Mantle's Protector

“Just breathe with me and listen to my unspoken words.”

Aaaaaaaaand of course I end up with another Nuts and Dolts piece. lol. This was inspired by DECO*27′s “Two Breaths Walking” (Vocaloid). They recently uploaded a remastered version and the accompanying image instantly inspired this!

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The waiting game | itseriksen

– So I really liked the original meme here, so much that I ended up buying the poet’s book Crush to read. 

Inspiration hit and here are 79 lines, categorized by poem. Feel free to change pronouns and any names!

SCHEHERAZADE

❝Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake and dress them in warm clothes again.❞ ❝Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it’s noon, that means we’re inconsolable.❞ ❝Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.❞ ❝Tell me we’ll never get used to it.❞

DIRTY VALENTINE

❝There’s a part in the movie where you can see right through the acting, where you can tell that I’m about to burst into tears.❞ ❝I swallow your heart and it crawls right out of my mouth.❞ ❝You swallow my heart and flee, but I want it back now, baby. I want it back.❞ ❝I’m sorry. We know how it works. The world is no longer mysterious.❞

LITTLE BEAST

❝I like him and I want to be like him, my hands no longer an afterthought.❞ ❝Someone once told me than explaining is an admission of failure.❞ ❝I’m sure you remember, I was on the phone with you, sweetheart.❞ ❝History repeats itself.❞ ❝There are many names in history but none of them are ours.❞ ❝You could drown in those eyes, I said.❞ ❝But damn if there isn’t anything sexier than a slender boy with a handgun, a fast car, a bottle of pills.❞ ❝What would you like? I’d like my money’s worth.❞ ❝Sorry about the blood in your mouth. I wish it was mine.❞     ❝I couldn’t get the boy to kill me, but I wore his jacket for the longest time.❞

SEASIDE IMPROVISATION

❝Tell me you love this, tell me you’re not miserable.❞ ❝You do the math, you expect the trouble.❞ ❝Draw a circle with a piece of chalk. Imagine standing in a constant cone of light. Imagine surrender. Imagine being useless.❞ ❝A stone on the path means the tea’s not ready, a stone in the hand means somebody’s angry.❞ ❝The stone inside you still hasn’t hit bottom.❞

THE TORN-UP ROAD

❝There is no way to make this story interesting.❞ ❝I want to tell you this story without having to confess anything, without having to say that I ran out into the street to prove something.❞ ❝Tell me we’re dead and I’ll love you even more.❞ ❝And he knew it wasn’t going to be okay, and he told me it wasn’t going to be okay.❞ ❝But the minutes don’t stop.❞ ❝And words, little words, words too small for any hope or promise, not really soothing but soothing nonetheless.❞

LITANY IN WHICH CERTAIN THINGS ARE CROSSED OUT

❝You will be alone always and then you will die.❞ ❝So maybe I wanted to give you something more than a catalog of non-definitive acts, something other than the desperation.❞ ❝I’m sorry I came to your party and seduced you and left you bruised and ruined, you poor sad thing.❞ ❝You want a better story. Who wouldn’t?❞ ❝I can tell you already think I’m the dragon, that would be so like me, but I’m not. I’m not the dragon. I’m not the princess either.❞ ❝Who am I? I’m just a writer. I write things down. I walk through your dreams and invent the future.❞ ❝And yes, I swallow glass, but that comes later.❞ ❝Shut up. I’m getting to it.❞ ❝For a while I thought I was the dragon.❞ ❝Okay, so I’m the dragon. Big deal.❞ ❝You still get to be the hero.❞ ❝What more do you want?❞ ❝Are you there, sweetheart? Do you know me?❞ ❝Here is the repeated image of the lover destroyed.❞ ❝There is something underneath the floorboards.❞ ❝I arrived in the city and you met me at the station, smiling in a way that made me frightened.❞ ❝This doesn’t look that much different from home.❞ ❝Love, for you, is more than the usual romantic love. It’s like a religion. It’s terrifying.❞ ❝Okay, if you’re so great, you do it–❞ ❝Unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of time.❞ ❝I have told you where I’m coming from, so put it together.❞ ❝When I say this, it should mean laughter, not poison.❞

A PRIMER FOR THE SMALL WEIRD LOVES

❝And you know that a boy who likes boys is a dead boy, unless he keeps his mouth shut, which is what you didn’t do.❞ ❝Because you are weak and hollow and it doesn’t matter anymore.❞ ❝And the boy who loves you the wrong way is filthy.❞

UNFINISHED DUET

❝He wants to be tender and merciful.❞ ❝He meaning you.❞ ❝Do you love yourself?❞ ❝I don’t have to answer that.❞ ❝It should matter.❞

I HAD A DREAM ABOUT YOU

❝I don’t think I can take this much longer.❞ ❝In the dream I don’t tell anyone, you put your head in my lap.❞ ❝In these dreams it’s always you: the boy in the sweatshirt, the boy on the bridge, the boy who always keeps me from jumping off the bridge.❞ ❝Oh, the things we invent when we are scared and want to be rescued.❞ ❝I borrowed your shoes and didn’t put them away.❞ ❝You didn’t show up. I kept waiting.❞

STRAW HOUSE, STRAW DOG

❝You have a cold cold smile.❞ ❝Watch me, just watch me.❞ ❝I swallowed crushed ice pretending it was glass.❞ ❝I don’t really blame you for being dead but you can’t have your sweater back.❞ ❝You can sleep now, you said. You said that. I had a dream where you said that. Thanks for saying that. You weren’t supposed to.❞

PLANET OF LOVE

❝And you play along, because you want to die for love, you always have.❞

WISHBONE

felt like drawing past Penny and Ruby designs. they get cuter together each time you look at them lol

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You may support the artist via commission (at 30% off!) or Ko-fi donations! Link to Tumblr post here.