We drove with the music off and the windows down
Whispers of fall crept into the car and the sound of the pavement rushing under the tires murmured in the background
Our minds were buzzing with nicotine and wonder as we ventured into one another's intricate networks of thoughts
We became closer to escaping our own minds as we became lost in each other's
You began to read your poetry and I watched you in my rear view mirror as you read
You read with such passion and listening to you, with the murmur of the pavement, the music off, and the cool air tossing about the wisps of hair that had escaped the confines of my braid
I felt peaceful

I see you in the parking lot
Sitting in your car with your eyes shut, head bobbing
As your music rattles your windows
And you explore the cavern of your mind

I want so badly to offer you a light

You feel me watching, feel reality encompass you
You awake from your trance
And you put on your mask

You are so sure that this mask will keep away the pain
But I see your demons clawing at it, begging to be set free

I've seen you
The you behind the mask
You have shed it before me many times
But as soon as I glimpse your naked face
And you see it reflected in my eyes
Vulnerable
Broken
You don your mask again and ask me never to speak of what I've seen

Once upon a heartbreak I jumped the border into Apathy
Leaving the destruction and tumult of my ravaged homeland behind
And it is here I now sit, in the land of Apathy
Swinging my feet off the edge of Nothingness
With my eyes closed and cool air weaving between my fingers while the sunlight gently caresses me
And I know I will never go back

Time stood still around her as
she wove her chain of clover flowers
tying every delicate knot with care
She ignored them at first as they became brown
so sundried and wilted
that even her delicate
knots
failed
Her fingers were sore
And she was becoming weary
Of staring at her wilted chain of clover flowers
Stretching for miles into the distance
And taunting her with its crisp and shriveled form
So as she continued to weave her clover flowers
She let her mind remain blank
She thought of nothing with every delicate knot she tied
Nothing as she plucked each flower from the ground
Nothing as she stared at the withered length of chain
And nothing as she finally laid it down

Please let this be the last salty river
That runs down my face
Whose current whispers your name

Second chances
Are simply
Excuses
To open old wounds
And drench them
With lemons
Just for the pleasure
Of the burn

I fill the void that lies within me with anything I can find
be it clouds of thick, black smoke that permeate every once immaculate surface
within my hollow frame
or the bottle of whiskey that burns its way down my throat
like you, these things are fleeting
and only make me feel whole for a moment
and I can't help wondering
if it was you who left the void
or if you were just another substance
with which I tried to fill it

In a way I believe it's my own fault that I feel this sinking
Feeling as I sit here now bleeding salty tears
Into my cup of morning coffee
With your image swirling through the foam

If the eyes are the windows to the soul
Then your windows must be awfully dity
For I've peered in many a time
Pressed my nose up to the glass
And tried my best to clear my vision
But I still cannot see but a foggy silhouette of what lies
Behind those soiled window panes

Can we just skip to the part
Where we fall hopelessly in love
Because I feel myself moving closer
And closer
To the edge every day
And this waiting
This anticipation of the fall
The knowledge that I will soon
Plummet downward
Grasping at only air
With nothing to break my fall
Is utterly
Terrifying

I should use a saw
to cut a path
around the spot I stand.
I'll set myself afloat
make my own deserted island
and never reattach myself
to the world

Waiting is such an
agonizing
thing to do
But I'll wait for an eternity
if I'm waiting
on you

Emotion is pain
And joy
Sleepless nights
And
Tearful goodbyes
Doubt and hope
Euphoria
Absolute ecstasy
And all-consuming
Pain
                                                           ­            Apathy is      
                                                                ­       painless
                                                        ­               emotionless
                                                     ­           
                                                     ­                  Apathy is
                                                                       Empty

I read the Surgeon General's Warning
As I inhale my sorrows
And exhale all troubles
And a slight tinge of worry crawls up my spine
I replaced relationships with cigarettes
Poison with poison
As I sigh and allow the guilt to melt away
Letting it drip into the deepening pool at the bottom of my conscience
I allow myself the small comfort of knowing
At least the cancer sticks
Come with a warning label

A vehicle rumbled along a sorry excuse for a road,
A convoy trailing behind it

A soldier looked out his window
Watching the dust swirl up in clouds beneath the
Heavy vehicle's tires

He said nothing to his partner and they rode in silence
He, thinking of his perfect baby
Whom he had not yet gotten to feel the warmth of
In his arms
And his partner, he was sure
Had nothing but the image of his fiancée racing through his mind
She was all he ever talked about

They were close
As close as a pair of friends could possibly be
But rides were becoming increasingly more solemn
Unspoken yearning for home had become almost unbearable
These days the soldier missed home so much
And longed so badly for his wife's warm embrace
That he swore he could feel his heart aching

The solemn silence was broken as something caught the soldier's eye

"Stop!"

The convoy came to a halt
The soldier jumped from his vehicle
His boots making a hard thud on the ground below
He called to a group of Afghani children who had been
Collecting shell casings they would later exchange for food
In the middle of the convoy's path

The children looked up, alarmed
And scurried away

The rumble of the military vehicles again resounded
Through the desert
And the convoy continued on its way


Looking back
At the men in the strange uniforms
With the huge trucks,
A little Afghani girl
Caught a glimpse of the sunlight
Bouncing off of something
In the middle of the road

She rushed into the street to collect it
Thinking only of how pleased
Her mother would be
With all the money they would earn
From her painstaking hunt

The soldier saw the young girl
Dart into the path of the convoy

He shouted
And leapt from the vehicle
The girl looked up in terror
As she saw the big trucks
Getting closer
And closer

The soldier leapt into
The path
Of the oncoming sixteen-ton vehicle
Toppling the girl to the ground

As she sat up, out of the path of the convoy
Dusting her self off and
Trying to comprehend
What had just taken place
She looked into the road searching for her
Treasure
And saw it
Reflecting the desert sunlight
Just inches from the still form
Of the soldier
Who had just
Given her
His life

I walk the path of life
Looking for an out
An obscure trail perhaps
A detour
The kind you encounter and imagine
That some hiker who came before you
Became impatient with the beaten path
And carved his own out of the
Thick tangle of branches

But the harder I search
The less defined the path underfoot becomes
And I realize
My life is not yet a path
But a forrest
And I choose the pattern
It makes in the trees

Thank you for loving me
And I'm sorry that I cannot do the same
For I seldom express my love
And am only capable of causing pain

Your perfect mouth forms
An inundation of sweet nothings
But your eyes don't echo the words

You hold my face like I mean something
But the reflections in your eyes show only
The ghosts of lovers past

Your body radiates beckoning warmth
I inhale your subtle scent
You're human
You're real
Every sense I possess tells me so

But as I reach for you
All I grasp is air
It slips between my fingers
And sends a chill through my body

Your electricity lingers in my lips, my fingertips, my breath
Raising goosebumps on my arms
Running a current along my spine

I yearn to again
Electrocute myself with your touch
I ache to feel your vitality
I long for a phantom
A man whose thoughts I will never again invade
I long for a memory

Emotions
Not people
Write the most
Beautiful
Poetry