pale blue eyes
I can see

through you

to the bottom
where you

really live

your white skin
is paper thin

appearing
fragile

but I know
you are

stronger than
that

you have been
broken beyond

any bones
and survived

you have
dandelion’s

breath

spreading life
wherever

you land

she is the
sharpest tongue

you’ll ever taste

spitting words
cutting souls

leaving men
gasping for hope

go ahead
challenge her

test yourself

we cover
not to hide

we have
an enemy

sort of
at least a
common threat

to our lives

it is not
conscious
or willful

it exists
to exist

it is more
an entity

than a thing
it doesn’t

know itself
or what it does

and what it does
is spread
within us and

then across us
and within us

one way to
stop it is

to wear a mask

yes it’s that
simple

wear a mask

I said

you must
have stolen

my dictionary
because for

the first time
I am

speechless

she smiled
and said

if there was
one word

left to say

what would
it be

I smiled
and said

sheds
everyday

we are
different

beings

in so many
ways that

we don’t notice

we are
always

becoming

perhaps if we
could notice

the changes
we could

more easily

forgive ourselves
and each other

more connections
than nodes

elegant and
simple

emergent

still
quiet
and balanced

flexible
and open

patient
able to wait

for pleasure
and wade

through pain

eternal
creatures

inhabiting
small places

survivors
of all the

holocausts
replicators

hives
hills
tunnels
nests

societies­ of
the many

not one

our teachers
if we were

willing to learn