It’s been quiet for so long.
Who knows how much time has passed
Since the last strains of melody
Faded from hearing
Moving through a world full of light and life
But still
And so I have also moved through this world
In silence
Making no sound

I had almost forgotten the feeling
Pressure waves against the eardrums
The nervous energy of recognition
The joy of song, of sound
Until you
Resonant, radiant you
Brimming and bursting with song
Electric, alight, alive
And as your music falls on my ears
I rediscover my voice

I only meant to dip a toe in
The water looked so peaceful
So inviting
So I edged closer and closer
At every step checking to see
If it was really me
To whom the river beckoned
Step
By step
Until toes met water
So crisp and cool
The lap of gentle waves against bare skin
And still the river called
A little further
A little deeper
And I answered
Edging out away from the shore
The river didn’t look that wide
Didn’t look that deep
The other bank only a stone’s throw away
How lovely to wade across and emerge on the other bank
Refreshed by the brisk kiss of water on skin
Step
By step
By —

Empty space where there should have been riverbed
Balance lost, pitching forward
Head underwater
Into the channel
Into the current
And all at once
Swept away
A moment of panic
Floundering for equilibrium
And then
Peace
Amidst the thrill of being caught
In the water’s flow
A germ of an idea
Building
Swelling
Like a growing wave on the current
Maybe where the water is carrying me
Is a place
I want
To be

This castle was made of nothing more than clouds, I know
But it seemed to almost build itself
Springing more fully into being
With each interaction
Every look, a soaring tower swirling into being
Every smile, a noble wall stretching through space
Every touch, a waving banner of proclamation
And inside the lofty keep
Blazing brightly on the hearth
Fueled by the promise of things unsaid
The flaming tongues of possibility
Burning, growing, feeding on the hope
That this majestic vaporous edifice
Might be the blueprint
For something solid
Something real
How strange that it could all fall apart
Rent into nothing but wispy fragments
By a single breath
Of air

The tempest did not last long
Though while it rampaged it was terrible to behold
Stinging sheets of rain falling nearly sideways
On the fierce breath of the raging wind
A gale force ripping up everything in its path
Sharp stabs of lightning, the only illumination
Across a dark and battered land
And then
The storm blew out
The world dropped away
All that remained
Stillness
Silence
Quiet
Spinning through empty space
Trying to reorient
Moments of feeling grounded again
Like feet finding passing asteroids
Stability for a time
Too soon, the rock floating away in its orbit
Leaving only space
And darkness
Straining to find the next moment of solid footing
Eyes that acclimate to the dark
Learning to navigate the emptiness
Between those moments of steadiness
Then, without warning, a blinding flash
Remnant of the maelstrom
A bolt of lightning searing through space
The afterimage, glimpses of times gone by
Visions of moments that never came to be
Shadows of a future once dreamed of
Eventually fading away to blackness once more
No way to see what lies ahead
Or what direction “ahead” even is
Just drifting
But
Still
Trying
To move forward
Through empty space

I’ve been wandering through these hallways too long
Staring at the works of the people they called masters
Paintings labeled as perfection
Every fold of clothing unruffled
Every strand of hair in place
Even in scenes of struggle and death
Moments born not of real life
But of fantasy, imagination, hours of unnatural stillness
Days and weeks spent in meticulous crafting
No freedom, no movement, no life
But you
You
Are art in motion
Bold strokes of a quick charcoal sketch
Flashing lights and hips in motion in a salsa club
The beautiful shapes made by one body on another
And you pull me out of the museum
Away from the frozen images
The false representation of life
Into the wild rush of life itself
And a new kind of art
We are footprints left in wet cement
We are graffiti murals on the side of a building
We are canvas caught in a paint fight
Swirls and splashes and smears of color
Captured amidst laughter and lighthearted joy
Perfect in a completely different way
Perfect
And messy
And real

I watched the way you treated her
I wanted to ask “how could you be so blind?”
I swore that I would learn the lessons of her pain
I promised that I would never make your mistakes
I lied
Turns out the apple
Doesn’t fall far from the tree
After all

I had no idea how easily the bridge would go
It seemed like we had built something so solid
Already constructed on the ruins of failed attempts
But this one, this was going to be the one
A moment of fear, a few thoughtless words
Thinking as mine what should have been ours
Those words flying with unerring aim
To the bases of the pillars on which this bridge was built
Sitting, deadly as dynamite, armed and waiting
Too late in realizing the danger of those words
Too late to reel them back in
Now understanding that the damage was done
The disaster a matter of when, not if,
The only question the size of the explosion
Merely awaiting truth, the detonator
There was no massive flash, no fireball
No scorching wave of heat
Just silence
And then
A shifting
A crumbling
Watching in horror as the pillars groan
Then buckle
The agonizing descent of the bridge’s collapse
The only thing to do:
Get down into the dirt
Amidst the rubble
And start rebuilding, brick by brick
Praying that one day you will trust it
To hold you again