but it was just a picture
or a painting

Yet I saw people walking
a funeral procession
or a celebration
I’d never walked like that in a crowd
not for a cause
or a memory
I wanted to care as much as they did
but it was just a picture
or a painting
It was in another part of the world
across the ocean
or the street
That part of the world is different
I’m not there
I don’t know them
It could be as bleak as ancient snow
from a memory
or a picture
Buried within five hundred pages
of a lost book
that was subversive
But that time passed long ago
the author is gone
as too his outrage
And so the minuet ended abruptly
they were disappointed
or just not ready to stop
The world was outside the window
sadists bent on order
no matter the cost
The room was silenced as they left
the sight of love comforted them
and they knew where it went
Away… always away
inside another heart
another life

It was just a painting though beautiful
how could someone know
how could they believe
But there was no time to touch the paint
it was only time for dreams
and to heal open wounds
It was time to think of a branch tapping a window
while a child wondered
wondered of his fate
But who would make him care beyond himself
he had a heart
but it was just a picture
Or so I thought
it was just a painting or a picture
yet I wept for its life
It was as real as life itself
it reminded me
of people I never knew
I wondered if he cared about others
he needed to hear a song
played by a genius
Would it stir his soul beyond his doubts
to write of suffering
and the tragedy of love
Like the people who silenced the room
because they were not in love
they had only danced together
Things are not as they appear sometimes
especially a painting
or a picture
You don’t know why they did it
the moment is gone
as is the feeling
But so many want their suffering known
does it help them
or all of us
We have to be able to care
and not assume
that it was their fault
That is why a painting is so much better
it’s not real
so suffering is not real
There is no suffering in the imagination
how could there be
it’s just a thought
But what imagination cannot think of others
could it ever be a painting
or a picture
Could it ever be if the painter didn’t suffer
for others
for strangers
Could a boy that was never alive change the world
a boy who could not sleep
because the world spoke plainly
Outside his window ready to enter when asked
but it was just a painting
or a picture
The artist neither closed her eyes or her ears
not to life
yours or her own
It was no longer a moment of gaiety
the boy was her own
and she wept
Though it was just a painting
or a picture
of her own imagination
And she wanted his father to say these things to her

"I want to tell you something
I’m in love with you
yes it is true
I see you smiling
but I want you to listen
this is the time for me to tell you
I can’t sleep
I worry about it too much
and I wonder if I can make you happy
So instead of all that I just want to say how I feel
we can talk about life later
but I want you to know that in this time in your life
I was in love with you
and it was real
and it was true
I don’t want to think about it anymore
I just want to say it
and I want to say it to you
In my dreams you never say anything
because I’m chasing you
for to love someone like you is a dream
A dream that is about finding myself
wondering if I am worth your life
because your life is everything to me now
And I know how important it is
I want to make you feel alive with passion
and I want you to think of me
when you want to be like that
I want you to think of me
when you are ready to give yourself away
when you want to fly there
To a place so high and far from your past
to a place that not even you could dream of
And when you give yourself away
it will be into my heart
there is so much room for you
But I wonder if it is enough
the weight of loving you is upon me now
but I’m ready my love
Because I love you
and now you know
because it was time"

but it was only a painting
or a picture
And she painted until her heart bled
and her hands
and her eyes
She bled until the painting became a curse
she could not look upon it
for it was her life
We would gaze upon it and gasp aloud
because of her capacity to suffer
and to tell everyone of it
But it was not to protest but to draw us near
for we were to numb to her heart
and to the wars written about long ago
It was incredibly personal
more than we would reveal
to anyone not a poet
She didn't care about this anymore
it was the only way to be free
though it was more than we could bear
But this, this was the way home
walking together
in a crowd of flowers
In common cause with her imagination
for we too wanted to live
inside a painting
or a picture

So someone would remember

As wasted sunlight drops upon the skin of atoms,
I sigh limpid ghosts along hell’s diamond eyes.
Out they shake with gusts of dubiety.

Ouch!

The glow ignites my wintered skin.
The rarest turns to pain again,
Yet, I am safe in lush calm sin.
I wish to saunter home again.
- I wish to feel at home again.

She is my home,
But she is not where home is.
When will home wander to me?

We’ll set the breadth aflame
And expose what lies in the ashes between us.
Dancing,
Until our flesh turns white.

Do not worry,
This experiment won't take long,
We will come back to where we belong,
To the high we call sanity
He said it was the fruit of knowledge that gave us mortality
Thin man, grey beard
It was the truth that he feared
It was written in his eyes, Bold and CLEAR
He said god gave us love just to teach us what pain is
But,do you know what hate is?
She looked into my eyes and looked through
Like she knows me but, does not want to
And its true
She's closed the window from where I once flew
Or that's what she has made me believe,
He said,"you are what you believe you are"
But do you know how far is too far?
I can see the stars, the sun and the moon,
The hills decked with clouds,
The mountains draped in white,
He said gods don't play dice
So I asked them to apologize for the poems that my pen cries
Let us mourn for the love that once was,
The music that this world once played for us
We were like the two ends of the same rainbow
Miles away but one
'we', once meant she and I
Now the word hurts
I can see us in the clouds drifting apart,
The rivers lost in the oceans,
The mountains flushed down,
And in the tears that could once melt hearts
She wants a world where I don't exist
So I pushed a knife inside her heart to set her free
And he laughed

When they buried me in the dark, I was frightened.
I didn’t like the taste of earth.
And I was so thirsty.
Some people are no good with plants,
Even the hardiest shrubs
Wither and wilt in their careless hands.
You aren’t one of them.
When no-one else could see,
You took such good care of me.
Water, warmth and love.
These are my needs, but I had no voice
With which to ask; without you
I would have remained inert
A lost life, in the dirt.
See now, how I blossom?
Just a shoot, but I will astound them all
With my beauty, in time.
Thank you for caring for me,
Thank you for helping me to grow.

Two thousand four hundred and fifty five days
spent floating the vacuum of space.

My lungs ache with misplaced distaste
for the beautiful sights surrounding me.

I used to add them all up in romantic displays
but my math of late just ain't what it used to be.

Obtuse angles of obtrusive angels portray
ninety degrees of too little, too late.