I cause

Eyes to turn to glass
Lungs to be unable to contract

Hearts to cease to beat
Bodies to be unable to hold heat

Muscles to relax
Faces to sag

Hands to become useless
Legs to become motionless

What/Who am I?

I have an idea,
A game we can play.
I’ll paint you a picture,
What does it say?

“Like charades?” you ask,
Yes, but with higher stakes.
I’m the riddle on the canvas,
Can you solve without mistakes?

⁃ Don’t Read Me Wrong

I don't recall year one of life,
But I'm here now,
So they got it right.
Yet I remember being one,
On a mattress, in the sun,
The smell of bacon and farm odors,
Were part of me as I grew older.

But I never asked to grow up.

I walked first steps
In my father's shoes,
Blathered blissfully when I was two.

By the time I turned three,
I was sure youth suited me.

I could reach the outside door,
When I grew to the age of four.
Now the world's mine to explore.

But I never asked to grow older.

Then by five I tried to hide
From the travails of an older child;
The digging, weeding, painting, work:
My escape to school was my re-birth.

But I never asked to grow older.

I didn't ask to turn six,
Seven, eight, nine or ten;
I shuddered at our  portends,
I didn't like how my world ends,
I finished fishing with Amens.

But I never asked to grow older.

I made twenty years ago,
When decades moved ever so slow;
Thirty came, forty gone,
And fifty didn't last that long.

But I never asked to grow older.

Since I must,
Please remember,
Dip my soother in Irish whiskey,
Include me if you solve the mystery,
And reference me and my life's history.

I'm crawling on the edge of this chasm
Right along the brink of abyss
Spiraling down a void
Even light cant escape

Who Am I?

A sphinx in the desert grabs my feet

.....What is small, soft and weak
.....but stronger than the hardest marble?

.....Do not count on what you have learned
.....do not count on what you think now
.....do not count on what you will know later

.....but surrender to the answer
.....or burn alive in the sun!

The standing heat and my resistance
against this exam dehydrate me

I lick the salt from my lips
fold my hands over my head
until they sting and get exhausted

my sweat evaporates
my skin is bursting
sand fills the slits

I dream of drops
that close me
one by one, slowly

making a way deep
into my fibres, and the sphinx nods
She releases me

.....Here's a roof
.....here's a well
.....take a rest and move on