"There's a Story in That"

There's a poem, a story, within every event and emotion.
Every word, phrase, quote, paragraph
Surmounting to a larger image that
Incorporates a person's mind and emotion.
Our diction like a recipe,
Scooping out words and mixing them
Til the order is a tasteful sound.
Letters march in lines, two by two, four by four,
Down the hole to the page to rest in sentences

Like obedient soldiers, saluting to the page,
Standing stationary for eternity.
Proud and strong, resisting the passage of time and weather.

Our problem is not that we lack a story
Or that we don't have one written.
Our problem is that no one wants to see

The lines of soldiers we command.

We know we have a story.

We can feel it within our bodies

When the tears won't come and the chest burns.

When our childhood passes like movie reels,

Remembering how great and shitty it was.

We can feel it in the tally marks etched in the skin,

Marking the days when pain was an emotion,

Too strong for words to express.

We aren't storyless, we write.

We cry in lines of ink that lay wasted on papers,

Rotting at the bottom of recycling bins,
Waterlogged by the rain.
Left abandoned in piles on the floor,

Chewed on the corners, being made into nests.

The tears scattering through the ally,

Flying on embers through the air,

Or floating in pieces to the kitchen floor.

We hold stories of hugs turning to fists,

Water into whiskey and rum,

The food scattered beside an upturned table.

We do not suffer from a lack stories.

We are constantly drowning in a sea of ink,

Holding onto papers that kept us afloat,

As they deteriorate into memories they recall.

We do not suffer from a lack of desire.

Yet the door to our voice has rusted shut.

Filling our cavities with ink that we cannot digest.

We do not lack the ability.

We have written, spoken, and screamed

Begging to be heard, to be saved, to be seen.

Only to find deaf ears and blind eyes

That closed that door forever.

We don't lack a story,

We lacked the people who cared enough to listen.