shannon wilsey

I retire to a split-white smile to be seen
in some old stag magazine.
And this girl's eyes, when they were roughly wrenched
open I could see a starry stair up your thigh,
you hid behind your hair oh but I
saw you smiling while all these guys,
all these curious sets of eyes safe behind
a TV screen, I let them pry, pick apart
and hang up to dry almost every piece of me...

[...]

Oh what a trip
Oh what a shimmering silver ship
Oh what a hot half-life I half lived
Oh and the stripes and stars, how they stripped
off the siding when my life ripped
off from the part that played as a kid
into the part that plays through your lips
to find a warm, safe place
and sit curled up inside it

so here's goodbye
from the part that's staying behind
to the part that has to leave,
to the sublime lips
that were never spoiled by lying
but to the face inside the being
who wasn't me,
who wasn't me,
oh no, no
She's not me oh no

Okkervil River, "Starry Stairs"