Imagine
Words building a ceiling
Slowly
Taking in hand an instrument
Carving in tender skin
Mantras
Misery you wouldn’t wish
Back upon the speaker
Tormented
Themself so clearly already
Spilling out is all they know
Survive
Your heartbeat, heartbeat
The last truth you said to me
My ear to your chest
I know what I want
Should I first ask to depose the light?
Let it chase me round and round
Me — play hard to get?
But at this point in human history
For what purpose?
With time unubiquitous
If not now, when?
With stars and firmament acting finite
To what end?
In orbit, us
Sometimes suspended between worlds seen and unseen
I wonder
Ever did you close your eyes on Earth
Ignore my gravity and pretend
I was your Venus
Let us understand the need
To scrub the endless grieving from one’s soul
Finally putting an end to such plague
To act as one’s own sage, and burn sage
Cleansing away for good any more weeping
Let us find a willingness
To pray for ourselves aloud, on our knees
Knowing we are our own savior sometimes
To be alright with alone
Because we are so tragically, entirely alone
As a child, earnest
As a late-day water lily bloom
As a hopeless romantic
Thrive despite the shallow
Give the coolest shelter
Live to love and fight
To be free from such rules
To grow in the coming dark
To rise from it all each day
Shine spilled everywhere
Once again, I’m left to grow
A beautiful mess
When I wronged her months ago
She spoke to my calamity
With kindness
With humility
To her surprise, she empowered me
My ego now in overdrive
We’d make the Thousand Mile Drive
And I’d stay silent, in my self-defense
And punish her for her offense
Of trusting me with honesty
She wanted what I’d promised us
My best from me
Instead I killed her, once back then
Plus each day since
Her, my best friend
Her ghost grieves to this very day
But I am okay
I walked away
My fingers, considering
Traveled across the spines
So many, so fine
Needing to feel
Some quality
Straight and narrow
Not papered over
Hard-core
Look at You, there
But out of circulation
Not knowing why
I take you
From the forbidden shelf
Give you my time
Forget to return you
No care for the fine
LisaRosier.com 