All Bark

Why do we continue fighting? Life seems to want to find a way, to preserve itself, to keep us going even when we feel like giving up. Is this a Darwinian imperative? A hard-wired evolutionary bent? Is it merely instinct that forces us back up after the world holds us under? Sometimes it feels like a natural tide, a pattern of being brought back to life after a long dark Winter.

Hope is a memory

Held agape

Splintered gaps cracking

Escaped gasps collapsing

Lungs ache

Tongues slapped against teeth

Finding words

Instead of ghastly grinning

Deserted lips

Twisted leanings

Learning tips

To pick up pieces

Tripping in starts and stops

Upside down

Infrequent distortions

Backwards pops

Find a place by the river

Quiet where the ghosts can't speak

In whispers or riddles

In the dark or in the deep

Written in bark

Higher than sight

Growing like weeds

Reach for the light

Find a place in the forest

Sorry that the world can't see

Interminable separations

In a once peaceful sleep

Digging fingers

Higher risen

Wisps like ripples

Ripped like scissors

Bringing broken things

Paper torn

Mind un-mending

Left abandoned

Back to life

With Darwin laughing

Turning over

Hungry cackling

Fuzzy edges

Fudging fringes

Fearing few options for

Staving the melancholy off

Gathered thoughts

Tied up in knots

And would haves

And never ever could haves

Each breath a new sound

Rhythms and cycles concussive

Immolating these melodies

In repetitions percussive

Hating the haze

It keeps uplifting the gates

Coming for a final visit

To the names on the graves

In the water now

I think it's even in the rain

A rising tide and it lifts all ships

Despite all the holes I've made in it

Making the arrangements

Hoping this coffin will capsize

But I think I've missed the forest

And forgotten my own tree

Relearn the words

Re-memorize

Re-seal the lungs

Re-cauterize

Find a place, re-resuscitate

By sunset I'll be right in the head

No uses in forgetting

I'll be right back up

All Bark

Hope is a memory

Held agape

Splintered gaps cracking

Escaped gasps collapsing

Lungs ache

Tongues slapped against teeth

Finding words

Instead of ghastly grinning

Deserted lips

Twisted leanings

Learning tips

To pick up pieces

Tripping in starts and stops

Upside down

Infrequent distortions

Backwards pops

Find a place by the river

Quiet where the ghosts can't speak

In whispers or riddles

In the dark or in the deep

Written in bark

Higher than sight

Growing like weeds

Reach for the light

Find a place in the forest

Sorry that the world can't see

Interminable separations

In a once peaceful sleep

Digging fingers

Higher risen

Wisps like ripples

Ripped like scissors

Bringing broken things

Paper torn

Mind un-mending

Left abandoned

Back to life

With Darwin laughing

Turning over

Hungry cackling

Fuzzy edges

Fudging fringes

Fearing few options for

Staving the melancholy off

Gathered thoughts

Tied up in knots

And would haves

And never ever could haves

Each breath a new sound

Rhythms and cycles concussive

Immolating these melodies

In repetitions percussive

Hating the haze

It keeps uplifting the gates

Coming for a final visit

To the names on the graves

In the water now

I think it's even in the rain

A rising tide and it lifts all ships

Despite all the holes I've made in it

Making the arrangements

Hoping this coffin will capsize

But I think I've missed the forest

And forgotten my own tree

Relearn the words

Re-memorize

Re-seal the lungs

Re-cauterize

Find a place, re-resuscitate

By sunset I'll be right in the head

No uses in forgetting

I'll be right back up

All Bark

Comments

Subscribe Form