Grow Gray With Me

The fog that hides the day as night retires,
shades of sunlight grasping for purchase
struggling in undulating swirls,
hoping to find in ambiguity, some purpose.

The rising darkness from the depths of fire
billowing into the night to throttle the stars,
like open mouths cradling soundless screams
or the profound words of a dead man’s memoirs.

The way a tree feels when bound to expire,
stripped of all its lush extravagance
the machinations of a world that brought it life,
now turned to break it beneath those same elements.

The slow pyrotechnics of stagnant air’s attire
sustained in sanguine starlight while time drifts away,
held like the pot won in a game of marbles,
careful hands celebrating their display.

The decisions we unearth in quagmire
seeking more an end than a right or wrong,
transfixed by distant familiarity
the difference lost in the chorus of the song.

The way our histories resurface as satire
courage marred by fear, the bold now timid and pale
those truths that hide in the present revealed
once pitted against the rest and placed on a scale.

The thoughts that in twilight give cause to perspire
when the permanence of absence is paramount,
trickling through the cracks in our confidence
though it is only ourselves we need to surmount.

Tithonus

I want to scream
to yell out against the wind
to accost the world before me
    condemn those responsible
    curse myself too,
I can’t.

I want to rage
to lash out against that stone wall
to become violence upon the leeches
    take by force my fair share
    fight for life until death
I can’t.

I want to collapse
to fold on myself in despair
to make myself small
    diffuse into the static background
    become less than what is needed
I can’t.

I want to live honestly
to breathe the fresh air of clarity
to rest on the laurels of defined purpose
    move through the world without restraint
    act as the situation dictates
I can’t.

I can’t in this climate
so I’ll just wait