Loneliness
It’s a feeling we’re all familiar with
But have you heard
Of lonely satisfaction?
It’s the feeling of newly unwrapped presents
The chill of first snow
The scent of your lovers sweatshirt
Found, tossed aside, in the corner of your house.
Lonely satisfaction is
Coming home from vacation
Or 501 pm on a Friday
It’s things accomplished
But a future
Not yet materialized.
There are times where life
Shows you the road not traveled
By resurrecting
Someone you dated
At the most awkward of times
Those jarring moments
Are the fates little tricks
Nothing to do but laugh and
Steer clear of their gaze
I stare at the screen
My eyes crossing, contacts dry
As I try to paint
Using only words
Some words are sharp, some pointy
Others are vivid
Like a 1972 VW
Others are dull and sticky
Like hour old chewing gum
What’s true about words as art
Is there are thousands
And if they connect just right,
They create not just art, but action
And drama that invokes real emotion
Yet somehow writing is also…
Isolating
Because the art is real
But invisible
Storms in the west
Floods in the south
We’re watching it happen
But shutting our mouth
Record heat in the east
And in the north too
Shaking our heads
What’s there to do?
Nothing can change until we make it so
Revolution is coming
And lots of sorrow
The intangible weight of life
Is laden with excess woes
But made light of strife
When unburdened from a closet of clothes.
It’s never enough
You can work – or stay at home
You can have game nights
And family dinner
You can take an interest
Or give them some space
But no matter what
To a teenager…
It’s never enough
Mild, summer evenings
Bring bubbles of joy and chaos
That float like pink clouds
Across dying grass
In a rush we talk over
One another
Not because we’re not listening
But because we’re trying
To steal extra minutes
From a waning day
Who’s jewel bright light filters through fluttering green leaves
“Hurry,” it whispers. “The day will soon sleep.”
So we spill our stories
Incomplete as the broken light
Their shards reflecting our smiles.
Inevitable.
A word we use
And we overuse
Inevitable
We say; knowing that our friend
(Who’s boyfriend we don’t like, by the way)
Had a stormy break up
It’s never surprising
It’s inevitable
When a perfect movie star
Gives birth to the most perfect baby
Who’s perfect silver spoon lands them
Directly in trouble…
and it’s filmed.
Inevitable.
When the earth makes another trip around the sun
And the morning stretches and the night yawns
And it happens again
And again
Until you’ve seen 10,000 new days.
Except. It’s not. Inevitable
That the clouds will fray at the edges with that shade of pink blush from your mothers fake leather make-up bag
That same shade you’d smear on your finger and pat on your cheek until you’d made a hole in the powder.
And is now inexpertly lighting up the western sky with the same bright intensity as a two year old in her mother’s
Cheap fake leather make-up bag
It’s not inevitable
That the stars will look like that Pearl necklace of your grandmas that night in eighth grade some boy named…
Brandon
Kisses your cheek during the firework show at a theme park.
No.
Because it is not.
Inevitable.
Plunking piano
A chiffon haze fills the room
Muscles stretch and tense
I rise on my toes
A ballerina wannabe
Watching professionals
And rising
800,000
The number of people lost
In the pandemic
Double World War Two
Almost triple World War One
These are civilians
Selfishness led here
American pride and greed
Is this “real” freedom?
We are held captive
Capitalism brought down
Because a virus
And…of course…because
Some refuse to help others
…get vaccinated.
Hipstory 