HUMANS -
Stephanie Gilliard
Matt Kaprelian
Lyrics
Humanoid Lungs
Folded origami wings
Snared outside my windows
There are three hundred
broken birds stolen from
someone’s drawers
and stitched into my house
Visitors ask, why the ornament
I answer because I do not
want people to see me
gasp for air
Behind the door
locked by stabilizers
And the landscape outside
are sand dunes where
I am tripping over
my own steps in
a two-meter sandbox
filled with me and me
and a girl broken
by a reason that
does not exist
And for a second
when the window is
crowded by paper wings
I can forget the nails
in the sand and how
my knees are numb
until blood starts trickling
red over my own shoes
Two seconds into the house
Dirty shoes and oversized slippers
Two sky colored oceans
And a well that taste like summer
Death traps and one-way doors
to a tomorrow with ever afters
The world is
a sun, descending
down to my fingers
and sprouting daffodils over my skin
Three breaths of carbon dioxide
too nonsensical for my own
humanoid lungs
© Stephanie Gilliard 2025
