Signs of Life in Suburbia

 

Insomnia

12:00 a.m.

I watch sooty shadows

Dance across

Silent walls

The pale glow of streetlights

And passing cars

Causing a pattern play

Of black and white.

3:00 a.m.

Row upon row of darkened houses

Lie in quiet repose,

Each dreaming their own version

Of a Martha Stewart life,

Alongside mine.

But as I awaken from

This dreamscape

There is a longing to break out

Of this Blue Light Special, 

This K-Mart existence,

To fly up and out of this 

Sanitized, polished world,

And touch the bright-hot incandescence

Of shooting stars,

To fall back down 

And feel the fine-grain sand

Underneath me

And the cool sea-wind

Blow against my face,

And feel the warm blood

Rush though my constricted heart.

The Sum of Equations

As I sit here 

Black pen in hand 

Shards of memories

Fragmented thoughts

Fill and 

Overwhelm me

Long

To spill out on

Searing white paper.

To know that when I was

Added

To the sum of all equations or

Subtracted,

That the difference 

Was an equation that mattered.

That my rock, when hurled 

On to the water

Caused ripples on the 

Smooth sheen of my world.

Daily Grind

There are some mornings where

I am so weighed down with

Misguided thoughts,

Unnamed fears,

And unkept promises,

That to face it head on

Feels insurmountable.

A need to hide

From the day’s eventualities

And escape that persistent  gray 

That clouds everything a muted shade

Is so strong

That apathy sets in

Slowing down the senses

And tying me to my bed.

But that TO-DO list 

Forces me out of that

Heavy bed

And forces me back into 

The daily business

Of living.

Chemical Reaction

When I look back

In time

At the chemical compounds 

That made me,

I hope this:

That I was a cause and effect

Chain reaction

Wrinkle in time

Chemical combustion

Splitting atom

Force to be reckoned with

A life used up…

A chemistry set blown up…

Seaside Introspection

Why does looking out 

At that liquid reflection of sky

Refreshes my soul?

And why does the crash of waves

With their ebb and flow 

Soothes those racing thoughts?

And how does that sea air

Act like an astringent

Cleansing out the hurts and cares

Of day

Leaving me raw and wide-open?

My Space in Time

There are spaces in time

Where boundaries

Have become permeable

Where then and now meet…

***

In the mirror I blur at the edges,

Like a candle whose wax

Slowly melts.

A face that was once a 

Blank canvas

Showing subtle brushstrokes,

A slow metamorphosis

I barely recognize…

***

In the quiet of the night

I see my children’s eyes flutter

As they move around 

In the maze of a nightmare.

My heart aches for them

Hoping to absorb their fear

Wishing I could take it away…

             ***

I lie next to this person,

His face achingly familiar

Sometimes glimpsing moments

Of the stranger he once was,

But then the image fades away

And I remember who he is 

And who we are together

In the fluid spaces of time...