forgotten summer's love

burn the polaroids you took this summer with the 

first lighter you ever bought, back when you were twelve

and needed to feel something that wasn't packaged, artificial

like every emotion you carefully collected over the past three months

swimming in the rain, singing in the stairwell, writing in the grass

a teenager's dream, broken by parents and mended by hopeless love

you'll never see them again, you damn well know it, so

burn the polaroids you took this summer and watch

their paper lips burn to ash, even though they turned your skin to fire

tiny marks down your neck, concealed with your mother's foundation

pretending to be mad at the mahogany bruises in places no one

knows about except them, but you weren't the only one receiving them

you knew this wouldn't last forever; now watch your heart burn as you

burn the polaroids you took this summer because

they always swore there wasn't another, and you desperate fool,

you re-opened your heart for a three-month-long whirlwind of

love entrapped by a spider web, invisible and impossible to get out of

why did you risk everything again for a false sense of security

you only got hurt in the end, but you know what you have to do

pick yourself up off the ground, stitch your heart up, don't cover your scrapes

fuck makeup or oversized clothes; let the world see your hurt

let the world see the way you cope with pain, and let them

respect you for it. when you see them on the first day of fall

ignore them and leave the ashes in their locker from the 

polaroids you burned this summer.