Helpless
A friend is in pain and I can do nothing
Tears flow of indecision…straining life, staining life
My heart breaks in two…then shatters on the salted dreamscape floor
Coming out of my own skin, ripping the stitches, molting along hollow tree branches
Miles between, so many miles, so much time falls from grace
Breathing is hard, tethered at the moments lost, the suffering imagined
Pacing the floor…finding worn carpet and hidden questions beneath a shallow basement
Wishing the words, those **** words, feeding the solution…would come
Hoping for anything, something, even the tiniest of splintering compassion I can offer
To help ease this weight resting squarely on the shoulders of the weakness that engulfs her
I have no answers, useless, like a block of wood in the offering plate on a Tuesday night
My mind is a vacant lot of empty parking spaces…handicapped and no hang tag
My eyes blur of forced darkness amidst the crowing raven circling overhead
I pound my fist into this meaningless existence breaking every bone of contention
Drowning in my own fear, treading water beneath the surface
Clenching my teeth in a vice like fashion
A friend is in pain and I can do nothing
Helpless

When I look at you
You send shivers
No – sparks.

The air is charged with them
Dense.

I can feel just how much of it
is between us –
(always too much)

And I want more than anything
To cross it –
Wade through the ions
to you.

To only stop when my lips
Meet yours
(the only way I have found
to get rid of the air)
and you take my breath away.

Others, want you.
I can easily tell.
They give themselves away.
Just by the things they do.
And the things they say.

It might be in a whisper.
It might be in an innocent gift.
Just believe me others want you.

It's a compliment to me.
Which makes me so happy.

I have known the taste of salt water,
and the smell of decaying forests,
and the cracks in hundreds of sidewalks,
I have loved the gas petal,
and the airport concourse,
and the ever-changing time zones.
In all of these places,
I've found a home in not having one,
ready to admit,
you'll never catch up.

a.s.

I am lost on nights like these
When a sudden rush collides within me
A hushed whisper at the back of my mind
That causes a ripple more forceful than time
A simple reminder of a simpler fact
That this world is nothing and I am of that
And if I can be of something whose worth has no prize
Then where do I stand on this list of grand size?

These nights leave me breathless- as I sink deeper away
Yet visually moving much further astray
My body may sink but my soul rises high
As I see through the view of a little bird’s eye

From the heights we are merely, a speck of dust
Incapable of emotions, no hatred, no lust
And if only distance can cause this view
It must be time for this world to work for something new

No longer to crave to be the greatest being
But to aim past the dreadful sense: seeing
No longer to care for physical things to hold
But to desire to leave your own touch, your own mold
To know that this is not a piece of clay
But an action, a thought, a word that you say
That may change a life and ripple to more
Each leaving a mark or opening a door
That allows more to enter without having to knock
We are now moving mountains, not pebbles, not rocks

If we all work together for a greater one
Then maybe, just maybe, this world will not be done.