Chiasmus

Chiasmus

One face to look forward

One to look back

Self stands middle.

This is no godly power,

Only earthbound.

The wisdom to have known

And the wisdom not to make the same mistake again.

Free will forms what we see as fate.

I know I walk this road yet again

But every step is a choice.

Sleep softly now, wished naiveté

Else I take a swig and roll the die.

Maybe my chemicals chose for me.

11/8/17

Ghosted

What do you do

when in front of you, in substance, in constant fleshly presence

You are confronted with a void?

The arrow hit its mark

And then the person in front of you fades, all while present.

The capacity for reasoned introspection finds its boundary.

Suddenly there is no more heart to be had--

All sleepy habit, faded memories, deleted texts, cleared caches.

Sleep sleep, soft sleep

Nothing but medication and a dull lull now.

Immediately I stumble to look at all my broken parts, to see where I couldn’t satisfy.

This is my first instinct.

But I can still identify the first moment

When I reached out and felt nothing there.

Who ghosted whom?

9/27/17

Envelope of the Present

In all my partnerships

I have taken them on like a coat

Wrapped their being, their lives and loves, ‘round my shoulders

The secret language of what we used to call mixtapes

Abandoning the carcass of my own existence in favor of a mad merging.

But what’s worse, I see everyone’s rotted core

This skeletal disdain for life and neglect of the body

Ever have I told the liturgy

Of crimes we do unto ourselves

Lists of “I just need to”

And “Once I have this, I can permit myself this.”

She has always been on the way to

She floats.

Can't you see?

Our revolution

            Our life

                        Our messiah

                                    Is right now.

9/24/17

Road

Minuscule movement

Time

Pothole

Where did the construction go?

Tiny changes

Redirected, then closed

Does the crack get covered up?

Is traffic flowing for the good of the many?

Does it reach the same people twice in the same way?

I have been looking at it for years now

And have few answers.

9/10/17

Heat Lightning

It flickers in the distance
Quick pulses that I try to capture.
I realize that my devices don't do it justice.
Sultry night like this is foreign to us
So I take the staircase up to our roof to chase the ionized air, firsthand.
In another part of town, this weather change
Illuminates your face for precious seconds
My only glimpse into your ensconced soul.
Will I see it again?
Heat lighting is unreliable.

9/10/17