Paper roses

There are paper roses melting on the curb

Their dye is running rampant over my shoes and people are looking

like i'm the one who did it

Because i did

Their thorns were pricking me, bothering me

No matter where in the apartment i stood

And their color was harsh and not the beauty i once thought it was

So i threw them off the balcony

Because they were from her, they belonged

To her

There are paper roses melting on the curb

Their stems have been flattened, their newspaper leaves smudged and

All the time and detail she put into finding the right words

Just for me

Are wasted

Because i never meant anything to her and she

She meant the entire sky to me

There are paper roses melting on the curb

Their extravagant petals shattered over the slushy pavement

And i

I am tired, so tired

Of their scent filling this apartment, this apartment

I thought was big enough for more than one

Exhausted of pretending, both of us just wispy figures 

We used to fill each other in, color in the other’s picture

But all the markers have run out of ink

And there’s no space left to fill

There are paper roses melting on the curb

Their sweet scent gone sour

But then, maybe they were never sweet enough

After all, they belonged to her

Sometimes I can still smell her vanilla lotion, even after I burned all the sheets we ever shared

Her laugh is stuck in these walls and it’s making me want to scream---

There are paper roses melting on the curb

Their color running rampant over my shoes and people are looking

Like I’m the one who did it

Because I did

Because they were from her, they belonged 

To her

And now she’s gone

So must be her roses, too

Her paper roses