broken warren
*My name, scribbled into the smoggy winds,
Never to be heard, seen, or sprout wings.
I spoke, I laughed, I choked, I adapted,
Yet I was shafted, never to be drafted.
Their drinks clink, stitched with soft serendipity,
Their legs, spirited as a storm, laced with light;
Why can't that be me, to take part in their flight,
To see past their gilded gates, in their crystal city?
Whisked into the wallpaper, only a background;
Thinking a thousand thoughts, a million plays.
Why's my body ablaze, eyes averting every gaze;
Drowned in their sounds, at the foot of frowns?
A voice, violet and velvet, trudging in viscous seas;
Blooming in corners, sinking in their soul seams.
A novel, unread, untouched, with a gold spine;
A song unsung, and a story skipped, lost to time.
From shadows deep, I watch as they glow and grow,
Like scenes of life I'll never know, with no home.
Sifting through sunshine, a breathing echo,
A fleeting thread, not quite dead, but unknown.
I ache to be a part of their art, to taste their desserts,
Of candy-coated conversations, of sappy relations.
Just once, I wish to be the spark, the shining star,
But I'm silent as stone, unclear, stark, and afar.*
junior marsh
astral shuttle
stiff magnet
ruby vault
past verge
misty shard
olive pumice
wispy flame
plucky vigil
sinful marsh