Graffiti for the insomniac

Bella Grieve

Memory loss injection into the skin. Flesh dissolved, love hypothesis. Nature's way, touch my body, your hand around my neck folding at the word cute. Anarchy symbol under the candyman. A secret admirer so sweet, sugar saying dating is a drag. Lose your mind to find your soul. Vicks sold beneath the streets. 

Along in the train station, Platform 11. Vendetta that creeps through the cracks in the concrete. Confusion or confirmation? Red flowers strung up on the windows, spotless mind. Piercings on people, septums on cats. Spiky ears and spiky hair. Sipping on research, inclusivity or exclusivity in TV. Graze scalp bar underground, loose underwear along the lamps, shoes hung up along the wires. 

Hybrid baby animal graffiti, lamb combined with a duckling. Disco head, eyes peaking through, adequate. Roman d’Amour, chemical romance loss in Villa Palmera. My blurry days stuck amongst jazz by the water. Longing, for the insomniac falling into my arms, night vision it almost worked. Be my angel and feed my black sheep somewhere somehow. Blue boredom, freaks crawl beneath in retrograde. Time moves slow he tells me to pick any color I like. The look cheri cheri lady my love in portofino. Gallowdance in the summer pretty girls make graves. Flying away in sandpaper kisses catching a thief with strangers on the train. 

Morse code is a butterfly stuck in utopia. Sour times dusty times a glory box underneath an old lady’s bed. Pocky boy walked me home underneath the killing moon. Garden plaza. Caught in time, so far away better in the dark. Lies in the eyes of love and hate yourself watching birds sing. Still listening Gentleman? Suit and tie in the big smoke. Watching the machines make money just to hold the lever and lose it. Baby girl just for you, I wanna be your right hand, give you breakfast in bed. Hold your long hair while you run your mouth. 

High no more, hater’s anthem you only get somewhere with a negative attitude. Alive a blonde maneater all things end High no more. When you sleep my wildflower I like the way you kiss me. Master of none, only ever just about a girl. Love buzzes so long London. Murder of city nights. If you could be anywhere, where would you be? Under a vixen or forester picking up cherries or blackberries. Dear future wife where I will find you under my unknown favourite star. Orgasm addict, one chord wonders. Cigarette falls off his ear. 

Coffee in your eyes is cold or hot. Dancing barefoot, because of the night. Sip on the straw and stay in reality. Letting your mind wander down the neon road. A woman with blonde hair and ponytail tells people they have power. Conditional love, consensual intimacy, sins walk out the door. This way out, pick your own apples. Mystic market, special fruit. Letting life take the reins a girl meets a boy, strangers converse. Lips touch down at the underground bar playing pool. Sex, money, feelings, speaking with a third eye. Colour coordinated racks around at the thrift store. 

Dealer around the corner, back with the vicks between your gums. Lovely head he says looking at me. Enamored, my past self would walk out the door. The way he stares, twinkling around his pupils. Lips become blue, cracks on each side staring into their eyes. Same place same time you reappear just to come back.

Plants hang on walls, the man stays in darkness for his own eternity. Self made or constructed. Pupils expand inhaling time. Faded cans left on the ground, and a jar of brown sugar. Moon phases, bite my lip. Naked selfies he prys. My favourite part: funny papers, funny men, funny things.

Lust for something re-arranged. Sugar water at the front door, little window with a glass pumpkin. Unconditional love, obey the ghost. Lucky girls get gone, get afraid, get ashamed. Shy purple, pointy green, yellow teeth. Bassline junkie, art deco all red is the page filled with colours, squinting your eyes. Quick intermission, silicone kitchen, tears in brazil.

Washing the sins away, gardens kiss the themed subway. The loving touch, we must meet again you say. Falling in and falling out, holding me open ended. Trade our hearts, parachute in the middle of nowhere. Children on the internet whisper through the screen. Losing sense of the face to a sentence. Wait until the morning to share your fears, don’t start a conversation just to fall asleep. One cries hoping not to be heard, she screams, desensitizing your fears. Hold each object followed with eye movement. Stable eyes, a dream flower flourishes.

Sunny daze, affirming it’s ok to cry. Stories in pajamas, passing through. Looking into his eyes, drive slow if you wouldn’t mind. Dating someone means dating their ex-partner. Left to ponder, longing just to wander. Watching closely, a sunset lamp in the window looking in from afar. Petite touches against the piano. Tree branches strumming, left to wonder.

Favourite thing behind you, locked in a daydream. Close to the chair, the rug hung up. Multi-coloured flowers stuck onto the back. Pimples all around, something but not a frown. Fifteen seconds, desiring onto your skin. I wait, machines to put kindness coins into. 

Fathom your mindset, twist your soul, no characters to behold. Lay your cards out for intangible fate, placing each one straight. Lying just to drain from the brain. Invisible mirror, single leaf floating around the fountain. Wind blasting in your ear drums, wanting to feel numb. 

Happiness does exist. Waiting on a wheel of fortune, kindness to the empress. Magician under the sun. Queen of swords, ace of wands. Irreversible strength, the moon and the star. Half time to reach the road, working hard to preach. Teeth inside a purse, octopus chamber. 

Taste of fish, bones for shoes. Hair blowing in the wind. A woman sits covered in feathers, a bird inside a person. Fluttering her wings, all she can do is walk. Holding each branch not one that will hold her. She lies on the grass daydreaming as her eyes go to the sky. Collecting moss, beads she uses in her hair. Whimsical women, frowning to the trash that lies on the path she trods. 

Painting her skin pink and green, in front of the camera her yellow teeth flash. Take a chance on me, to the moon and back. Bene, a dopo, OK? Headphones on, she walks around her locks blowing like a feather floating. Autumn trees, yellow and orange. Colours blurring, being followed, toil and trouble. The light shines down in the theatre prancing on the stage. She sits in a large martini glass on her knees and tries the cherry. Her blue eyeshadow was caught by a man with a camera. 

He reaches his hand asking her to hold, she struts away, flapper he calls out, she turns her head lying on her silk shoulder she winks and continues walking behind the curtain. Out the back door, yellow umbrella, jazz evaporating from down below. A memory missed even though you never lived it. Just in the back you mind a version of you that quietly lays waiting to be let out. 

Question after question, leaving them all unanswered. Lucky in relationships, lost on your own. Cocktails all alone, in the black in white. Fun all around, orange and yellow. Slice of lime, sunrise under the sunset. Hand shadows one creates a head the other makes a bird. Covering the walls of the room, lying still. Research and create. Talent through the eyes. Recalibrations on the sheets, at the desk, under the trees, by the sea and at the top of the building.