These fine lines we dance around
Are dangerous markers
this self imagery is damaged
and deformed
this morning.
Too much alcohol
Too much stress
To many late nights
Too many things to detest
Crawl to the bathroom to scrub it away
Convince ourselves we shall never drink again
Mirrors are useless
They tell us nothing about ourselves
Only that we age
The answers are in others words
They know us better
And can single us out from the herds
That gather
Waiting to push us over
For their own self satisfaction
They kick you when you fall down
Mock you in the classroom
Lay seeds of insecurity

My hands were made to pick me up
But I need someone to hold on to
For this pit is too deep this time
Be mine
And pull me out
Far from the line I worry about
The louder I shout to you
The more insecure I am.

Be worried if I’m silent
For then I may be gone for good

And the ladder you dropped down
May have rotten wood for steps
Im scared im going to break it,
Damage something you made.
its rungs, slippy
these lungs, tired when they exhaled your name
only so many times we can ask for help
Before the wolves cry

And this once solid voice yelps a murmur
-I have taken her and interned her
She is my prisoner now in friendship
And I thank her, but she never knows it
And we both dance round the lines
Which stretch now, to the horizon
As far as the eye can see

Look at all the insecurity out there.
I’m scared.

I have brushed with  the silent
looked internally at them all, read books about it.
And I see on their lines are built walls,
To keep the monsters out
We occasionally teeter over the parapets
As though life is no mans land
And there they are, with sniper rifles
High velocity assassin’s
Never asking, just firing away
At the unfortunate.