Life is about giving
back instead of taking.
I took a lot all my life,
apathetic and selfish.
When I see people today,
they don't look like marks.
I don't think about what I
can take from them.
They are God's handiwork.

Life is strange and short.
I couldn't have caused this
inner transition.
I always subscribed to
morality in theory.
Thank God,
the blind still receives sight.

Sometimes, acquaintances will say
that I've grown soft
as they turn to green jello, right
before my eyes.

the people of loss
have nothing on us,
pillows of unravelling floss.

only the pillow knows,
a pedestal for weakness,
our shared bygones.

So common for its ease,
Like feathers wandering in the afternoon breeze;
So trivial, lacking empathy,
Like humans subjugating nature.

So easy to deny knowledge,
Like fake news carried by the constant breeze;
So common, without understanding,
Like information without discernment.

Lacking empathy;
Respect is disregarded;
The other is excluded;
Vision is closed;
One's own interests are prioritized.

For unfounded beliefs,
Without seeing the facts
That reveal the subjectivity
Of the view of one or of many,
Which, nevertheless, does not define
Wisdom, knowledge, discernment –
So relative, even through reason.

Like cattle in false pens,
They prefer to be guided
Rather than seek and uncover,
To think, test, and define.
Belief, prejudice
Or time?
The misinformation of people is maintained,
Trapped by the interests of certain exclusive groups.

And I, thinking,
Without destination,
Reflecting on myself,
Confused,
Spreading uncertain concepts,
Certain knowledges,
Modified.

The reason for existence, I don’t know,
For life I am already tired.
From so much disdain to find,
In a gaze, the judging.

I move forward, between encounters
And life's disconnections,
Waiting for someone,
Who, in solidarity, understands me,
Without judgment, but with joy,
For the simple feeling of another.

The feeling is uncertain, fickle,
Reason, many times, certain
Until the opposite becomes clear,
Thus, we know little,
Except what is likely.
And we move forward, waiting,
To discover the improbable,
In the sighs and existences of others.

A-walking on a wormwood path
that’s paved by age’s cobblestones
on past a palace of distant past
in a Prussian park, a mind unthroned.

He walked, a shadow
through the foggy night,
his pulse beat faint and shallow
as the pale and fitful light.

In the lace of this quicksilver mist,
a fellow shade now walked along.
She emerged from dark, adrift
like him. They hummed the same black song.

In what had been a pitiless pit
of icy fog and stony walks,
she was there as if summoned by fate’s writ.
In whispers, she and he began to talk.

They shared their bleak
and tattered tales
to raise the wreck
of where they’d failed.

And as they talked
their once distant light
began to shine
out in that night.

Here in their pale of desolation,
two kindred shades touch shadowed hands
and in their touch found consolation
to rekindle light in benighted lands.

Apple, berry, and honey.
A giving tree,
a vine’d bush,
and a killer bee.
Fulfillment underneath,
my ice cream.
All in the home,
of the outer layer.
Warm desserts off,
passed down family notes.
Holed out memories,
forgotten the smiles.
One day beyond,
I’ll finally see,
what was left behind,
for you and me.

In the depths of my dreams
I see her within my proximity
her face is scribbled out with sharpie
and her voice is static
her name was Ms. Euphoria

oh how I miss her motherly love
whenever my tears hit my pillow
making my eyes become drowsy
I fall into a deep sleep
my body is taken through a tunnel vision
and when I finally open my eyes
I have been transported into a dream
where Ms. Euphoria will be waiting for me
with open arms to wrap me into her embrace
I tell her everything that comes to mind
and even though I can’t hear her well
between the static lines of her voice
I can sense her feeling of understanding

But was ages ago
now my dreams are blurry to remember
but I hope one night I can see her again
waiting for me in the distance
ready to hear my cries of sorrow
comforting me with the blessing of empathy