You* would have to smash their skull open
Gouge their brain out
Scatter it into pieces
Reach out, reach in
Climb into their skin
Wear it; take it
Breathe the air they breathe

Feel the blood coursing through their veins
Feel every beat of their heart
Reach through their ribs and grasp it
That thundering, pounding heart and
Make it beat with your own hands
Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump with every squeeze

Inhale every gasping, shuddering breath
From lungs crushed by every compress
Snap their wrist with the force of your grasp
As you take their pulse
That thrumming, faltering pulse
And make it your own

You would have to dive into their head
Step straight through delirium
Into the twin windows of their soul
Take those lovely, lovely eyes
Between your fingers
And hold them up to look through; each
The ultimate magnifying glass
Pierce their clarity straight through
As you refract the light away from you

Aqueous humor, vitreous humor
Flowing down a waterfall of tears
Tears of emotion? No
Tears running through flesh
Perfect fissures of imperfection

Can you hear it?
Thudding spasms
As they leap; a drowning fish
Choking on their own life
While the red crimson scarlet pours out in rivulets
So thick you could wade in it
Fanning out into a surreal image
A ****** halo
A renaissance painting reimagined in flesh
A living, dying mural

You would have to listen to every whisper
Each shaky inhale
Every wheezing, hoarse exclamation
Every shuddering gasp wracking
Their frail, jittering frame
As you pump air out
As you force air back in
Push down hard and feel; memorise
The rush of air as it leaves their straining lungs

Because then, only then
Will you be able to see through their eyes
Breathe their every breath
Feel their heart beat
Make their life-
A wrapped present so, so fragile
-your own

Yet
For all that you try; all that you do
You will never
Never
Understand their mind
Never
Understand their view
Never
Understand *them

Nothing was.
Believing the talk took time,
Everything appeared to be,
But none was.

"It was like..."
"As in..."
...on and on were pictures painted,
A queer kind of talk etched in vagueness
My face turned away with a grimace.

Where did clarity clumber to under this onslaught?
When we made everything nondescript,
Opting to settle down low,
Reason and beauty away to stow,
Blurring vision and obscuring thoughts?

We coat emptiness with colour,
Stamp out order with valour,
Enhance vanity with splendor,
And all around us, life drains away,
Flowing unlived

Songs stirred within the quiet waters of the soul ripple up
Life springs out of hope and life gives birth to hope
Little else shall last as long,
but as every note hits the prong,
and sweet voices soar
Every inch that present pain makes sore
Shall be calmed and healed as the song goes on
Eternally.

When the roving hen has come home to roost
When the patient cockerel clears a cough away to crow
When the crafty chick crawls to cuddle close
Then shall the subtle sigh of the moon sweep softly
And all the cares of the day with it

Good things coming to those who wait
Is a saying some find of import
Repeated at every turn of the way
And I, without thought, didn't weigh
but with abandon I set out for the horizon
The blues -come -down beckon
And my hopeful soles trudge on.

Life happens around me
Such as I am unaware of
As days drag on slow
At some points I want to be,
in arms to say enough.

A day draws up to my doorstep
In an instant, O abrupt like a slap
Colorful without pretense
Gifts wafting in the air, incense
To my worn torn mind,
A kind reminder,
Good is always in the offing,
For He said so.
He planned that all things work for good.
Thank you Lord, God.

Good things coming to those who wait
A saying some find of import
Repeated at every turn of the way
Without thought I didn't weigh
With abandon I set out for the horizon
The blues -come -down beckon
And my hopeful sole trudge on.

A day draws up to my doorstep
In an instant, O abrupt like a slap
Colorful without pretense
Gifts wafting in the air, incense
To my worn torn mind,
A kind reminder,
Good is always in the offing,
For He said so.
He planned that all things work for good.
Thank you Lord, God.