It’s okay to hang
Upside-down like a bat,
To swim into
The deep end of silence,
To swallow every key
So you can’t get out.
It’s okay to hear the ocean
Calling your fevered name.

To say your sorrow
Is an opera of snakes,
To flirt with sharp
And heartless things.
It’s okay to write,
“I deserve everything”,
To bow down to
This rotten thing
That understands you,
To adore the red
And ugly queen of it,
To admire her calm
And steady rowing.

It’s okay to want to lock yourself
In the medicine cabinet,
To sleep the whole day,
To do what it takes to stay
Without staying.
It’s okay to hate God today
To change his name to yours,
To want to ruin all that ruined you.
It’s okay to feel
Like only a photograph of yourself,
To need a stranger
To pull your hair and pin you down.
It’s okay to want your friends
As you lie alone in bed.
It’s okay to brick to fuck to flame to church
To crush to knife to rock to rock to rock to rock to rock to rock and rock.

It’s okay to wave good-bye
To yourself in the mirror.
To write “I don’t want anything”
It’s okay to despise
What you have inherited,
To feel dead in a city of pulses.
It’s okay to be the whale
That struggles to come up for air,
To love best the taste
Of your own blood.