We Burned the Mattress with Our Secrets

A cycle of poems «Your Kiss Tasted Like a Late-Night Regret»

Ash on the sheets, smoke in the air,
Silence screaming everywhere.
We lit the bed where lies were made -
Now all we own is what we burned away.

You whispered truths I couldn’t keep,
I buried promises too deep.
The springs held more than just our weight -
They held the things we couldn’t state.

We burned the mattress with our secrets,
Flames fed by all the words we’d eaten.
Every kiss hid a lie beneath,
Every touch was a thief in heat.
Now the frame’s just rust and bone -
A hollow shrine to love undone.
We torched the truth to hide the stain…
But fire don’t forget your name.

You’d roll to face the wall at three,
While I rehearsed what I’d confess to me.
You knew I kissed her in the rain,
I knew you kept his letters in your drawer again.
We’d make love like it was war -
A desperate act to slam the door
On all the ghosts beneath the springs,
On all the half-true, broken things.

We stitched our silence, thread by thread,
Built a bed on all we’d left unsaid.
But rot will rise, no matter how
We tried to smother it with “now.”

We burned the mattress with our secrets,
Flames fed by all the words we’d eaten.
Every kiss hid a lie beneath,
Every touch was a thief in heat.
Now the frame’s just rust and bone -
A hollow shrine to love undone.
We torched the truth to hide the stain…
But fire don’t forget your name.

The neighbors asked about the blaze -
We said, “Old foam, just caught by chance.”
But they saw the way we wouldn’t meet,
Saw the soot stuck in our teeth.
Now I sleep on hardwood, cold and bare,
Dreaming of your tangled hair.
You moved downtown, changed your number,
But your shadow still climbs my slumber.

Funny how the cleanest sheets
Can hide the dirt beneath the seams.
We thought if we destroyed the scene,
We’d wash the guilt right off our skin.
But ash sticks tighter than a vow -
It clings to everything you are now.
And in the smoke, I finally see:
The fire started… inside of me.

We burned the mattress with our secrets,
But the embers live in our regrets.
Every scar still hums your tune,
Beneath this pale and hollow moon.
Now the room’s just four bare walls -
No bed, no truth, no love at all.
We thought the flames would set us free…
But they just burned you out of me.

So let the rain fall on the cinders,
Let the wind steal what remains.
I’ll walk past that empty room -
And never sleep the same again.
We burned the mattress…
But not the ache.
Not the lie.
Not your ghost…
In every breath I take.