I'm here with my knees dirty, less #angel than I used to be, miles more divine. #vss365

I see her #scowl in front of the claw machine with the #charm that comes from not giving up on what you think you want. I go to tell her, the Universe sometimes feels like a cheap game, rigged against you, but it's guiding you in ways you can't imagine, all for your good. #vss365

I finally found peace among the ancient. I've been walking for ages, aching to be found. #Elm trees cradle me under a #sapphire sky, and all the tension drains from my body. We are held by the earth around us. #vss365

Dawn starts to rub sleep out of its eyes, & I'm wide awake. I've been up with the #sparrows, carried to the waking world on the wings of birdsong, coaxed into consciousness gently & deliberately. You find me waiting when you wake up, too, one last warm brush with the sun. #vss365

I should be past this by now. It's not news: the disappointment tastes bitter every time, as consistent as my morning coffee. And my heart is strong, the blood runs deep #crimson, and it's never stopped bleeding for what we decide to love. #vss365

It's so much work to keep it #together. I hear the foundation groan, asking if we could step out of the way and let it all fall apart. #vss365

The sun sets, and the sky goes from blue to orange to purple, and finally deep #violet and navy. I let the summer warmth pool on my skin, learning to say goodbye even when I've stayed far too long. #vss365

It's easy to mistake them for a million things they're not (because, so often, they are, aren't they?), but please know these #tears aren't sadness or fear or desperation; they're a #promise to myself of where I will never go again. #vss365

At the bottom of everything—when amd where I found myself crumpled, lost, broken, and discarded—it would have been easy to lose myself too. Yet a sense of #purpose was tattooed on me from the beginning of time; I have no room to give up, no choice but to keep going. #vss365

I'm a thread wrapped tightly around a shoddy spool, and I've been spinning all day. The winds pick up by the minute. We're all caught in the whirlwind. Just before we break, I head outside. A summer breeze holds me, asks me to #mellow. I melt, and the storm calms. #vss365

Lava flows just beneath my skin, burning hotter with every word you speak. You wear #innocence like a tiara and your voice goes up an octave every time. That's how I know it's an act. I meant to keep it in, but my sigh turns to flames, and we're all torn apart. #vss365

You burrowed deep into my soul: I have a #wormhole scar to prove it. It hurt more digging you out than letting you in. #vss365

I finally joined you atop the pedastal on which I'd placed you. That's when things really began to shift. Some might call it #idolatry, even when it includes our divinity made human, but I now know it as love. #vss365

The silence of your words, led me to you. The do don’ts yes and no thoughts of you, led me to you. The waves of distance led me to you. The image of you in my minds eye soul and heart led me to you. If love is a religion of #idolatry, then I'm a disciple led by you. #vss365

The #skirmishes became so frequent I was certain they were part of a larger war plan. I couldn't see clearly through the haze you created, but I learned. Retreat isn't always cowardice; sometimes it's the only way to survive. #vss365

I wanna go back to bed

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I'm up before the sun thinking of you. Can you feel me across time and space? Right as I'm beginning to wonder if I've made it all up, a #rook lands on my table and stares right at me, daring me to say you're in my imagination, daring me to move. #vss365

I feel the sun before I see it. My right cheek warms as I lift it closer to the light with a smile. My hands wrap around my morning #masala and I hum, balmy with the kind of rooted warmth, a plumb line, connected above and below. #vss365

Right when you think you've found your strength, the plates shift, and you find the very key to your survival becomes #hamartia—your undoing. Let it never be said the universe has no sense of humor. #vss365

We're happy to announce our inaugural Scary Story Challenge, which kicks off on October 31st and will challenge writers worldwide to create scary short stories in 48 hours. Learn more, register, & read some examples of scary stories at nycmidnight.com/scary. Good luck, writers!

I close the books on yet another day and slide down the wall exhausted. I let the #heel of my hands meet my eyes, compressing and bringing me back to the boundaries of myself, collecting all the pieces of me that scattered throughout time and space all day— decompression. #vss365

Screams clang against the walls and fall to the ground unanswered. What is a #patriot in a nation eating itself alive? #vss365

∴ myths wither mid-verse skye-light engraves soul’s absence on fae-drunken bells · reign from blackthorn throne scintilla maps her outlyne morn-fed dremes, mine · gods misplaced their teeth wings sprout from a wulf’s old vowe cradle this howl ∴ #vss365 #poemspell

And here, at the bottom of everything, just before #nostalgia overtakes me and I ride away on a wave of despair, I ground myself, and I see: it was beautiful before, but we are here now, with the chance to create something gorgeous together. #vss365

I hold on to tiny moments—sparkling #scintilla, glimmers telling me I'm still on the right path, lightning bugs in a dark wood. I hope a big bang will come soon, but for now, I'll keep walking, one foot in front of the other, one step illuminated at a time. #vss365

You say you feel like you never got to the core of me, and I have to admit that's what I wanted. To be a mystery, an #enigma. If you'd only loved the idea of me anyway, why not dream an impossible dream? #vss365

It's not just a long way down: that pedestal has sharp edges and heavy stone. All our hands our dirty, none more than mine. I am not your #guru; we walk this path together, cocreating a new reality one step at a time. #vss365

I'm at the mountain of discards looking at everything that didn't work. As a #progenitor of chaos and half-baked ideas, you have to be okay with getting it wrong. But you've emerged from the latest attempt, pristine, smiling, cold. What next for you? For us? #vss365

I came across your profile and it was like looking in the mirror. I couldn't stop staring in fascination: we're living #parallel lives, but yours looks so beautiful, I'm torn apart with wanting. I feel you the most in #liminal spaces—between waking and sleeping, the threads of us intertwine. #vss365

You whispered my name from oceans away, but it reached me. It was the loudest sound I've ever heard, the #susurrus heard across the #realm of the living and the dead, tying everything together with a word. #vss365

Begin again— There in the #primordial ooze I find a #self. Yours, mine, ours...it makes no difference, really. It's all the same in the end. I restart and wonder who I've signed up to be this time, one foot on solid ground but one clinging to muck. —we discover. #vss365

I learned to clean back behind the #shed. I spent hours covering your tracks, making sure no one had reason to ask questions. I did it quick but, "hey, #slash that time in half. We've got things to do," rings over the fence. I dry my hands & smile at your choice of words. #vss365

A footprint in the carpet, a patch of hair in the corner, an imprint in the bed. What #shape does our love take now that you're gone? #vss365

My back is aching; my fingernails split; my soul is rubbed raw. I was handed a legacy of pain, and I've been working to #scrape it together into a life. Today, just for a few minutes, I stop to feel the sun on my skin, and it dances with joy. #vss365

3am again—we've become well acquainted over the last few months. I'm pacing under the light of the moon, running through all the same questions, aching to jump out of my #skin because I can't bear the uncertainty, but no answer can ease the ache of grief. #vss365

I shrank myself as much as I could: the way to stay safe was to be as #small as possible. But it never worked. So I took a deep breath and began to reach out. My hull cracked, then shattered, and I stand on my own two feet, holding hands with everyone else who's done the same. #vss365

It wasn't until the world descended into silence that I realized I'd never learned to listen properly. At the edge of oblivion, I held the #speaker up to my ear, hoping to hear #someone—anyone—desperate to not be alone. #vss365

∴ cracked mug, spring light seeps through the pores of old advice seams hold their worth · no birds at the sill fitting our breath to the draft we heed the tea-lore ∴ #vss365 #haikufeels #inkmine #poemspell

You appeared through a rip in the universe at the right time. I cant go back; nothing can #stop the #spring of inspiration that opened up after years of being dammed. You could be anyone—I was waiting for me, really—and you're you, a key perfectly fit to a specific lock. #vss365

I've wriggled out of everyone's grasp—dancing on lilypads, pirouetting across the #straits, slipping out through the cracks to exit stage left. What makes you think it will be you who catches me? #vss365

It sparkles in the sun, blinding when the light hits it just right. It twirls and dances in the breeze, light as air and laughter caught on the wind. It's ebullient, joyful, bright. If only you knew how many times my soul #splintered before it became whole again. #vss365

Lately I've been wondering where in the Great Beyond you are. Are you curled up in the most exquisite comforter with your favorite snacks? Chasing the souls of those who dared entered your space? And then I feel you smiling on a #sunbeam, coming to caress my face. #vss365

No moment is ever #final: we run into ourselves again and again. #vss365

I had a #vision in the depths of the #glitch: all of this was wiped away, and we began again. We learned to breathe and use the depth of our lungs before we spoke; we learned to cook and eat together before we ate each other alive. Is it too late to try again? #vss365

The shame burbles up from my gut and caresses my neck as it wraps its fingers around my throat. It'd be easy if it were just you who is #toxic, a neat little narrative. But I'm playing a role too; we are all capable of harm. Will we loosen our grip enough to sort through? #vss365

You burrowed deep in my bones, down to the #marrow, at home encoded in my DNA before I knew it. You can imagine the lengths I had to go to to remove you. I'd have crossed oceans for you, once, and now I'll go to the moon and back to never see you again. #vss365

You watched me from the shore dazzled. Like they all are. I'm tantalizing from far away, a vision wrapped in a dream. I move closer and you begin to see the shift: you fell in love with a #selkie, you see as I make landfall, eyes begging for fish, not you. #vss365

Everything before ended with a bang: an argument boiled over and exploded, and there was no going back. But with you, it was a quiet #whimper, a plea to the universe for mercy, and it was only then that I saw the gifts wrapped in more acute pain. #vss365