Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                     ­         Communities

We often read about communities:

The intelligence community
The black community
The LGBT community
The arts community

Communities

The Hispanic community
The white community
The evangelical community
The educational community

Communities

One imagines a community:
Volunteer fire department, VFW
Parks, shops, a Methodist church across the street
From Our Lady of Guadalupe

Communities

But communities seem mostly to be
Lonely people stereotyping others
On the InterGossip with big ol’ words

I feel most at home
When I am beside you.
I am able to breathe freely & abundantly.
You speak kindly to my soul,
& nurture the points of direction
Which I grow.
My sanctuary of peace,
My birds eye view of serenity.
I feel most at home
When I am in view of your garden.
Offering the utmost
Of warmth & affection.
Make no mistake,
I am not there to simply pass time
Nor am I there out of the convenience
Of you.
Being around you takes me
to another world


& I am glad to share in the experience
Of you.
I am in awe at how you transform me
Into a moth, in terms of light.
I’ll follow you anywhere

To be kind is not losing,
though bitter sadness
and lonely hours
can make it hard to see,
putting others’ shoes on
simply shows you’re not alone
and though you may not be a hero
widely worshipped, here’s the thing:
you’ll bring a mote of light
to the sometimes dark nights
in peoples’ souls,
which will shine a little back
and if we all fan these coals
with easy acts of decency,
none get lost in black,
none get left behind:
be kind

Crossing the far away sky of soul,
In the pilgrimage of light,
on the fine coast of extinction,
we will meet.
There, in whose space,
creation first became existence,
we will turn this monotonic world,
into  a celestial melody of sounds,
In the emptiness spinning
without aims or needs.

The world is a dark and complicated morass,
Wherein countless lost children pass
In and out of the shadows and greet each other with a smile or a nod.

Isolated, lonely little hearts playing
With complex emotions in a word staying
Abreast of all the troubling events for better or worse.

Light and laughter dwells but a moment
In tender unions just before fears foment
A cascade of ****** worries filling up the eternal halls.

Then a single flame at first finds another
Huddling in the dark over scraps Mother
Left for kindling a fire in the depths of destitution.

At first the two but soon three and more
Shelter the faltering fire taking hold for
Reviving communion among the distanced souls.

As more join a bonfire starts and talking
Not just of pleasantries you hear while walking,
But of sincere connection between scared children discovering they can conquer the dark.

Some children still pass in the dark hall,
Knowing not the darkness nor how small
They really are in the scope of the full extent of the world.

But every once in a while, more often as it grows,
A child stops and really sees what the others chose
In banding about a fire fueled by the scraps of a difficult time.

hide myself in my home territory
my castle, palace, defending me from outside threats
bury my sadness beneath friendly banter
inside jokes, my family i made in this virtual space

but the one i long for isn't here anymore-
"sorry, our princess in in another castle"
someone i can tell secrets to, someone i can be real with
let go of the mask of comedian and spill an ocean of tears

and the cracks in the foundations and walls are showing through.
everyone is broken here, hiding their sadness with laughter
we're supposed to be a family,
but we can't show weakness to each other

dms are always open, we say
but once we spill just a single bucket of that ocean
everything online can be screenshotted.