after Taylor Swift

I see you in my rearview mirror outside of nowhere and everywhere.

My heart has become a broken home for no one. I burn for you. Trail embers

and ashes like a wedding train over burgundy, dress the seeping wounds

with tinsel. Am I supposed to go on without you? Cut caffeine for hot chocolate?

Benadryl for snickerdoodle? Yesterdays for tomorrows?

Snow falls like memories—seven inches of heartbreak and regret and boy grins

and giggles and pillows dappled in the starlight of our pupils.

The chimney smoke gets in our eyes; the tears freeze on the lip

before they fall. December makes archivists of us all.

*Title is a line from “’tis the damn season” by Taylor Swift.

Prompts used (tags are the poets’ IG handles):

@theconstantpoet - “gingerbread houses & other broken homes” @angelealowes - “outside of nowhere” @imandq + @ml.mecham + @laur_enough - “embers and ashes” @loisofthehearth - “December makes an archivist of us all” @kaytpoems - “cutting caffeine for hot chocolate” @alexismromo - “snickerdoodle snuggles” @itsashenelthing - “dressing wounds with tinsel” + “am I supposed to go on without you?” + “I see you in my rearview mirror” + “I burn for you” @gigi.flanard - “my heart has become a home to no one”