UniversalThreads

“Origami Birds”

You stretched the echo of memories
Until they broke like a wave around me
Drowning me in make believe
Sucking it in until I choked
On all the pretty lies you ever wrote.

All these years spent thinking
You were a bullet I dodged
Until I turned the gun on myself
And got you lodged in my brain
With your poison-tipped lead
Leaking pernicious lies
Til I’m outta my head,
High on those visions
Of make believe–
A future you painted of you and me.

And now as you’re seeping
Deep in my veins
The adrenaline masks
What soon will be pain.

I should’ve left it all a distant memory,
That bright vision of you and me.
If I can never touch it,
Do I even want to see?
Are you the horizon or the wave
About to swallow me?

So if anything was real

Open your mouth
Let truth tumble out
Like origami birds
carrying sacred words
On folded wings,
Where delicate things
Are safe and free,
and we don’t flee
From love or truth
That need no further proof
Than they willingly slip
From heart to lips.

Circa 2020-21