A tv on mute
     while anger
forms over
another dispute,
          one more
thing to discuss,
     another coat
to wear despite
         the red hot
  sun & what's
the cost,
somewhere
       remote a
skeleton is
pining for a
hide
while we draw
borders along
arbitrary lines
& a world is
  carved up into
yours & mine,
a territory of
land, sea,
portion of sky,
an enemy
lurking as
         wolves
outside,
I go to look
           but no,
soon though.

I was born with
an armour or
so I thought,
a shield against
the incoming
storm, but
the veneer
wore thin
& over time
the sea crept in,
now there
is no blank state
when I wake,
a dark sky
occupies my
mind that
I taste on my
lips, wars,
taxes, too many
deaths.

Those afraid of someone's Darkness do not deserve their Light

I wish my
lips could
be sewn
shut with
a blood red
needle &
thread,
a visible
display
of how I
feel on my
worst of days
when I
want to
lock myself
away,
when words
are strangers
exchanging
kisses across
lips & hearts
are graveyards
burying
broken
promises.

We don't 
speak
& so our
unspoken
words
retreat,
hanging
in the
air like
dying birds
whose weak
cries go
unheard all
because we
were too
afraid to
share, to stare
into the
abyss within,
let its icy
depths swim
up our necks
& do as those
around us do;
speak, one
syllable first
then another,
hoping they
can handle our
verbs the
way we have
theirs