Tag: lovely pretty words

pencap:

“1. leave your soulmate behind in the house you grew up in.
leave a packed bag always waiting in the bottom of your closet.
pick it up and leave on one nondescript day and leave no note of explanation or apology or love.
and if your heart leaps to break out of your ribcage in protest, let it. bury it in the floorboards beneath your soulmate’s bed
and leave no gravestone to mark where it died. when the monsters come next time, they will find no threads to entrap you in and no heart to carve out of your chest.”

— excerpt from “how to become immortal” ( j.p. )

you never asked to fly.
 
you never craved the sky as your freedom
        never coveted the sun or the sea as your lover
        never claimed the birds as your friends and the wind as your servant.
 
you never wanted to
    soar with a halo of sunglare behind your head
    bear wings like angels bearing news of the heavens
    wave weighted arms like a sparrow trying to cross the ocean.
you never forged wings 
     of beeswax and fallen feathers
     of molten wax dripping feathers like molting birds.
 
you never threatened to break into the realm of gods
     to breathe their sacred air or
     to drink their sacred ambrosia or
     to steal their sacred fire.
 
you never even asked
     for sunshine and blue skies
     to gaze upon on lonely days
and you never even asked
     for moonlight and constellations
     to keep company on cold nights.
 
it’s too bad
                         that you had to fall
                                                                anyway.

icarus by any other name would fall just as far ( j.p. )

can you tell me a Story?
    what kind of a Story do you want me to tell?
    ( i am so full of Stories sometimes it feels like i am made of nothing else. i will give them to you, one by one, until there is nothing left in me. )
 
tell me about the brightest boy you ever knew.
    bright can mean a lot of things. bright like gold, like dawn, like stars…
    ( even cannon fire and muzzle flares and sword glints are bright in the darkest nights. )
 
you can choose. it’s your Story. i don’t mind.
    okay. i’ll tell you a story about the brightest Boy i ever knew.
    ( it doesn’t matter anyway; they’re all about the same Boy. it’s always been about the same Boy. )
 
does it have a happy ending?
    if i tell you now, it’ll ruin the Story.
    ( there is no ending because i refuse to call this Story finished. i am still hoping that it finds a happy ending somewhere beyond the apocalypse. )
 
fine. i’m listening.
    once upon a time, there was a Boy with fool’s gold for hair and dawn in his blood.
    ( and i couldn’t stop him from burning up with the fire in his heart. but he was beautiful when he burned. )

and for a moment, the world was too. ( j.p. ) || insp. (via pencap)

i left home a child
     and came back to trumpeting heralds
                              and parades in my name 
                              and historybooks with my face on the front cover––
     a hero. 
 
i left home a child
     and came back a hero
     but no one seems to see that a hero is a warrior
     and a warrior must first be born of war.
 
and i see too many children
        chasing after my footprints with joy
        wearing armour like blankets and helmets like crowns
        laughing with eyes bright as the faraway glint of sniper scopes.
 
and i do not want to leave a legacy
     of bloodstains and bruised knuckles
     and teeth clenched around burning bullets.
 
and i do not want anyone else
to leave home a child
     and come back a hero
tasting blood on every passing wind
and regret on every shaking breath.
 
but i left home a child
     and came back a hero
     and only a hero––
 
––not the historian who writes the legends
     or the god who writes the stars 
and i do not have it in me
to stop the next warrior
     who leaves home a child
          and comes back a hero.

the hero’s lament ( j.p. ) || home, legacies and regrets for anonymous 
(via pencap)

i never asked to be immortal. 
i never asked to be a hero. 

all i wanted was to help someone
so that perhaps 
     for a moment
the ghosts in my mind 
could be quiet
                drowned out by the beat of my blood
                                        by the rush of my rage.

but you see
legends never die
and heroes never grow old.

but you see 
never dying 
           or growing old 
           or fading out like distant memories should
does not mean that you live forever.

but you see
they say heroes always do what’s right 
but they do not say that 
what is right by the world 
     is not always right by you 
                                  or by your heart
                                  or by your lover––

i wish i had known before 
i leapt up into the sky and became a star
but i suppose
                          that is why 
                                               they never say it

so that their heroes do not go insane ( j.p. ) || immortality, insanity, “doing what’s right” for @daenerystargaryensass (via pencap)

i know somewhere there is a hero who loved her friend
and was allowed to go home with her
in peace
without a swarm of angry ghosts chasing them down 
into an early grave with no name. 
 
i know somewhere there is a boy who loved the sun
and was allowed to soar next to him
in light
without the drip of melting wax sliding down his back
into a cold hungry ocean with a frothing mouth.
 
i know somewhere there is a god who loved a mortal
and was allowed to live and die together
in silence
without the stench of poisoned ambrosia hissing down his throat
into an unwilling body with withered bones. 

and even if they are not here
        even if i do not know their names
        even if i have never seen their faces or heard their voices
i know that they are out there
                                     somewhere 
 
because sometimes
     when i hold you close 
          and pray into the vast darkness of the universe
i can hear the whispers of their memories
     echoing in the silence after my prayer dies
and i can taste the shadow of their pity 
     lingering on my tongue after my prayer dies
 
and i know that somewhere
someone like us
was once happy –

even if we can’t be ( j.p. )

they wanted to set you on fire 
and call you a sun
and build a shrine to your name
     to praise your warmth and your light and your strength

but love,
you refused to burn
 
so instead they encased you in ice
buried you ten feet deep in snow until you forgot what warm felt like
made a moon of your skin
           and stars of your teeth
           and ice comets of your eyes
 
and now
they look up at the night sky
and they talk about the one who died to light it up
and they call you guardian, protector, sentinel
 
and they forget
that they are the ones
who froze you
in the first place

and they still made a hero of your tragedy ( j.p. )

there’s beauty in her eyes
and it’s her kindness 
there’s power in her hands
and it’s her strength 

and I think 
I am braver because I know her
and I know
I am brighter because she believes 

and crowning her is an easy task
but choosing to crown her in stars or in gold or in violets
that’s difficult because she deserves all three 

and if I could I’d plaster her words across my skin
and if I found myself in the ancient ruins, she’d be who I think of

because she is a phoenix, rising from the ashes
and she’s the one who first taught me that the sunlight 
can be better than any sort of storm 

and I don’t think she knows
she held my hand and let me save myself

thank you by Abby S (via fireandsteelofangels)

you yourself know 
that when I look for beauty 
I do not find it in glory

for the one thing that makes this black earth
worth all this pain and sacrifice
is you 

I love you, I love you, I love you 
that is the song the muses will sing 
whenever I find myself led to the ground below

and I will wait for you
because I swear, someone will remember us
even if it is only through the stars

and I will carry you through the dark by Abby S (via fireandsteelofangels)