february_stars tender_square i told him i'd tend to the embers, separate the listless stacks pulsing red. he crested the hill and entered the house that now belongs solely to him. i chipped away at char with the sharp point of a poker. a smoke plume surprised me in the dark; i knew its presence in the deepest confines of my chest and coughed the way i used to before sobriety took the tickle. i awkwardly reclined on a sloped plastic stool, eyes drawn upward. everyone's been talking about airborne balloons but all i see are stars, pinpricks of light i want to pierce my muffled skin; make me a sieve where this sadness can spill its temporary scars. 230213 what's it to you? who go blather from