Still
The most fixed of hearts
Vision-filled
Blinded not
Having drifted into the paths
Of many
Too many
Oncoming realities
Sometimes
The most skilled oracle
Caution-filled
Gifted so
Cannot shapeshift the wills
Of we
Predestined we
Hope artists
We are not somebody’s
Although
We are
Each
Somebody’s chance
Their risk
And if they’re well-behaved
Somebody’s sure thing
Their reward
Screens
Shades
And curtains
Never served me for certain
So I’ve torn them all down with glee
With one sole, honest purpose
To risk
Birds
Bugs
And butterflies
Too, a stray cat
Who’ll mingle with me
Prey tell, the cause of our pain?
The fear of not living?
Or living again?
Query, the point of our want?
Desire for the more?
Disdain for the got?
With a curious morose
They look at you
As if seeing a long-faded flower
They take pains to not stare
Lest you see pity in their eyes
With a melancholy kindness
They are polite
As if you are fragile
They gently do not linger
Lest their affection break your brittle bones
You’ll be frozen in time
And if the past may serve
As an indication
I’ll be hurled forward, upward
With lightning’s speed
I at ninety-something years
And you at something less
(Though an old soul nonetheless)
Staring at my golden scraps
Through your monocle glass
What words are we, then
What sounds, what sights
What wrongs did we choose to correct
What hands did we not fail to hold
What love, of only this, I’m sure
I dreamed last night a calico cat
Scampered up to me
And my big, drooling, happy dog
Of a life!
Was it you?
If so, I badly want to say your name,
But won’t,
So, cat…
Why your lame leg
Why’d you pay no mind
To the hindered, big, back foot of you
What do you wish I’d leave behind
And pay no mind to, too?
The why of the pain
Compared to what good may come
Is less relevant
I’ll write my own song, it seems
There will be no dance, I know
But sans checkered flag, I’ll have lived
Cool and humid
Who knows whether April or August reigns
For the air sticks to your skin
But you seek a blanket still
Goosebumps and sunburn
The skin keeps a secret
