Another exceptional piece by Candice! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 🙂
~~~~~~~~~~
June 14, 2021 The Feathered Sleep
All those little malices
By all means ignore me
or dissect me
it seems a parody of contrasts
is my lot
the interplay of intensity and nothingness
for you who climb out of the woodwork and carve my freedom on your belt
you who look away after one glance and do not consult your back mirror
the gaze of this world exhausts me
I want to wade into the deeps and swim off
away from the noise of competition, egos, alarm clocks and paleo diets
to something resembling peace
then
that fissured part of my soul
fractured by time, strife and the religion of need
surfaces breathless
and sighting land, swims back
filled with a longing to be heard, touched, ratified
by those mercuried, humid hands of humans
the lovers, the haters, the players
I can’t pretend to keep up
I am tired beyond my years
trying to understand what makes people break others
why our penchant for destruction, lying and vilifying
is the healthiest hothouse flower of them all
as much as I want to climb inside silence and stay still
my ear pressed to a shell
listening to a fantasy world
I know now, as I am no longer a child
that wonderlust is only for the very young
who inhabit it with such unbridled glee
that we adults stop what we are doing, however important
and watch with indulgent smiles;
as wet and laughing
they dash through sprinklers
shouting
“The dragon got you! Get to the Faraway Tree!”
in that moment, I wish we could recall
what potion we drank to enable us to believe
such kind places ever existed
where, like glossy rubber boots we left at the doorway
all those little malices would fall off
and not muddy the floor
