Words Thrown Together on a Lonely Day

Millions
looking for an escape;
an excuse
to rise
into inky darkness above,
where many have gone,
but none returned.
Space
some call it.
Some call it heaven.
Whatever it might be
it is
for sure
a happy place.

Delusions.
For everything above,
is empty.
Plain old,
same old
emptiness.
Permanent happiness and comfort is
but a myth,
therefore heaven it cannot be.
And although light breaks the barriers of vacuum,
it does eventually burn out;
for even the sun one day
will turn black,
letting silence and movement
prevail.

But emptiness.
How does one break silence
where neither light
nor sound can travel?
A place that exists
in abscesses and absences,
in humiliation, and in grief,
in scars and bruises,
in tears, and in halfhearted smiles.
It chokes you,
hurts you.
Escapes
are then found
not above but deep within you,
definitions and rules,
nihilism and rebellion,
highs:
some controlled, others extreme.
Whatever’s your poison,
come pick.
All masochism.

And when everything below you dies,
you will rise.
Emptiness will kill you,
and emptiness will become you.
And you will rise.

For we all do:
the tiniest and the mightiest,
the meekest and the bravest,
the ordinary and the extraordinary,
we all rise
only to fall and shatter.
Or worse,
fade.

---

One day
your touch will liberate Atlas
of the weight
that he carries.
And as you watch him,
watch him weep,
touch his back.
Caress the bruises
that have been left on him.
Apologize.
Explain,
that we had nothing to lose,
and nothing to gain.
Run your fingertips
along where
our weapons of war
scarred
and where our tears
seared
his flesh.
Hunger for the pungent smell
of blood;
our blood
that lingers
on his skin.
Breathe in
all the pretty little lights
that crashed
and burned
his hide.

And when his eyes
meet yours,
beg his forgiveness,
and laud his patience;
his rage will never leave him,
so praise his control.
Stroke his ego,
listen to him scream.
And when it’s all out,
kiss him,
and watch him turn to stone.

One day,
when your touch liberates Atlas,
look him in the eye
and tell him you will stay.