Alone in the Crowd

A profound problem prevails
Not of drugs,
Alcohol or sex
But of attention.

With lack of stillness
Abandonment of eye contact and listening
Value is lost
In the one on one.

With quality misperceived
Defined by quantity of ‘likes’
Distances traveled
Selfies with monuments.

This scarce commodity
Briefly given
Desperately craved
Now sought for in the unlikely.

These gadgets abundant
Handheld to worn,
Closer than keys
More valued than currency.

What have we become
When what we need
We’ve found in a mode,
Which serves only to perpetuate the disease.

With false sense of belonging
In a crowd yet alone
Hoping to be heard
Yet not a word is exchanged.

“Pictures are worth a thousand words”
But today we cry
No more pictures!
Just give me a moment
And few real words.

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MT

Give up!
Lay down!

Clamber the sounds,
Words, thoughts
Vibrations.

“Let the dark flood
Surround
Drown out
The very last speck
To feel the pain”

It lies and lies so well
The dark, there is no escape!
The dark speaks
Rages!
Eating away
Any glimmer of hope.

Yet fleeting rays
Tiny threads
A reach
A grasp, then a plunge

For dear dear life.
Head hardly above
The murky water of thoughts.

Slitting eyes sense a beam
Light carrying warmth,
Familiarity, union beyond this life.
Co-exist they cannot
Light and dark.

Yielding to the moment
The presence of a ticking time,
I find
I am
Still I am,

As the life carrying force
Brings me through
Dark to light…

Wounds

wounded

Punches and slashes
Blood fleshy wounds
Obviously seen
Thankfully curable
Such is the open wound

Yet deeply seated
And quietly throbbing
Constantly pulsating
Aching in the darkness
Are the hidden wounds

The injured and all
Know of the fleshy wound
Horror and dismay
Sympathies abundant

So unfair and opposite
As the more painful invisible wound
Is known to none
Sometimes not even the victim

Buried below
All the layers that hide
Dormant and dangerous
Brewing to erupt

No healing possible
‘Til painfully peeled
Layer off layer
To expose and feel

Excruciating and voluntary
Only the brave can attempt
No infantry can protect
And lonesome is the quest

Not knowing the magnitude
No knowing of balms
Unbearable to share
So left alone in despair

The gloom so dark
The weight so heavy
What recourse is left
Than to crumble and fall

Yet the urge to survive
With the need to thrive
Any reprieve from within
Begins the mighty climb

So open those wounds
And scream and fight
‘Worthy am I’
‘Survivor am l’

Acknowledge the wound
Dissect the making
Denounce the pain
Throw off the shackles

Freed from the vice grip
Having conquered the trials
Release your greatness
And rise in your flight