Living life on the edge--
Always wondering when the next 
Unearthly shiver, the next 
Wave would crest and fall on you and 
Everything would slow down for a few 
Seconds
(They felt like hours)
When your insides would 
Flip and freeze and 
Everything was out to get you
But you were--
Stuck between cobwebs, face
Contorting (only on the inside)
--A short eternity 
Jailed between the suffocating
Walls of your crimson-coloured
Mind.

(No escape)

Wallowing in grief, they said.
Clad in black, face wet--
Distant, drowning eyes burning
Silver
Hands clasped, knuckles snow
White 
Rose; thornless, flawless

Too fragile, they said.
Lips pulled down, face blotched, splotches of 
Crimson red 
Stained shards of glass
Crystal clear mind, jagged 
Edges
Of a window (pain) 

Broken, they said.
Shivering shoulders, silent spells
But--
But those eyes. Those
Shining depths, they bore love in its
Purest 
Form, held her together like glue. 

Broken, they said. 
Well, she'll live to smile another day.

The night sky was a piece of art, sketched
By a thousand eager caresses of the wind and
Painted with tender brushstrokes in the many 
hues of dark blue, sprinkled with white sand.

There she sat cross-legged, bare arms trembling with
Cold (anticipation) --the earth seemed so far away
Suspended on a canvas of concrete hundreds of
Feet in the air, metal bars in decay

Lights dying, fumes dissipating, horizon
Fading--Skyscrapers but a silhouette 
In a backdrop of gray (the silence felt wrong, somehow,
Like fine wine on a picnic mat) 

So she closed her eyes and imagined--
less gray, more blue,
The smell of petrichor, and the humming of birds, and leaves 
glistening with the sheen of morning dew

But she opened them again--
Saw prison bars, and she realised, 
All along she had been listening to a lonely
Melody her mind had devised...

Painting an impossible picture.

Though the sun has fallen and
the birdsong drifts to sleep,
The stars have only just awoken.

She was of many things—
She was of the sea, and the sun, and the
Stars (shining brightest in the night), but
Most of all, she was of the sky, she was in
The wings of the soaring winds, the thud-
Thud of a brave heart.

She was of many shades—
She was rose red, mellow yellow, as
Pink as the blush in her cheek and as green
As the grasses of the earth—nourished
By waters of violet and aqua-marine.
(Black and white)

I have observed brightly lit stores...
window displays welcome
with wide open arms.
Kaleidoscope of colours,
dancing to catchy music...
adding on to the allure and charm.

Droves of shoppers have identified this
as their slice of heaven.
Flagging retail therapy
and finding their
pocket of Eden.

I have observed some laying down.
Relaxing...
unwinding...
On patches of grass.
They stare at the sky
with much adoration,
as wispy clouds float on by.

These skygazers have chosen this
to be their little slice of heaven.
With the ground on their backs,
grass between their toes
and azure as their witness...
this is their pocket of Eden.

I have observed a couple of lovebirds,
seated at a café...
immersed deeply in conversation.
In their own private universe,
their own little bubble.
Employing hugs and frequent pecks as punctuation.

There's nowhere else they'd rather be.
From their eyes I know,
they've found their unique slice of heaven.
In each other
they've found their pocket of Eden.

I have observed myself...
I thought myself to be lost
for the longest time.
Seeking a place
for the voice in my head
that only spoke in rhyme.

All is not lost when
I finally found that place.
My little slice of heaven.
For almost a year ago today
I decided on Hello Poetry
as my pocket of Eden.