Indigo

Close your eyes and breathe deeply.

Fight the sleep for a moment of reverie.

Feel the fuzzy blanket cloaked around your shoulders

on a crisp autumn night.

Watch the flames dance around the bonfire pit

and flicker up towards the burgundy sky.

See the sparks become one with the stars

and yellow leaves float down to merge with the fire.

Close your eyes and breathe deeply.

Feel the thick sweater tucked under your coat

on a cold winter evening.

Watch the first snowflakes of the season fly around you

like fairy dust collecting on your sleeve.

See the bustling town under a bright pink sky

lit up by a twinkling gleam.

Close your eyes and breathe deeply.

Feel the sun break through your windows

on a fresh spring morning.

Watch the curtains dance in the breeze

At once refreshing and soothing.

See the first signs of life break through the sheets of ice,

fly through the trees, and run by without warning.

Close your eyes and breathe deeply.

Feel the warm towel draped over the mounds of sand

on a hot summer day.

Watch the water roll along the horizon

while the clouds drift by in a daze.

See the grains of sand stick between your fingers and toes

Have you ever looked inside of your junk drawer?

In the middle of the night when the house comes to life

And you’re not really sure what to look for?

Deep in the back of your junk drawer lies…

A small button that fell off a sweater,

Its once-shiny gleam dulled to unremarkability,

Lost and forgotten, long since replaced by a spare.

An old pencil you used to make art with,

Now snapped into a stub, eraser rubbed down to the nub,

Reminiscing on unfinished masterpieces.

A solid rock you’ve stuck googly eyes to,

Once thrown at you in hatred, but caught by you and painted

In discordant colors that now nauseate you.

A half heart in the shape of a pendant,

Chain tangled up from going in circles looking for love,

Water’s amorphous figure rises up from the horizon,

Reaching up to kiss the sun.

She crashes onto the shore for a moment of rest

Before sinking back to the secrets of her deep-sea trenches,

Where she oversees creation and destruction

Some people walk around with a chip on their shoulder.

Others carry a Burden as heavy as a boulder,

A scaly thing with pointed teeth and a sharp tongue,

Talons digging into your chest when you speak too much,

A cold, raspy voice keeping you up at night,

And glowering eyes glaring back at passersby.

Its tail wrapped around its keeper, tightly wound,

I’m blending into my surroundings,

Floating with whatever finds me,

Trying hard to find a way,

If not to burn, to freeze the pain.

Slowly slipping, fading fast.

I’m losing my grip, slipping into the shadows,

Watching the light die away at the gallows,

Losing track of all my senses,

Shutting down my sharp defenses.

Slowly slipping, fading fast.

If efforts fail, and hope deceives,

Will you still leave a place for me?

A footprint marks a memory,

But still gets washed away by sea.

I met Hope once in a daydream.

I was curled up in the corner,

Trying to block out the storm that was

Raging around my fantasies.

She appeared as a graceful light

Floating in the palm of my hand,

A translucent beacon lighting

A path through this Stygian scene.

The warmth of her voice extended

Into my soul as she weaved tales

Of those who've tried to mute her song--

A scared little fairy

Who can’t fly away,

Her wings tied down

By the laces of the mask on her face

Made of glittering gold

To match the shine of her skin

And secured firmly

To keep her magic within.

Her spindly limbs wrap tightly

Around her delicate heart,

Which flutters when the ground shakes

From the footsteps all the people make

Around her. The buzz of a bumblebee

Feels like the roar of a Thunderscreech.

The glowing light of a firefly

Like looking the sun straight in the eye.

At night, her flimsy voice wails

For all the outrage she sees,

And people shut their windows

To block out the clamorous crescendo

Of the wind rustling through the trees,

So she’s stuck in her captivity.

In a world too big to navigate,

From the Earth sprang Life,

Born to love and serve the land,

To live in harmony with its leader.

But then Life bore Man,

With no strength or flight or speed,

Just the spirit of ascendancy.

To compete with the wilderness

And survive among the chaos,

Man stole knowledge and fire from the gods.

In the light of this flame,

Watching the shadows it casted on the walls,

He thought he saw the truth of who he was.

The fruit of their wisdom was bittersweet,

Revealing his heavenly soul and godlike wit,

Trapped in the body of a mortal beast.

Enraged and frustrated in domesticated boredom,

Man threw the fruit into the fire,

Which promptly set the Earth and Life ablaze.

Later, sitting in the light of his incandescent bulb,

Man finally saw the truth of who he was

A man sat at his workbench, devoid of ideas.

That’s when a fairy with blue hair appeared.

With the wave of her wand, this muse gave him the spark

That only ignites in a true artist’s heart.

What he couldn’t have foreseen would soon overwhelm him.

The world fell in love with his brilliant creation.

His brainchild now hungered for worldly indulgence

And set out to meet the public’s endearment.

Alone in his cottage, the man kept creating, but

Nothing outshined his grand magnum opus.

He sat counting the stars through his window one night,

And pondered the life span of such fleeting lights.

For what wonderment can a spark truly bring

Revel misfits

Share a first kiss.

Start the games now.

Let’s all play.

Lost inside your

Fantasy, you’ll

Count your worries

All away.

Make a wish and

Blow it out. Then

Don’t be scared to

Walk away.

The flame’s gone out,

So don’t look down.

But watch your step.

You’ll be ok.

I couldn’t find what I needed,

And you walked through life like a stray.

You took my hand and led me to

A place where we couldn’t stay.

But you didn’t know how to be there,

Closed your eyes and had nothing to say.

I held on too tight for a season,

Watched the skies up above turn gray.

Even lost boys and girls need a reason

When the darkness of the night fades away.

Pixie dust wears off, and all highs must fall,

When the Titans created Man, there were no gifts left to give him. So, Prometheus, in pity, offered all he could find: the knowledge and wisdom of the gods and stolen fire. Man sat in the light of this fire, watching the shadows it casted on the walls, and thought he saw the truth of who he was: a heavenly soul shackled by the limitations of this world, a godlike mind trapped in the body of a mortal beast.

Although he had no sharp teeth, no strong muscles, no gift of flight or speed, he sought superiority over the creatures created before him, for surely, he had received the greatest gifts of all from the gods above. With fresh vigor, he jumped up and set out at once to conquer the land, to use his gifts to make living in this wilderness as easy as he could for himself. Using his wits and his fire, he produced the greatest and the worst of inventions.

In the new world he created, separate and unrecognizable from the wilderness he came from, Man now sat in domesticated boredom. So, he turned his dominating spirit towards testing the limitations of his own body. He started with sport: how high could he jump? How fast could he run? Restless still, he turned to greater exploitations: how little could he sleep? How hard could he work before he collapsed?

You’re sitting in a smoke-filled tent,

Bursting with the anticipation of the crowd around you.

Lights circling the arena land on three rings in the middle of the stage.

In the first, a young girl spins a long thread,

Her eyes wide with wonder and excitement,

And the audience shares in her joy and curiosity.

In the second ring, a woman measures the thread.

She carefully watches the joys and sorrows of life play out in the colors of the thread dancing and spinning in her hands,

And the audience is enraptured.

In the third and final ring, an old woman quickly cuts the thread

With no regard,

And the audience sits in solemn silence,

She’s in too deep,

Living in a fantasy,

She’s getting carried away and wandering astray,

While searching for the truth in a world of masquerade.

She sits all alone and tries not to suffocate

On the waves of the emotions she’s trying to keep at bay.

And the clouds get darker as she falls through space.

She’s a foreigner,

New to this unholy earth,

Scars still burning from the battles in her mind

With demons so intertwined with the story of her life,

She can’t leave them behind.

She’s stuck on the day she crashed into the grime

Because the stars she was charting misaligned.

She’s a secret spy,

A quiet observer of life.

She’s been waiting for the day when the world would know her face,

Praying for a chance to make her great escape,

Looking for a love to bridge the gap in space.

Tired of chasing stars when all their lights just seem to fade,

She’s waiting for destiny to call out her name.

I took the blow

When I tired of this whole show.

I got lost in our faults,

And now all of my thoughts

Are running away from me, dear.

Was I crazy to think

We’d come back from the brink

And for better or worse

We would make this thing work

When you don’t see me standing here?

Should I just take your word

When we both don’t feel heard,

And we’re sick of the darkness?

Is this where we part?

They all say that the end is near.

Here lies the dream

That we’ve given our lives to feed

And the mourners don’t cry

So, we just say goodbye,

She weaves her twisted web of wonder,

Sweetly lulling him to slumber.

As he sleeps, she steals his dreams,

Injects her poison into the seams

Of his quilted cocoon.

She confides in him the verities of this life’s abuse.

Their needs now interlinked,

She opens his heart and starts to drink

Away the essence of his soul,

A cordial that always leaves her wanting more.

Left with a lifeless husk,

Where the mountains meet the sky

On a cold December night

Is where my spirit met your eyes.

A tale as old as time,

A story told so many times,

I don’t know which parts are true and which are lies.

All I know is that you grabbed me,

And I couldn’t fight your gravity,

And you said you were meant for me,

But written in the stars, I see

That we were never meant to be

And terror was our destiny.

But soon I was addicted to the pain

That came from your embrace.

You filled my cup with poison,

And I still ate from your dinner plate.

I tried to play your twisted games;

You tried to make my spirit break.

There’s just one thing I can’t contend with:

Would I still be twisting in your rapids