Status Updates From Gratitude: Two Hundred Shor...

The desire tonight
Is for something
To take
The pain
Away,
To loosen
The beast’s grip,
And give a moment’s
Peace.

Over the years
We have become
Less angular,
Smoother, like rocks
In a river,
Aligned to time.

The squall left the street
Mirroring neon colors.
Traffic was slow as pedestrians
Emerged from offices
With visions of family
And early evening plans.
I picked up speed,
The city released its grip,
Buildings got smaller,
And I took one last look
In my rearview mirror.

As a boy, shadows
From headlights played
Menacing games I
Watched on my ceiling.
Strange sounds heard
From the floors below.
Unable to sleep,
Stuck until dawn with
No one to hear me.

The square refuses to square.
Geometry won’t add up.
Logic has surrendered and
The puzzle has rejiggered
Its ultimate solution.

Wisdom
Surrounds me
But it speaks
A foreign
Language.

Dawn’s light across
Summer’s valley as
Life reawakens. We have talked
Through the night,
Defying sleep,
Unresolved.
Quiet returns.
This day begins in
Beauty and sadness.

I am a rowboat
Loose from its mooring
Adrift on the lake. I will wash ashore
In some wooded cove
Having found a home.

We are mired
As adversaries
Through an
Endless night,
Stomping
Our structure
Of sacrifice,
Leaving
Too little
To salvage.

I stumble,
Second guess,
Rethink
Fall short
Feel guilty;
All perfect Imperfection.

Time takes from my body.
People take from my strength
Until I am hollow.
It’s then I determine
I have always been whole.

I have walked miles on
A trying path to
This pond at sunset. Two deer arrive and
Looking up, see me, But stay, not afraid.
They understand more
Than I ever will.

I step into the now
To see what I can see.
I find beauty and pain,
But did not expect how
Quiet it is, and filled
With possibilities.