Tag: change

Running In Place

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They are building a new house in my local park.

I have been running there for a whole year,

Been tripping over my shoelaces in the dark.

And I have no problem admitting my fears –

Change feels like a burden to me these days,

I am too afraid to ever hold something dear.

The sun keeps showering me with pity rays.

They tell me that headlights killed the deer.

Happy tears roll down my face like on cue,

I overstress about how I seem and appear.

You know the feeling, I really hope you do,

Because for the first time I truly need you here.

It is not a rut, it is not that I have grown blue.

I just cannot run on empty for another year.

-JW

Blue Collar Trash Roots

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Photo by Danielle Pilon from Pexels

There’s a rush outside of this building, there’s a lively carnival playing.

Everyone who was enjoying my smiles no longer wants to be staying.

I understand how I’ve done them wrong by being my raging self.

Changed my skull thrice for their viewing pleasure into a heraldic delf.

The curtains are taped to the floor but I manage to shoot a single stare in.

Thousands of on-loop rebels cheering while white noise on earphones is blaring.

Eardrums collating their lack of skills in one washed out pantomime folk tale.

I pull on the curtain to fasten my blue collar trash roots in place like a forte.

There’s a rush outside of this building, there’s a lively carnival passing.

Everyone who left is better without me – jaywalking or trespassing.

-JW

Father’s Day

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Photo by Belle Co from Pexels

Youth leaning over the half-built walls is not that upsetting but don’t turn away.

If you grew up when metal curtains were burning, there’s debt you need to re-pay.

You’ve been the dead horse beating back for far too long, and we’re not playing.

If you don’t want to listen to your children one bit, please know:

For this party you’re stuck in – we’re not paying.

I learned a thing or two from my daddy on smiling while playing deadly or dirty.

The lessons pour out of me as I’m wiser, they won’t stop until I’m far in my thirties.

Makes me wonder – what was it in him that made so many lost souls scared to death?

But then I remember how horrified I was when for a second he was my only safety net.

No backstabbing or second thoughts in that mind, only going straight for the kill.

So if I could see through his petty lies, don’t hold me back and ask me to shut up

Until the very moment my heart is perfectly still.

Let the youth lean on the same fences you’ve been holding up for many seasons.

Let the youth learn how they were props that you only kept in place by threatening

To charge every challenger for treason.

-JW

Building A Lullaby

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The perfect balance does not exist on a faulty planet

And destiny keeps playing drums on polished granite.

The rhythm section is not coming along as planned.

It sometimes scares me – here we stand

Just to end up as few grains of sand.

I try to amplify the echoes but they all fall flat on the ground.

Plastic crates, even metal cages do not resonate the sound.

The lurking chords are getting wider with nowhere to go

So I talk in my sleep while it snows.

At least my nightmares have something to show.

-JW

Trigger

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No longer noticing airplanes over your house, it’s lonely these days.

The sky is empty. Only two pink clouds and a few lost sunrays.

Used to imagine that planes were stars guarding your thoughts.

Wished on a shooting hope but it didn’t work.

Horizon is covered in blank spots. A goddamn mirage.

The view out of my window seemed picturesque back then.

For a stranger passing it looked like a dollhouse, time and again.

Now the walls are too pale and the dust settles on my skin.

I’m pulling my hand away from the trigger so often –

Not often enough, much to my own chagrin.

The sunset feels Photoshopped, and I don’t know what to say.

For the first time I wanted to take your hand, I wanted to stay.

Now my foolish body is filled with butterflies with nowhere to run.

We might not have the stars or the airplanes, and screw that –

I really wish that I’m still the only one.

-JW

Scarlet

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Photo by Murtaza Saifee from Pexels

Our city is burning up in flames with ashes bringing it closer to heaven.

The place we reinvented from scratch chases me in dreams. Was it the haven?

I yelled at you for being rude and you dragged my ego through carpets –

You held my hand, we stole pamphlets and I painted the room scarlet.

Letting it go means cutting my chest open and pulling out the remains

Of what was once home to our passionate laugher, to hurricanes.

I can’t keep myself from asking – why does this feel like the end?

The truth will chase you down one day, no matter how much you bend.

Don’t worry, the ocean in me is swaying peacefully, I will take it easy.

Once you leave, I’ll pretend that the imprints you left on my lids weren’t greasy.

-JW