Altars to
The things we lost,
The things we hate,
The things we fear —
Our thoughts, a testament
To the weight
We’ve learned to bear.

Still here,
Not because I
Chose to stay —
I am the one
That never got away.

Learning everything
I found out
Hardly anything is
Worth the paper
The lesson’s written on.
Pride and arrogance,
We follow
Self-centered men and women,
Desperate to make their mark
Before they move on.

Ignorant,
Laughing, playing,
Dancing with
The end among us,
Weaving lives
In knots and ties,
Round and round the start.

To find myself again,
In what's suppressed
And what's forgotten,
What got left behind
And flattened
Under a lifetime of desire
In the little things that haunt me,
In the dreams that slip away
Upon waking
Into who I've never been.

Clouds of essence
Racing the dark —
The nothing exhaled,
And here we are.

Loss
Stripped clean of
Bothersome emotion —
There were casualties.

History laughs at us —
Everything ends,
Yet, we believe
We can change
The way the world is.

The unforeseen trauma
Of primary intention —
Closed wounds that will never heal,
Pain only the silent feel.

The branches we trim
And the nature we nurture
May change our path,
But never that
Of the sun.

Not all is love —
Some are drawn
To fire
Out of an affinity
With ash.

Infant hopes,
Unrecognized,
Dreaming of the day
They'll be acknowledged,
Whispering sweet nothings
In deaf ears —
We are here,
Do not be afraid
To hold our hand
And take a stand
For what you want.

Wisdom comes with age?
I don't know, it's hard to say.
I've slowed down, but I don't mind —
Just know that
I've stopped playing games
That I can't play in my own time
Without falling behind.

Comply —
What I believe,
You should too,
And I'll harass
Anyone
Who does not think
The way I do.

I am
Still reeling,
Thoughts stuttering,
Shards of trust littering
My every waking moment,
But I think I can tell that we —
Not yet, but eventually —
Will reach a place
That might feel
Somewhat
Okay.

Words yanked back,
Swallowed
Mid-pronunciation,
Bitch-slapped by reason —
You'd never hear the end of this.

I wish I could go
Abracadabra
And make it all okay —
I wish, I wish,
But the world's no longer
Wired that way.

My heart, a map,
Heartache carved
In grueling detail —
Here be dragons,
Here be death,
But where could be
My place?

You took a broken dream
And made it shine —
Shards radiant,
Reflecting, refracting
A beautiful inner light.
Congratulations.
You found the meaning of life.

An ancient lie,
Unquestioned,
Paraded in plain sight —
We
Don't need
To be led.