Thursday, July 20, 2023

to crash on the rocks (poem)

I do not fear the rocks
this ship's hull is full of holes and I sail on
out towards the roughest seas and tempests
so the crashing waves may escort me to the depths
beyond the touch of the light.

There, I will descend into dark familiarity,
that wretched place I had learned to call home
in a life now dead and half-forgotten.
I go in search of something I left behind,
a part of myself whose cries echo through the deep.

Down there, where the whispers are deafening,
I will retrieve a heart broken and crushed
which once desperately chased the lights of the deep
directly into the jaws of unseen horrors.
This time – we will ascend instead.

Reunited and whole for the first time,
I will climb back out of those whispering depths,
their allure now faded and weak to my ears.
I will crash through the waves and greet the sky,
drag the current back to the shore.

Then, you will see that I have changed.
reforged by sky, sea, and flame,
I do not fear the rocks, the abyss, goodbye.
Let this ship full of holes sink out of sight;
I will welcome another horizon.

-Zero

Thursday, July 13, 2023

eyes like black holes (poem)

I yearn to succumb to the pull
to gaze into your eyes and see that look
the one that threatens to crush my heart

overwhelmed by self-preservation, I look away
to linger is to be sucked into your depths
into a vast unknowable abyss lined with desire.
I heed my fears, yet still I wonder:
what cosmic truths would the taste of your lips whisper
could I hold onto myself with your arms around me
or would I slip into the embrace of madness
and witness this fear as fanciful lies
built on the proclamations of those too afraid to look?

And yet, despite it all,
I let myself succumb to the pull
to learn all of your cosmic beauties.

-Zero

Friday, July 7, 2023

do butterflies know fear (poem)

I learned to damn my heart's flutters
to suspect crushes as demons in joy's clothing
a sweet taste of self-destruction
every spark a house fire with me trapped inside
screaming screams only I could hear
but maybe it doesn't have to be that way

maybe the flutter of my heart could be a butterfly
prancing through the air with what short eternity it's given
with no disguises, no masks, no pretense of more
cast away on the wind, let me drift on the wind
every spark another updraft to carry me away
into joys that I was too afraid to know.

-Zero