in this life,
I had not realized I had learned,
for it is one of the first
we are ever taught.

Our first experience
of this world, consists only
of cold and pain, yet,
we learned how to breathe
in the harshness
of this reality.

So ingrained is this truth that
we rarely dwell upon it.
It is only when oxygen is denied us
that we remember our first lesson in life.

To breathe.

Just breathe,
and keep breathing.
Calm you heart and your mind.
Life may be out of your control but
you can control the constriction
of your lungs.

Take solace in the knowledge that
everything will be alright,
as long as you remember
to breathe.

I exist in the space between worlds,
never truly a citizen
of any one of them, just
a wanderer passing though, looking
for a home
I will never find.

I live in the gray that
separates night from day,
weaving and bending my existence
to blend into the background.

I am the static you despise,
forgotten in the silence between heartbeats,
stalking the shadows
of your imagination.

I am the fog that bridges the gaps
between realities,
formless and boneless, I
smother the void between the light and the dark
so you need not fear the sight
of the abyss.

But, I warn you,
be careful in your step
for I only obscure the in-between to
safeguard your sanity.
I cannot keep you from falling
into the fate I have become.

Though I grow weary of this listless journey.

I am but a ghost
stitching together the worlds
of the living
and the dead.

to look at a photograph
of a place
you once knew,
to know you walked there.

You try to recall what it must have looked like,
back then,
try to imagine the caress of the wind, or
what you know it must have smelled like, or
how the ground shifted
beneath your feet.

But you can't.

Memory is funny that way.
We remember without remembering.
These photographs are nothing but
broken portals to the past
leaving only chasms of static
where life should have been.

This is how the teens, now adults,
Cope with their newfound independence,
Overwhelmed by the world and
Drunk on their freedom,
Here, where minds are warped
And time is replaced by the
Spinning of your head as
Our souls are pulled together in
Meaningless,
Powerful ways,
Only daring to fall into
The comfort of one another
As poison courses through our veins,
Setting our minds safely adrift
In the static.

Under the cheap, yellowed lights of
Barren apartments and temporary IKEA dorms,
Our limbs turn boneless
As we submit to the gravity,
Unable to stand,
Crashing together on torn up couches
Threatening to collapse,
Reveling in the warmth of each other as
Rambunctious laughter bubbles forth,
Unbidden, from tired throats as
We try in vain to keep the night at bay,
Seeking peace beyond reality.