In the daily quarrel
When words fall upon ****** and deaf ears
Repetition is agitating
Boiling beneath the flesh
Festering like a toxin of lingering potency
Snaking its way into the corners of the mind
Push it down, cast it away
Do not allow the flames to become you

Gripping tightly
Perhaps too much so
As it snaps beneath the pressure
Only a fraction made visible
The rest to be silenced
Only audible for one mind
Screaming and thrashing
Just beneath the surface

Stain the paper
Clutch the fragments
Dispose of the now useless thing
Punishment surely to ensue
For breaking things isn’t the answer they like

Purse your lips
Bite your tongue
Until it bleeds

Clench your fists
Knuckles white
Ding your nails into your palms

Walk away
Hold the chaos at bay
Pull the chain
For fighting would only be in vain
Causing nothing put pain
None, of which, for the enemy

Seething in a soundless cage
Is the inextinguishable rage
Fed in every passing day
Relentless, and you know what they say;
There is no rest for the wicked

Push me far enough
And I will not hold back
Break me enough
And I will become the monster you made me
Uncaged, unleashed
My tongue dripping acidic poison
My eyes visions of flames
My arms stained with well-worn lies
My hands red with “discipline”
My feet tired from running
My hair wild and untamed as a storm cloud
My clothes holding me tighter than a withheld breath
My will stronger than the iron fist wielded upon me

Let me go
Let me walk away
Before I let it all go
The raging fire I hold at bay.

- Jay M
April 6th, 2021

supper done
  eyes cast
here
   then
  there
cerulean rain... dropping violet

melodic
     piano tickles
and smoothed out bed sheets
soft serpentine
moves stretched arms
up high
      dried iris and begonias... fall

Sunday
        will also come
  filled with
turned pages
and folded things

songs of shepherds
sweet stark
nakedness
  honed
     soft corners...
   ruby red
places
shudder to
      think
not caressed and
  sweat, and breath laughing smiles and
lips
lingering  
   with eyes
            deeply set
as a rudder
on course
      to...  all purpose, the ancients
        and joy  
              the heart... a bottomless
place.

Walking hand in hand
Long wet kisses in the night
Laughing over nonsense
Reading love letters by candlelight

Breathing in the salty ocean air
Walking through the pastures
with wild flowers
everywhere

Holding the love that holds yours back
Making future plans
without a future
Sort of like the life
of the trapeze *******

Back and forth
until one day you fall

I’m hanging
on the ‘y’
of your goodb  e
                         y

She said "I'm falling in love."

I said "I'm falling apart."