Holds Me In

It all seems so fitting
looking out at the shining light
that tries so hard to spread so far
but only barely penetrates the doorway
through my momentary attention
So fleeting is the hope and optimism
so crushing is the weight and the dark
so enveloping, so overwhelming
and yet the world outside looks so bright
only footsteps out through the threshold
just out of reach of all but my eyes
glittering like fool’s gold
bathed in artificial rays
taunting me effortlessly
as I struggle to find it
despite it being there
before my face so clearly
I look but cannot touch
no matter how I try
Surrounded by the stench of failure
the darkness holds me in

Once and Who Knows If Again

Funny how the mind works

as time slips by beholden

to memories brought to mind

at the wit and will of some

grand design we’ll never understand

A stray electron fires

and suddenly you’re surrounded

by the ocean waves crashing around you

tearing at the sand

and the pitter patter of raindrops falling

as you hang back from those

that fate bid accompany you

when she was the only reason

you are where you were

A face, a name, a memory

that hasn’t crossed your mind

in what might as well be forever

flashing bright into your vision

You smile in that old nostalgic way

as a moment that meant so much once

(and yet so little overall)

fills you with a melancholic reflection

of what was and is and might have been

all at the whim of certain chance

a fleeting glimpse of another world

a lost time and place

once and who knows if again