Tara Schley

We didn't know each other,

then
...

The days,
the hours,
the seconds
flow into one another.
...

All of the things,

I
should
...

Remember that vibrant, beautiful yellow rose?
That you gave to me on our first date.
Before it lost all its beauty,
...

I don't watch babies be given needles.
I look away when I see roadkill.
I don't slow down to stare at dead bodies in lethal car accidents.
I skip the torture scenes in movies.
...

Dying must be the easy part?
Not as hard as it seems.
It's living with a broken heart
Missing you,
...

You didn't try to understand,
me,
trying to make you understand,
me.
...

Put away all your weapons and war.
No more fighting, tears or sorrow.
When you walk through the streets,
there will be no need to cower or scurry.
...

One day you will lose someone to death,
They will lay in front of you,
all their life gone.
Their eyes open but not seeing.
...

No integrity people.
Liar people.
No honour people.
Hypocrite people.
...

Biting winter walk
The wind turns my skin crimson
Reminding of you
...

The couple given:
pots, pans, a tea set, a quilt,
a doll for the bride.
...

I stood:
whole,
quiet,
peaceful,
...

There was once a poet whose name was Tad.
Whose wife was a poet named Astrad.
When they had a baby,
after scads of maybes.
...

There hasn't been a year, 

a month, 
a week,
that my heart hasn't missed you.
...

As I rode through the streets,
the buildings fell dark. The bridges,
streets, freeways became clogged with vehicles.
Impassable except to foot or bike traffic.
...

I wish: we were all 13yrs old
and on a hot summer night
I'd sneak out to go
ride bikes with you.
...

Like in those stories
vampires love the dark and quiet of night. when everyone else is asleep. but the vampire didn't suck my blood, not blood. the vampire did bite. he left his vampire tooth marks on me that i was supposed to be good and keep covered up. but teacher saw the vampire tooth marks when i was jumping rope with my best friend Billy at lunch. my shirt untucked from my jeans. teacher told mother. mother told teacher little sister Molly had done this tooth marks. Molly was just a baby though with baby teeth not vampire teeth. teacher looked at mother the way she did at my friend Billy when he lied and said it wasn't him that ate the candies she kept in her desk. when we got home, mother made my ears ring and my nose bleed when I told her that the vampire that comes at night did these tooth marks, not my baby sister Molly with her six baby teeth.i didn't talk to mother about what the vampire does at night anymore after that and mother didn't ask.

unlike in the movies, vampires don't come in through the windows or hide in alleys waiting for people to walk by. they have keys to houses that they let the mothers and the kids live in. that is how they get in at night. and they like the curtains closed and doors locked when they get inside. but don't try to lock a vampire out of the house or your room they get real mad at that.and locks on inside of bedroom doors aren't allowed by vampires. they don't like to be told no. i heard my friend Billy tell the vampire no, when mother said he was allowed a sleep over. first time i had a friend sleep over. we were playing in the barn that night he said no. Billy didn't believe me vampires exist.he laughed at me. but Billy found out they exist. Billy didn't want to be alone with the vampire but I whispered to him before i left the barn you don't say no to a vampire. Billy did, he screamed it at the vampire. 'no, no, no, No! ' and then my friend Billy he fell from the hay loft and never woke up. An accident my mother and the vampire said. and i never asked to have a sleep over again.
...

Before: my Uncle, Dr. Stephen Lowe was murdered
in a home invasion in Prince George, B.C.

by a teenage neighbour,
...

It's 25

our hearts beating,
...