Vulnerability

Vulnerability
is a price
you have to be
willing to pay
if empathy
is going to be
an effective mode
of intimacy;
to see the pain
of others
and not know it yourself
is like looking
at a wall paper
you will never buy.

But to feel it yourself
is to allow
a simple nod
to stand
for an acknowledgement
that travels deeper
than skin.


The slippery knots unwind
as slithering thoughts
bare the soul
of an experience
that requires
another pint of humility.

Caring is a trait
that we must have
to do the work
of living inwardly;
caring too much
is a step
that jaggedly refrains
a song
that should have had
a balcony
above the green horizon.

Speaking
as a heart
that breaking falls
into a stream
of golden rings,
the last thing
that the ceiling wants
is skies
that thunder brings.

Cascading lines
of meridian melancholia
milk the soul
of weight
until at last
the floating gardens
of infusion
stumble
on the floors
of self-reflection.

Darkness then
is a colorless closet
where the bodies
of the yearnings
stack themselves
to wait
until the wax
and tinsel parapets
of midnight strolls
have laid themselves
in dreams.

This is the way,
sinking, caustic
and foreboding?

I'll dance
upon a graveless dust
and travel
in the sand
but I won't ask
the dreidel if
it wants the other hand.

runningturtle87