And now all is a whisper…

Not the roar of yesteryear,

Of tides pulling heartstrings like bubblegum

Half-chewed,

Forgotten memories

Stuck underneath a table for two,

Hardened,

Flavorless,

And used.

Miscalculated Trajectory

I don’t even know what to type;

Words are less than ink,

No longer real,

Just 1′s and 0′s

Dotting the expanse between

What once was

And what can never be.

Code caught in a cyclic redundancy error

Infinitely checking and rechecking

For corruption

Where once was etched,

Like stone,

A promise

Of something more than convenience.

But here we are,

Fragments of dreams

Sifting through fingers

Laced with crisscrossing scars

Threaded through stars

Like freckles

Kissed in the noonday sun.

We’ve reset.

Restarted.

Rebooted.

Begun afresh.

And yet,

We crash,

Fail the basic memory tests…

Simply cannot recall,

Retain,

Retrain ourselves to speak better,

Louder.

At all…

Until even the humming goes silent,

And our world spins no more.

The Whole Within

With the whole within us

We learn to act in parts

To mute our rainy days

To still our beating hearts

With the hole within us

We learn to shovel in

To cover up our scars

With papier-mâché skin

We tie our tongues with silver bows

And bow before our dead

We single out as voices grow

The lies our hearts have said

And in the mind of son and daughter

Lead ourselves into the slaughter

Graduation

We’re used to paper changing worlds

The power of ink bound like souls

To uplift or oppress,

To entangle or release.

Hours sink into a daze

Across each page like whispers

Of a long forgotten chorus:

Countless nights

Of recitation and revision

In a past we never knew.

Until that day,

With dawn breaking,

You slipped past dreaming

Past drifting between stars

And found yourself

A little closer

To who you’ve always wanted to be.

One page…

One page composed of hundreds gone

Composed of thousands more to come

One page…

And you’ve turned to a new chapter.

So, keep reading…

Keep writing…

And most of all,

Keep believing.

You have a library in your heart;

It’s time the whole world knew.

Listening For An Echo

We shout into the void–

With scribbles, songs, and pleas–

To hear a voice come back

As all around us flees.

We look into the west

And strain to find a home,

Where all the rivers meet

And no longer need to roam.

We feel with outstretched hands

And fingers pained and broken,

To feel just one reply

Reverb on lips when spoken.

We ache for one desire

To fill our chest, our lungs, with air and fire.

Neutral expression

Will you ever be calming

Or always lightning,

A crash in-waiting,

A moment’s hesitation

Before the world ends?

Will I stop flinching

At a parting of the lips,

The taste of silence,

Where I hear nothing,

But feel each word that could be

As goosebumps within?

Neutral expression,

Without an affirming smile

How can I trust you

When all you have been

Is a pause between the storms,

Safe harbor for none?

Charity Thinketh No Evil

“Charity thinketh no evil”

Repeats and repeats and repeats

No purer love than to trust

And, with arms clasped tight,

Fall without hesitation.

To leap off good intentions

And catch hold of another,

Wrist to wrist,

And wrest away the rest,

To pry from fingers stress

While gasping for relief.

Of such have fragile whispers no part,

Nor dust upon a misplaced photo,

Nor scratches on discarded albums

That skip each pleasant beat

All ashes, all ashes, and embers sweet.

My heart told me you were good,

Even as my mind waged war

And shrapnel pierced chunks

Were scattered across my chest.

My heart told me to trust,

Even as phantoms burrowed into sleep

And held my head tightly

As I struggled for breath.

My heart told me to wait,

Even as fires caressed my tongue

And burned my ears

With the destruction of hesitation.

My heart told me to silence them,

The voices that said you were lying

Lying in wait to catch me

And cut me down.

My heart told me to listen,

But fear overtook me

And now I see she was right…

My very own Desdemona…

How can I forgive myself?

Between my fingers

Space is aching for filling

With more than mere words

i love like a dam breaking
filling every crevice,
drowning
whatever’s left of last year’s poison
except,
between the breaths
shots ring out
and arms are left flailing,
unwilling or unable to swim,
i never can tell.