Stained Glass

I have my fair share of cracks and scars.

I’ve been silenced, shattered, frozen beneath a lake.

I’ve been through fire and storms,

Shattered and torn.

Yet even with all the branding,

I’m still standing.

With careful ears,

I tune in to the surrounding stories,

The whispered testimonies of hidden strength.

Not fixing or playing pretend,

I present a gentle hand,

Assuring hope followed

Everywhere they went.

Together, we fuse our shattered pieces,

The stains and the scars,

Molding stained glass, leaving long legacies,

As we live together ‘till our natural end.

Listen 3rd ed

Distraction like a dog

Hunting down a squirrel

Darting up a tree--

Chaotic barking all along the way.

Finish line blocked by a wall--

Arm's length away.

Mood like the swings when we were kids,

But dragging along the wood chips beneath our toes

Instead of soaring above.

Like a tree towering over a crushed flower,

But merely a memory

Of what trauma occurred before.

Box shriveled,

Wall blocking opportunity,

Throat closed,

I'm an artichoke,

Choking on what I need to say,

But can't.

Repetition like a

Broken record,

Broken record,

Broken record,

No record of an end.

Whirlwind around me,

So I hold onto the calories.

A tug-of-war between healthy and skinny,

Chaos and control.

Electricity screams,

Glow burns,

Small talk small,

Crowded conversation

A mess of a mirage.

If only they were to

Slow

Down,

Consider my different way of speaking,

And read what I can't verbalize.

My voice is found in the places it takes care to look

And consideration to hear.

Injury Invisible

I fell to ground zero, bombshell.

Shut down, nonfunctional.

Speech lost, unspeakable.

Memory wiped, unthinkable.

Words gone, unretainable.

Stamina faded, unsustainable.

Grades dropped, ungradeable.

Lapses relapse, incomprehensible.