Friday Poetry 8.9.13

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I See Dying People

I am surrounded by children these days
There are so many hiding in nakedness
Crying out in disrespectful retorts
Begging to be seen for who they truly are & loved in spite of themselves
They scream laughter because they don’t know how much they hurt
They don’t want to know
They are afraid to look at their own brokenness
See how scared they are
Of being left behind and looked over
I see them like scenes in a horror film
Long drawn faces of despair
Beggars in a marketplace
Covered in dirty lies and smeared makeup
Scars of lost time and lost hope
They are dying, shouting as they suffocate
Can I come up for air?
Don’t leave me behind!
See me! Save me! Love me!
I am surrounded by the beautiful young
Free in body while bound in mind
I am surrounded by their absent looks
And their rage against hopelessness
Tears behind rolled eyes
Afraid to speak, because they have so much to say

A Dream in Prose
A few weeks back, I dreamed of a girl I know. I woke up crying with the joy of feeling overrun by love. After meeting and talking to a young woman on 8/7/2013, I see that there was more to my dream than I initially realized and I would like to share:

The young girl came into the room where I was talking to someone. As she did in the past, she came into the room with her arms out, waiting for her hug from me. Her hands were balled in fists, as she was holding the ends of her shirt in them, so I embraced her, thinking nothing of this ritual. I tried to let her go, but she had buried her face in my left shoulder and was silently sobbing. She didn’t want the other people in the room to see, but she couldn’t hold it in and she thought I was safe. So I held her secret cries. I held her and stroked her back and kissed the top of her head (which was covered with a white bandanna that had multi-color dragonflies on it). She and I stayed like that for a good long time, and she just cried and cried, and I just poured love into her, rocking and rubbing her back and squeezing her tight. From my shoulder she said something into my ear. I heard it clearly in my dream but I can’t recall it now. It was something about wanting to do this for her daughter someday, I think. I said something back, and it was the ‘right’ response, but I can’t remember what it was.

Yours Truly, Summer 2011