Threads

Silence

The world is still

But I am moving;

I am frozen,

But the world spins on.

Their voices pester

And prod but

Nothing comes of it—

My nerves are deadened,

My lips are locked.

I am replying

And yet they hear naught,

For the words ne’er escape

My throat and pass through

To the world they inhabit.

Nothing is everything

And everything is humming

In silent spirals.

Cosmic energy flows

Through me and yet

I myself am static.

I hear my name like

Fingers tapping on

The glass of my

prison’s walls,

But the silence has

Enveloped me and stolen

From me my freedom.

You are the outside

And I, the inside,

The open skies that

Reach foolishly toward

The ocean’s depths.

It was simply

Not meant to be.

***

the beyonds

the tide pulls me.

if I make the mistake

of resisting,

I will surely drown.

so I open myself

to the moon

and the stars

and the beyonds.

space is dark,

cold and glorious,

freckled with cosmos.

from therein you came,

and to therein

were you returned.

my little leaf,

swept along and

pulled by the

four winds,

a beautiful blazing

constellation of

fireflies and

campfire sparks.

I am a bottle at sea

and the moon

that moves us

also scatters light

upon the dark waves.

we may be lost,

but at least

we are out amongst

the stars.

Burn it Down

There is a spark

That burns up the dark

And it’ll never go out

I have no doubt—

It blazes for billions

Of inspired civilians.

It wasn’t until the night

That we could see the light,

When out came the Stars

And shone through the bars

Of the prison cells

Of freedomless rebels.

The lantern of hope

Is how we all cope,

Until the flame wavers

Against wind that favors

Cold dark days

Over the sun’s rays.

So when that fire threatens

To go out is when our lessons

In battling greater odds

Against laughing gods

Come into play:

Fight back anyway.

***

Starborn Girl

A wild child youth,

Too fast too much and yet

Somehow never

Quite enough to satisfy.

White lies turned dark

And white lines became

My closest confidantes.

Heartbeats pounding

At the speed of sound,

Bare feet running

Through the town,

A laugh and liquor

On my lips,

My hand outstretched-

Caught for a moment,

Fingertips slipping

Untl once again I’m

Burning on my own.

A million names for

Just one girl,

One who wonders why

There’s no word for the

Mother of a once was

And could’ve been.

Taking flight from

Bloody history since

Her very first breath,

She is story-spotted,

Bruises and black eyes

That follow wherever

She dares go.

And she dares-

Oh how I lived

And oh how I loved,

A full heart once

Forged in fire

And now scattered

As sparks in space.

I was.

I am.

I will be.

***

Austin

We change like the seasons,

One the moon and one the tide,

Then for our own reasons

We'll switch to the other's 'coaster ride.

Cosmic catastrophes but works of art,

Our particles have long been fast friends.

Be we together or be we apart,

The story goes on and never ends.

When I need to shake the room

To rediscover what is real,

You water my mind and sprouts of sanity bloom.

Never to my heart must you appeal;

For you live in the hope in my eyes,

Tinting my vision to sunsets,

There for my lowest lows and highest highs.

I will hold all your regrets

As you have so eased mine.

With you I will go the distance,

Growing upwards together like a vine.

We shall cross the valleys with persistence.

***

The Unknown

No one knows what I know;

No one’s seen what I have seen.

Those dark charcoal eyes aglow

And fixed my way since I was sixteen.

Once upon a dream until

I awoke unto the nightmare,

Screams and fights and battles of will;

Never was there a sorrier pair.

My fair Irish skin a tapestry

Of purples, greens, and blues,

My every molecule a casualty

Etched out in rainbow hues.

Just as no one knows the gentle man,

Who took my hand and brought me flowers,

‘Til drink and prison and power began

To steal from us both our remaining hours.

We once had love, yes, it’s true,

But now the deed is done,

And the day is through.

A final farewell to the man was once my Sun.

***

Cosmic Dust

What are we--

A spirit?

A mind?

A heart?

And of what are we made--

Mother’s blood?

Father’s bone?

Or perhaps the dust

Of the glittering cosmos?

What is left when we’re gone--

A fading memory?

A plot of trampled earth?

A newspaper headline?

And what do we do--

When the name on our

Gravestone is not our own?

When we are mourned

By silent witnesses

And the sharks who

Smell my blood in the water?

When we are buried

In our platinum prisons?

How long do we stay--

From birth ’til death?

In love ‘til we’re alone?

In the minds of

Spectators ‘til

That too is forgotten?

Some say there is

Naught in a name,

But I was born a Shea

And died a Kray--

So what’s in a name?

Merely everything.