Nothing is so tantalizing an emptiness
when plated against this cornucopia in time
eyes as full as stomachs
intestines balled up in knots
more discerning than the rest of us;
once, the way out was through

               It can’t go on like this.

A broken kaleidoscope is chaos;
where order was found
compartmentalized and mirrored,
now those borders are gone
the colors bleed – running
blindly into each others darkness
no longer unique – or isolated
a singular malady of the spectrum.

                It can’t go on like this.

Our voices war with the silence
raging against the rocks that choke our shores
calling out to be heard
to declare, “Once the way out was through!”
but we all speak in tongues coalesced as cacophony
and the horrors of the world demand, “listen,”

                 It can’t go on like this.