Bethany Lines 12/8/26 Bethany Lines 12/8/26

Where Do Your Loyalties Lie?

I saw the architect of your mind was my own

The same world was prying out through the tiny, square possibility of flight

From my childhood, when shoulder blades were wings

Bethany Lines 28/7/26 Bethany Lines 28/7/26

Dream Baby Dream

I am a baby, afraid only of falling

And loud noises

But it’s not true

I have a feeling it’s not true anymore

Bethany Lines 15/7/26 Bethany Lines 15/7/26

sculptor

I saw your play on Thursday but couldn’t make sense of anything

After I took my seat I grew rabid and weak, while my hands and my feet were elsewhere

Clawing towards some victory so far from the truth

Bethany Lines 2/5/26 Bethany Lines 2/5/26

changeling

there you will find me, the changeling changing her clothes

the other one got snapped up in the jaws of transformation, just like that

speaking on all my empty platitudes

but just like every other law-abiding girl, she got caught

Bethany Lines 12/2/26 Bethany Lines 12/2/26

that is the point

characterizing my sins

by a multiplication of obsession, of observation

it is a brutal awakening

into a fingertip lunge

Bethany Lines 6/1/26 Bethany Lines 6/1/26

cat’s cradle

I remember an embarrassing pause we took

between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, when I was

Washing my hair, scrubbing my scalp

Getting my youth clean for you

Bethany Lines 30/11/25 Bethany Lines 30/11/25

say nothing sweet

to be there again afraid

the way i was in the moment, both old and young

afraid of affection and peril

and being topless: a right prude

Bethany Lines 31/10/25 Bethany Lines 31/10/25

temptress

it is between your teeth now
souring flesh and sweetening
up your cheeks, the god behind the sky
wants to pry
you open—so you’ll notice it’s whisper

it’s right hand shifting higher on your thigh
stings like a hornet
and have you seen the cherry tree?

Bethany Lines 13/9/25 Bethany Lines 13/9/25

the market for reverie is suffering

billow of sunlight, storm of morning
we knew about nothing—it was sweet
and we knew it too, we were bare-foot
duller then, much happier, apparently
it is much easier to kiss if there is no
proof of time passing. pleasure was a clean wound; i could touch yours.

Bethany Lines 16/8/25 Bethany Lines 16/8/25

olivia

olivia, i saw you on the stage today
electric breath i saw you bathe
in their viral applause; song&dance
kisses in the air hanging there, all silk fast fame frozen-over
a lake; all tears in spades, moss at the break
of your hairline

Bethany Lines 29/7/25 Bethany Lines 29/7/25

winter, what do you want from me?

the publishers, they

like this

kind of

muck

about waiting

pining

being lost

Bethany Lines 6/7/25 Bethany Lines 6/7/25

dissection of any body

i imagined
being up against you
the far reaches of you
edges, corners
multifarious beings
disguised
cloaked in skin
of you
i wanted you
to despise me

Bethany Lines 14/2/25 Bethany Lines 14/2/25

lies i tell

when you asked me what i wanted
i begged you, get the blinds
and so i used my hands to teach you
about your body, earthquakes, the divides
between us and mankind

Bethany Lines 9/11/24 Bethany Lines 9/11/24

merciful

at dawn’s pink answering, my buzzing flesh ceased
life’s bell had called upon me—it was young and miserable then
in black bleating sheep came the pale lying misery

Bethany Lines 20/10/24 Bethany Lines 20/10/24

quis sum ego?

crawling out of me like first light

the self as an expression of desire

dark with smile, a mindless flashing through

an infinite dryness of being

Bethany Lines 23/9/24 Bethany Lines 23/9/24

for the: bubble fairy

bless you, baby-blue! the sky stretched a mile high
the day dance ended at bare tapping feet and the crowded ball-room
wrinkly pictures to bend but no performer could, bust an arm