Poetry & Art

Before, During, After

BEFORE

I should win an award

For how much I kept inside

If there was a medal for saying less

A ribbon for this mess

We’d take gold

For this winding, endless plight

For far too many nights,

I kept you hidden in plain sight

DURING

Looking in mistaken places

Holding too many faces

You caught me tonight

Falling through immensities

I’ll give the streetlights my confessions

And you’ll offer the sidewalk acceptance

All of our multitudes

Rest in the streets by the sea

Without the words to sort this out

The moon still wanes, the shoreline will fade

But I stand, lost in my doubt

When my eyes are slipping away,

Tired from the truth of this day

Long after your songs play

And there’s nothing left between us to say

In this dimly lit space, I want us to stay

AFTER

Let the edges of today blur

Into the coastline

Where we were

Lost in the light of day

Flickering to flash as I lay

Equally blind

As I am alive

Visions

While standing in a downpour

I found the last words of our story

On the cliffside of an observatory

All of those magic tricks inside my heart

Moving on, pulling it apart

Too busy pulling rabbits out of hats

You didn’t see me slip away

An expert concealed, a master at that

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