Balloons

Eyes that crinkle and wrinkle for a while

matched with a stretched, strained, pinned up smile

that begins to slide and crack her plaster face

forcing her to hide.

But he takes her like a cigarette; multiple times a day,

smoking her while it feels good

ignoring the inward decay.

She makes his chest tight and, like a vampire,

he craves her blood.

But that girl continues to dance and ride the midnight trains

whilst shooting electricity into her veins

soon the needle will be too sharp, popping her

like a balloon, so she bursts again

into the dark.

Like Alice she falls down the rabbit hole and is

greeted by the cell of pain, probed like she's

insane.

Coiling in on herself, becoming a snail, shrinking into her

claustrophobic shell - wanting to escape this hell.

She screams and cries and shouts and tries for someone to hear

her plea though her voice is incoherent, blurry, fuzzy

like an unconnected TV.

She stops shaking her chains and stops all her complaints.

Beginning to breathe.

Breathe so much the radio in her mind connects

the air pumps up as she lets the pressure build.

Shackles burst open.

Needles pop out.

She blows her smile up and smooths out the cracks; then,

like a balloon floats into the sky

on the breeze.