Banshee

And in the end, you can't save me, luckless angel.
In the end, you're just an innocent high school
boy who wanted his first time to happen
on a Saturday night with cream soda lips
and hands frantic, shoulder blades contracted.
And I was a girl who thought she had
everything figured out, would never
die young in a river like Ophelia.

And yet, we weren't meant for
the harsh winter nights of
a lost confederate, Virginia darling.
And yet, we couldn't understand
the horoscopes enough to know that
compatibility doesn't always mean
forever in a white dress, a bow-tie.

Wailing in Vermont;
you hear me all the way from here,
tossing and turning in my mother's bed
in my grandmother's room.
The phone rings; my heart skips a beat.
You ask, “What's wrong?”
I say, “Nothing.. I'm damaged, honey.”

After winter break, at school;
the flowers are blooming and
everything looks normal in the parking lot;
kids driving their parents' cars,
bells ringing, signaling History and Math,
girls in maroon dresses,
showing their legs, boys wearing
backwards baseball caps.
Oh it's the 90s again
but we're never happy.
That's just how it is
when you're living in a storybook;
that's just how it feels when
you're stuck on some TV show;
supernatural with realistic pain.
Boy, you can't save me..
Boy, don't you even try.
I'm going to break you on the stairs,
I'm going to miss you when you die..

Storm clouds; I can't control it,
I break the ice around me like a swimming pool;
all the humans I cherished like
pearl beads on an antique chain
drowning innocently, without any
famous last words, without any licorice farewells.
Banshee bride; who wants her?
Boy, don't try to save me..
Just leave this town behind.

Be smart, you've already lost so much.
Be real; this isn't a fantasy;
Aladin's ring, a box of glass eternity.
Oh don't say you love me when
I'm alone in a forest, trying
to make sense of this curse.
Don't say it will be fine,
normal again when I'm naked
and shivering by the side of the road.

Amnesia, not; I remember
I couldn't stop the blood
from pouring down, the people
from burning in that house.
Banshee bride; who wants to marry death?
You deserve a better tomorrow,
a real tiger lily gemstone sunset.
Boy, you deserve a movie playing
in the skies, burgers and fries.
You deserve something that a freak like me
would never understand because
it doesn't come
as easily as a damned Celtic legend with bronze
hair,  pine tree
irises and a half smile so sad, it's rare and
practically nonexistent.

No, boy; you deserve a real girl,
stepping out of some sleek Chevrolet
with flowers in her hands,
a promise ring on her finger;
to always be your first date;
never die in the snow with
a frozen scream in her throat.
Boy, who wants a banshee bride?
Don't you want to feel alive?