Awakening

Strained clouds bleed

Pastel

Sequences without pattern

Or footsteps without man

Ghosts and formulas filling in for all we’ve loved

And all we’ve loved is one brain away

One false synapse from leaving us

For no other reason than

We had a hard time

No one would listen

I felt alone

In all that love?

In all that room.

We Didn’t Know

The measure of me

In my hands

Hollowed to hold the weight of you

Scratches up and down the shirt to beg

A strike snapped from a snake

And all stillness

Then movement

Where the fan whispers into your clothes and sends the secrets tittering out

A flap of your jacket

A slip of hand from giants

And you’re gone

The Time

what death trips off your tongue more easily than your own
for no buckling in breath precedes it
no start of recognition of love no. it hollow hopes not in all pallor stirs not the water meant to be stirred
a field without handhold
a glass without reward of Truth
locked within
a beating bird striking again again
the time

Shutting Doors

The problem of extracting your life from another’s
Is they don’t care the reason
Suicidal
Chronic illness
Depression with a plan
Schizophrenia
They see closing doors as an upfront to them
How dare you do this to me
Not the rubber casing you’ve responsibly put around them
How dare you not trust them- believe they could take it?

How could I when this alone has upset you.

This alone may happen ten times in three years

Radio silence
Or a behind the counter tantrum
Shuttered away from prying eyes
And if it slips out oh now
The unacceptance is personal

You’re a pain-giver now
A pain-giver always must shut his doors
And warn away stray thoughts of tenderness
A pain-giver must always carry his grief in case the shut out have need of its bottled bitters
Have need to shout
Everyone knows once they get in, they just want back out
Cracked upon a hair, full open, closed fast
You’re in here by yourself