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What once felt
Like a punch to the gut
Will someday
Feel like a pinch
Something that only hurts enough
To remind you of what life is
They may not understand

Why you are the way you are

Or how badly it hurts to have to be

Or how hard you've tried to become

Or how often you fail to do what should be easy



They might not understand these things


But that doesn't mean that they can't see


Something else that's also true
I don't mean to provoke anxiety or fear

But maybe they're right about you
Neighbors are arguing

I am uncomfortably

Smoking a cigarette

Trying not to listen to them

Trying instead to focus on this podcast

About militarized police

And how democracies end
I met a woman
Who taught me
How to find someone
I used to be
Crestfallen
Yet somehow openhearted
In love with both the living world
And those sorely dear departed
One million grains of Sand
Hitched a ride home from the beach

Hidden in the folds of my clothes
And from my locks, down to my feet



These one million grains of You
Just aren't enough memories

I heard your laugh in a dream last night
And was carried back out to sea
"You misrepresent me

In this piece


I don't see myself here"
You bare your teeth
At the thought
Of a crack
This dull
Malaise
Is droning
And ill

How many more
Minutes
Will you fill?


Paper
Is shredding
Thousands
Of cuts

How can you tell
When you've
Had enough?


Plenty
Many
Down
To one

Weighing


Debating



"Are my lessons done?"




~~~




A whisper
From the deepest
Ethers
In the hallows
Of your heart

Scoffs


"Are your lessons done?"
Inspired, in part, by Leonard Cohen's "Teachers"
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