A life time lost, mindlessly searchin', wanderin' aimlessly in the margin
Lingerin' in the gray, outside yet somehow dead center of socially accepted norms and action
Starved of affection, but by design, never forget to mention it feels safer with zero human interaction
Parched, withering away, no reaction, no peace, only life but just a fraction

A scorched Earth, a nightmarish vision, a dream state of my demons risen
No rhyme, no reason, no time to be forgiven, is it a sin if the motive is kept hidden?
Does one exist if forgotten? No answer if you can't remember the question
Hence then, to stay afloat one must stop the spin of the downward spiral one finds oneself in

Listen, or don't, it won't matter in the end, frightened without the knowledge of when
A last breath taken after finally on the mend, would it be different if hope wasn't given?
A permanent decision, forever finally allowed to begin but could it be considered a win?
It's all about perception, a frown flipped upside down is a grin

Eyes wide shut, lie and try to pretend they're open, heart closed off, can't repair what's been broken
A conversation with a villan disguised by the voice of a friend, a danger unspoken
Another bad omen, no one around, both voices coming from a location deep within
What's been awoken has stolen emotion and allowed the erosion to begin

...and here...we go...again...

©2023

sonic
bridge,
seismic
convulsions

a desert for us and them,
you can do many things with a blank canvas
--maelstroms, blaze dispersions

a line allows progress, a circle does not,
infiltrates the surface,
flashes into steam

our red cathedral,
our furnace lake,
the promised land in spiritual drought

this catatonic
heaven, a thirst for something more

It is as if I were

Truly, marching, numb,
Blind despite standing
On a pillar above the sun,
Bathing in an ocean of
Clarity, clean, dumb
A kind of understanding
Or a stellar love, a unison
Dripping in slow-motion.

It is as if I were

Well fastened to a past
Faint, absent, steady,
Found elsewhere once more,
Begrudgingly opaque,
As sequestered and cast
Paint spent uneasily
Around canvases ashore,
Erosionally awake.

It is as if I were

On the verge now,
Ready to step onward,
Dare, envision, try,
If but for a moment
In an urge somehow
To unravel the skies afar
Care, abandon, fly,
And not ever lament:

It is as if I were.

Thought is finding its shape,
Becoming stronger¹,
And word by word,
Layer upon layer,
Self-erasing,
Taking form².

The mind is a collage
Creating itself from cut-up scraps¹;
It is a sculpture built by a flowing
Fountain of sand,
Both constantly being eroded
And being formed

And grown by the erosion²,
The sculpting fingers of erosion¹,
The sculpted shadows of forgetfulness².
Grains of memory
Beneath the fingernails¹,
They fall, they forget;

One remains².

We never give much thought,
Thinking we are standing,
On solid ground every day,
There is always something moving,
Below our feet, over forty - one thousand,
Earthquakes, in the year twenty - twenty  
That’s just in the U.S.A.
Then if we think of all of the void spaces,
Empty mines, caverns & caves…
Many of us living above, under - ground holes,
While the oceans, along our country’s east & west sides,
Wash away, acres A year, with high tides, and waves.

                                                                                              Tom Maxwell©
                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                            4/12 2021 AD
                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                            3:45 AM