midnight mumbles • poetry

b r e a t h e

i stand before you
my heart open and my soul bared
and wait for the screams of horrified mothers

"avert your eyes
before it's too late
before the dripping of blood
and secrets
sears itself into your eyes
burning like a candle
beneath those innocent lids"

i stand before you
speaking of all i have and all i want
sometimes i put my head under the water
just to feel what they had to gain by falling

"stop trying to breathe
the water gets into your lungs
the more you want to live
the faster your lifeblood kills you"

i stand before you
but can they?
they who bared their souls too far
and tried to fight the hardest

"we lost all the fighters long ago
it's the ones who are willing to sacrifice
who are the ones we need to live
don't watch them give it up"

i stand before you
and my eyes tell the stories
of the flowers that were so pretty they were killed
now in place we have the thorns

"isn't it ironic?
how those who claim to love the flowers
and the first to preserve life
are the first to kill what they claim to love?"

i stand before you
and i ask
why were humans built to love
if we were also built to die?

"everything hurts so much more"