in an advertisement for a computer game.
Since that moment 19 years ago, there are no better words than this one. If I write in it black ink in one of my notepads and step back, the letters seem to lay perfectly next to each other like exhausted lovers after feverish sex. The tail of each letter drapes softly across the shoulder of the one following it.
To say this word is to take me far, far away. It’s to rest my head in an open field with a calm, orange glow from the tired sun laying down along the horizon for the night.
It’s gentle and intriguing. It’s dark, mysterious and sexy. Bold and euphoric. It’s intangible.
Phantasmagoria….
That’s a good fucking word.

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