Do you ever notice

How the things we say with little thought

Can carry so much weigh?

Steel anchors held aloft

With naught but airy sentiments

Bearing down on heart and mind.

We parade our inner voices

In caricatures of empathy,

As charades best left silent.

Capricious poison

With ill effect

And not an antidote in sight.

Observe your words

Similes, metaphors and all;

Strip them to the bare thought

Drag them into the light of day

Measure their worth and impact

With more than a glance over

Emitted with a short laugh.

Do us all a favor and favor

Thought before speech.

Simple words with simple voices

Reaching out to touch

Brushing ears with fragrant music

Signals evening’s dusk.

Speak to me of untold whispers

Strengthen me with love

Hold me down with fervid wonder

Sing to me of touch.

Poetry in lines will mingle

Swaying hither still

Sleeping now in union’s slumber

Till morning’s rays unseal.

Your fingers were scarlet

Tracing lines upon my back

Like letters to a pen pal

That never replied

Etching secrets like lyrics

Against the spine

Scars laid out in white shadows

Like a book you never though you’d read. 

Our mouths spoke love,

But our ears were still ringing

From the internal screaming

To which we subjected ourselves.

Too afraid to fight back

Against the only ones

Who seemed to care about ourselves.

My anger lies not with the ignorant,

But with systematic ignorance.

Not with the sheep,

But with the false shepherds.

Not with advancing pawns,

But the hands that move them.