As I walk through the valley I'm the shadow of death,
I keep myself together with every waking breath.
I make it unknown to everyone who I truely am,
no one will ever know the emotions I cram.
Some say i don't understand,
That I don't get it,
That I don't understand you,
Well I do, I see you, I know you, I get you.
I've been where you are,
I've walked through the valley and back up again,
I've slept alone with my thoughts in a den,
I thought it would never end.
Day after day,
Year after year,
never shedding one tear.
I stayed strong through the worst,
picked myself up when i was about to burst,
I've let love go when my lust had thirst.
I am the shadow in the valley of death.
I may look like im the angel of life,
no one needs to see the black cloke i wear,
they just see my smile and short cut hair.
Well groomed, teeth clean, smelling good,
no one relizes there is something below,
a second skin, lying within,
waiting to be let out to show my real self.
but until then the angel of life is here to stay,
to tell you your beautiful and great.
Even the shadow inside me knows its not to late,
to show you what I see in you,
to rewire your battered heart,
to give you a new start.
to tell you that your not stupid,
that your funny and cute and deserve cupid.
I'm hear to listen and help,
even though you think I can't
I'm going to try my best.
Not as the shadow of death,
but the angel of life,
to give you happiness in every breath.

If ever the internal chatter threatens to cease
and the Clear White Light begins to encroach;
if the nail-biting, jaw-grinding, hackle-rising clamour
starts to give way to the humming tranquility of Truth,
where boundaries dissolve
and language lies in redundant, grateful sleep

Some internal reflex snaps me back into distraction,
relentlessly revs the engine
and spray-paints ugly slogans across
enlightenment's helpless face.

I used to resent this, and see it as a weakness.
Now I am profoundly grateful.
It's not the unfettered truth I couldn't bear,
it's the moral obligation to share it
when the dawn rises on another normal day
and you carry the burden alone
through careless crowds, wondering
what the hell
you're supposed to do with it.

Since I could remember
My heart has balanced
Along such a thin line
Of right and wrong
Love and hate.
The line already stretched
To the extremes.
Taught with fear and uncertainty.

Tension reached its maximum
When that day came 'round.
Ever since that day
When I learned the truth.
The day my eyes were forcefully
Peeled open by dull razors.
That day the line faded
And the tight rope snapped.

With no line to follow
My heart fell.
Now concussed,
Delirious and confused.
My heart wanders between worlds.
Never certain of who it is
Where it was or
How it should be.

-Kevin Robert Rose