UniversalThreads

Silence is your answer,

The taunting, bitter ‘no’

Like cold air swallowed

On frigid nights

Like Death, gripping your chest

With icy fingers

‘Til you’re aching and hollow

And find the path you’ve followed 

Leads nowhere warm or kind.

It’s only when you turn to find

The dream was never real

That you begin again to feel,

To stir the warmth inside,

To light the way and fuel the fire.

I’m not swimming in lust I’m just

Drowning in the deluge,

The pain you won’t explain.

I don’t see flags waving; 

I see you behaving 

Like an apathetic stranger

And the danger is, it seems

My heart beats and breaks for you.

I was dancing on clouds

Til you came back around,

Threw me in the deep end

And left me to drown.

I walked in blindly, 

Clear conscience, innocent heart

Forgot you were danger, 

Now I’m torn apart at the seams

Over dreams I didn’t know you’d kept,

Over things I didn’t know you felt,

Aching in spaces I didn’t know you’d left.

Now I’m agonizing

Over every word

I shouldn’t have said,

All your lines

I should’ve left unread

Instead of close explications

And losing my head

Over carefully crafted metaphors,

Dying to know if there’d ever be more.

So now I’m shouting into the void, 

Some wild maenad,

As the tears come, unbidden,

Finding there’s no milk or honey

To be drawn from streams

Just my aching, fruitless screams

Trying to make sense

Of these shattered dreams.

Circa 2020-21