Paying off the debt

I have earned the right
To feel every piece
Of invading emptiness.

Or it has earned me
I am never quite sure.

And they will never say.

A slight vision of heaven?
An engraving of hell?

Each absent mouthful
Bringing us here
To this abandoned place.

rein in

Curbed
My soul finds
New ways
To make itself
Small
To prevent
Her oozing wounds
From being noticed
In case
The world
Should judge
And condemn her
For letting
All those mighty dreams
Drift away
On the retreating tide
When she could have
Held on.

Two rights...maybe they do make a wrong

I was
Everything
And nothing
All at the same time

Yet that cannot be

Neither sits right
Alongside
each other

It wore me out
Created holes
In my fabric

My being

Everything slipped out

Now I am nothing.

Fledgling

I could not fly
When the weight
Of everything I was not
Kept me tethered
To the safety
Of all I knew

I let my wings be clipped
So I could shelter
Under the banner of home

When all along
The little bird pushed
Against her imposed boundaries
And cried
“I want to fly,
I want to fly.”

No way down

I almost knew you
thought for a moment
the name fitted
binding wounds together
to make you whole
once more

but it slipped
uncertain

as you shed your outer layers

lost in the white out
you wore your face well.

Strong Hold

If I have dreams of more
Then they dance in the shadows

Boxed

Creatures of no substance who shift in the breeze
Moving under the weight of hands
Gripped around my waist

Crushed

And my walls I built deftly
Stand the test of time

Keeping those seeking shelter
Guarded
And the enemy at bay.

Mistaken

I slept at your door
but you didn't come

not really

a ghost of your impression
let me in
and made me coffee

so we could sit side by side
to talk about
all those things we might change

yet kept buried

the thoughts we knew
would break us.