Heartbreak Aisle

by Carella Keil

Eat a dream

Suck my face

Your darkness is pulling you away from me

One night blurs into another, a fine blue powder

I won't hold down my heart

But I don't hold up my head

Stars streak across the sky

I tell you

There are more memories of him I've forgotten

Than I can count

Full moon leering over the subway ride home

What kind of dream are you

The kind that leaves rashes on the mind.

Put out your cigarette

On the painting of my face

Take a stroll down the Heartbreak Aisle

How far

Until the sink reaches your knees

How long

Until the fall reaches your heart.

Self-portrait of an Art Gallery

And the third page of goodbye

In your loose-leaf paper heart

It's over so

You can hang up the Sun

On the tired hook on your wall.

*Originally published in Troublemaker Firestarter Vol. 3
**Featured in Undercover Butterfly, Carella Keil's 2026 poetry collection released by Dark Thirty Poetry Publishing

BIO: Carella’s debut poetry collection, Undercover Butterfly, is available from Dark Thirty Poetry Publishing. Her work can be found online in Columbia Journal, BULL Lit Mag, Anti Heroin Chic and Peatsmoke Journal, among others. She is the 2023 Door is a Jar Writing Award winner in nonfiction and the Fall 2025 Cardinal Sins first-place award winner in fiction. She has received multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and is the featured artist for the Fall 2024 issue of Blue Earth Review. Her art appears on the covers of over a dozen literary journals. instagram.com/catalogue.of.dreams | x.com/catalogofdream