Some people crash into your life
like waves in a storm
while others slip in
with the rising tide.  
Some leave
like water slowly receding
stealing the sand under your feet
and some
are just suddenly gone
like the ground beneath you
when you step off the ocean ledge
into the abyss
where no light penetrates
and there is no direction,
where the pressure of your grief
is unending
and drowning
is what you are doing
every second
and those seconds are all you know.

A big monster dog
with a floppy smile
rippling muscles
and a silly hop
Huge teeth
and fuzzy fur
who has thunderous barks
and the whiniest of whines
how do you embody terror
and nanny dog
in one ?

I run away.
“When the going gets tough,
The tough get going.”
But this was never what it meant.

I run away.
When struggles rise,
The so-called tough
Find answers, not alibis.

I run away.
I see it clear—
The same old patterns
Etched like black
On white veneer.

I’ve failed each time
To sell the truth,
To live the words
I’ve sold as proof.

Oblivious,
Self-absorbed,
A shallow star
On a fading course.

I am alone.
The crop I reap
Is born from seeds
I buried deep.

I seek no grace,
No pity, no balm—
Only to show
The harm I’ve done.

This is no plea
For some reprieve,
But a reckoning—
The pain I weave.

An apology—
To lay these tools,
This sad refrain,
This harm, to rest.

A truce to hold,
A call to mend,
No absolution,
But an end.

White so pure,
it's cleanliness sure.

Now soaked with dread
and flecked with red.

Heat of me melts into puddle,
my mind will fade and words will muddle.

Steel in chest and searing pain,
my face feels droplets of the winter's rain.

Fur of fire-blackened and bloodied,
as I lay with vision muddied.

No one will come though they look in flocks,
for I am just a simple fox.