BrokenEchoes

  Today might not have existed Maybe it was merely an illusion Only real inside my mind Nothing happened There is no evidence it was here There were hollow hours  And restless sleep And pointless ambling And endless nothing It was not lived,  Barely endured By tomorrow morning Nothing notable will have changed Perhaps we can all agree That this whole useless day Was just an empty dream.

  We live in the future we feared We saw the signs We knew what we would see If we stayed on our path We walked on We knew the pain we would face If we didn’t make a change We didn’t change anything We knew how hopeless it would be Unless we made better decisions We pushed forward without thinking it through Now we live in the dark tomorrow That we foretold yesterday Just as we always knew we would.

  There are too many souls here Making too many mistakes Causing too much damage I wander among them Each with distinct scents Each with their own gait Each with individual nuance I wonder about them None of us want this We all want to leave But we keep getting in each other's way Making too many mistakes Causing too much damage.

  What was once a dream That lived in the dark cave In the deepest unseen part of my mind Now sits openly, visible to anyone Under the bright fluorescent kitchen light On the table next to the salt shaker How much further can it go? What other miracles will it perform After clawing its way into existence?

  It grew quicker than I could have imagined It started small and manageable I should have dealt with it then I should have addressed it, and ended it It has grown large now, heavy Its mass increases more the longer I wait I have waited so long that I can no longer lift it off me So now it loiters, taking up more and more of my life Compressing my chest, taunting me,  I am powerless to solve this myself No help is coming Soon I will be crushed Soon I will be killed Under the weight of this neglected monstrosity.

A chill frost crusts the morning grass And forms an impenetrable shell on my windshield I dread the cold and the wet and  the burning pain in my hands I could scrape the glass clean and have it done Or let the defroster work and have another cup of coffee I drink a second cup of the bitter brew  in the shadow of the foothills I drag the week’s trash down the treacherous drive To the curb, for pickup As the sun crests the mountain, It sets fire to the frozen particles  Clinging to the trash can A million dazzling glints on the black And I welcome the sparkling flame of morning.