Every waking hour I tread with great care
Not wanting to disturb the calm
The calm that lasts only seconds at a time.

In the past I used to walk this field
Walking without a care
I felt safe and secure, placing my feet wherever
That was a mistake I'll always regret.

One day, the sky as blue as the sea
I walked down the familiar path
Until my foot stepped on something unknown.

I heard the click.

Fire and dust engulfed me
I blew up into a million pieces
Never to be whole again.

I learned the hard way what your words are like
How they blew up my heart, my soul
Never to be regained-

But I still love you
Even though being with you
Is like walking in a minefield.

Some say that life is like a pencil
It has a point
And just like a sharperner sharpens
Others can change your direction
Your traits, ego
For the better

But I say life is like a pencil point
It's sharp, but quickly gets blunt
Unusable, dull
And just like a pencil point can break
When it's at it's sharpest
So can a life end suddenly
Fragile, indiscriminate of who you are.

I used to be alive- now I'm invisible
your words were like knives
penetrating deep into my soul
I wilted, slowly bled
from your memory

but I kept coming back
trying to make my presence felt
my efforts were in vain
I was just a mist, here today, gone tomorrow

in your memory I was a spectre
a glimmer in the past, nothing more
than forgotten photographs
where you scratched out my face

I'm forever dead to you
and now I'm motionless
despite my pleads
which you simply tossed to the wind.

You're shouting at me
Your words cut through me like fragments
Fragments of glass
The temperature in the room is rising
I feel the heat approaching
I need to leave, escape.

I turn round and put my back to you
You grab my arm, pulling me over
So I see your face
Your eyes, the colour of water
Convince me to forgive you
Your words change, they start to extinguish the inferno

The fire is out, all that's left is smoke
Clinging to the walls of my heart
Masking all the burns I have
From all that you've put me through
Your true reflection I loathe
But I forever want to be blinded by the smoke

rivers flow through the garden
you hear the sound of gregarious laughter
we are laughing
our hearts pounding to the same electric beat
we are buzzing

the sky is free from clouds
you see us fly
we are flying
along the tallest mountains
until we see cloud nine
and rest on it for a while

all of us see the rivers speeding
speeding toward the edge
where they cascade down the waterfall
we realise the cloud we sit on
is made of air, and the happiness it gives us
is only temporary

as we plummet
we hit the ground, hard
all laughter and joy is gone

we wake up, the same place we were
on the cold concrete floor
underneath the bridge
where our journey began

we look at each other
we're drunk and broke
and as we inhale that toxic smoke
we return to the garden.

long ago our feet only graced the ground
now we can soar beyond the highest clouds
long ago we were fortunate to live long
now everywhere you look, there is silver hair
long ago we only knew how to boil herbs
now we can cure even the most complicated diseases

yet, we are statues
we choose to see only what our eyes can
we refuse to look into the souls of others
we reject the thought of understanding each other
refusing to let go to the ideas set by our ancestors
keeping certain people in certain places

how long will we stay in this position?

The dust of the battle has settled
Carnage replaced by rows of red flowers
A permanent reminder of the hurt that was caused
Then stood the survivors-
You and me

Though we fought
Aiming guns firing sharp words constantly
Piercing our sense of being-
We gave in, shook hands, made peace.