Storm Views

The words are lodged in my teeth,

Stuck between "I was never there"

And "Only in my dreams".

They're stuck in the skyscrapers

Of old desires, the kind that used to

Sustain me through the dreary falls.

The blue in my veins shifts to grey,

The world around me...

Covered in a slate haze.

Normalcy used to live here,

Used to say hello to the doorman

With an armful of groceries.

He is not as dead as he is gone.

Lost now to the river's current

Sloshing against the stones.

I can almost taste how it was.

The sugar-sweet decadence of blood

Coating the back of some bitter candy.

There was flavor to your sorrow

That lingered like fog

And wrapped around my teeth.

Everything is sticky,

On my hands and in my teeth.

Sticky, stuck, sticking, trapped.

With thoughts that aren't mine,

Inside bones that won't cooperate.

Locked in old buildings with broken glass.

Have I ever been trapped here?

Or was it some passing fancy that

Rooted me into the ground?

Was I just lost in my own thoughts

Stuck in a reflection that was

Untrue at its very best?

What exactly happened to the soul

I'd kept pinched between my teeth

When rain poured out of the sky?

I lost track of it between strikes

Of that neon purple lightning

Splitting the sky open.

Should I have grabbed it and

Ridden the jagged waves?

Or stood arms open instead?

This is another point of failure,

Another piece of the puzzle

Turning to sand in my fingers.

So leave me alone in the fog

Rushing between the skyscrapers.

Let me wither under my own devices.

Let me remember the taste

Of a future that has wilted too,

If only to pretend it'll be alright.