Tag: poem

Common Sense

Your love is an empty track

Having a stated destination

But no way to get there. 

Your heart is an empty train

A vessel for travel

But no reason to do so.

Your mind is a broken compass

Forever guiding you

With no stable direction.

Your touch is burning

Marking those you grace

While fading into ash.

Your tongue is a stone

Drowning your speech

With weighted promises unkept.

Your sight is clouded

With visions of what was and could be

Crowding out the present from existence. 

Your sense of smell is a traitor

Alluring you into bondage

To masters you never thought you’d see again.

Your eyes are the stars

and all is lost in searching their depths

for words etched in paper cups burned

black with ashes, script faded like voices

echoing out of existence and into the

fantastic shades of stormy coalescence,

like rain in a drought ridden heart.

Sometimes my words

Get lodged in my throat

Like crushed glass that carves

Itself a home then scatters itself on

Pavement in puzzles dotted with

Inconsistency and incongruous edges

Dripping in stained intentions

Smudged beyond recognition.

Coughing loudly,

I cover my mouth in shame

And try to hide

From the thoughts etched on your face.

I live in suppositions

Illusions as deep as the pupils seem to go

And thin as the line between your lips

Internal waves rage within my ears

And lodge themselves

Between logic and reason

Corroding and reeking of regret.

I hesitate at your laughter

Your silence

Your hesitation and your grace.

I decompose the composition

That is your emotional landscape

And commit to reflect in minute strokes

The appropriate response.

Yet the lines and colors rapidly fade

And I am left with unfinished understanding

Always.

Age

Dried up at the rivers of her feet

Old age is creeping skin

Folded with the precision of time

Lapsing into shades of night

Caressing you to sleep

But peace lost in tossed sheets

And stains of blood and life undone

Arrest your heart with hesitation

While the day’s arrival forbids forgetting.

A touch left unfelt

And words purposely garbled

To keep unsaid the thoughts that fold in

Like dying rivers and creeping skin.

Envy

The fact is this

I’m too selfless to be

Selfish enough to fight for you

Unless that is what you want

But I’m terrified to even ask

I tried once before to tell you

But I jumbled too much at once

And apologized profusely

For the apparent inconvenience.

Stepping Stone

There is always someone

Better for you than me.

I am a much better friend

Than I could ever be a boyfriend.

I’ve spent much more time

In this position.

I’ve gotten comfortable

I know the field.

Here you only have to trust me so far

And I the same with you.

At the end of the day

We sleep in separate places.

And I try not to remember

That I can’t forget anything about you.

7 AM

It’s 7 AM in a dental office

The sun is low and sky hazy

A slight chill hangs outside the window

Like an uninvited guest.

A mother walks in

Child in tow

Like a worn cable

Pulling a disused train.

And the lone figure

Heretofore unmentioned

Is no longer alone,

But three.

The sound of crinkling

Echoes a forsaken meal

And beady, quiet eyes widen

In longing.

An unspoken approval passes

A concession given

Satisfaction expressed in a crunch.