Cowardice grips me tight
and guides me in all the wrong directions-
like a puppet I go where it wants
I flee from Commitment, from Growth
and float aimlessly in pools of despair
created as a byproduct of Cowardice’s actions

there are times where Bravery finds me
floating by solemnly, head barley above water-
it releases me from my shackles
and in those times I remember how to swim
I remember how to command my own limbs
and I emerge and I stand, to face down Fear

but inevitably
inevitably
Cowardice finds me once more
and when I blink the chains return
and it pulls me in all the wrong directions
leaving me craving Bravery’s warmth
just out of reach now, I grasp for it over and over
but I-
I just
can’t
reach

I remember it was an ordinary day
the sun blanketed our town in warmth and the cool breeze dancing though our hair reminded us of many a time long ago spent together exploring the depths of causal conversation.
I remember my heart was content in its throne room next to you, who had carved away my castle walls over six long years.
You, who had shown me the joy of opening the doors to new seasons and stepping outside to bask in the glorious sun I became accustomed to.
It was a wonderfully ordinary day when you whispered poison into my ear and I remember how the clouds blotted the light away and the world grew colder and your words, like shards of ice, shattered a companionship six years strong and I remember how my bones ached as though I’d aged twenty years in a day as I alone stacked up the stones of my castle walls once more.

Hell.
Fire and brimstone.
Smoke, ravaging sweet oxygen, clouding eyes, suffocating lungs.
And there you stand in the middle of it all.
Eyes ablaze, a grin that could drop a king to his knees.
There’s something else in you:
A liveliness I’ve never seen before.

All at once there is dark.
Then, light.
And you, a shimmering ethereal figure:
A pinpoint, billowing out to encompass all.
Blinding.
Magnificent.
Rebirth is the only word I have for it.
I stare, because what else is there to do?

Who are you? A Queen?

….

No, my dear, I am a God.

Forget you
I have to
Six years and nothing to show
but singeing cold
and Melancholy’s sweet glow

Forget you
I have to
Six years of arduous arguments
and confidence sold?
Yeah, good riddance

Forget you
I have to
Six years of-
of cosmic conversation
undulating revelations

Six years of-
of seismic adventure
prismatic music creation
both of us our best contender
learning to wake from the world’s sedation

Wait!
Don’t go
Six years carved my soul...
But alas, that didn’t matter
****! Clouds shattered

You forgot me without error
But forget you?
I could never