Industrial Arts

Sorry I drifted off. Some times the shadows catch up to me and drag my off to be lost, dazed and confused…

Here is my entry:

Water Cycle

she said my eyes were hazed over
lost in another place
not quiet back to us here
where was I?
where did my mind drift to?

my lids close
I am swallowed with the dark
I exhale and the putrid smoke
from my incessant smoking
billows out of my lungs
it fills the space around me
its tentacles wrap and snap
forming circles around faces
that jeer and jest
laughing at me
I reach out at them
slashing trying in vain to destroy them
to blow away the smoke
with a simple swipe of my hands
never do I get
to anywhere but nowhere
futile until the end

languid and limp
my body goes
I float above the pool
silently running
streaming out across the expanse
I hear nothing but the ripples
and my body floats nearer
and nearer until
I am as close as I can be
my nose almost touches it

my breath is what ripples it
my own echo is all I can see
then the pool goes black
and a monster reaches out from the depths
it grabs at me at the back of my head
and pulls me under
holding me there
as my lungs fill with water
and all the air from within escapes in small bubbles
I cough up my blood
everything goes dim

my eyes open to the glow of a fire
yellows and reds billowing up
wisps of smoke out the chimney
a fireplace of stone comes into focus
a wood floor comes into view
I am laying again beside her

covered in perspiration and sweat
sheets soaked through
my bones worn thin
my hallowed eyes look up at her
she is pensive but unforgiving
frowning at me
i look into her eyes
and it is me that i see
staring back at me
and i am frowning too
this mirrored self lunges forth and grows large
it claws at me and drags myself
back into the bleak watery pool
that lies within she
and with a splash
i am back
treading water up to my chin
sloshing about
looking everywhere about me
for something to save me

however slim the chase is
but nothing and no one
is there with me
I am alone
and I realize
the monster is me

lightning flashes
over me and off unto the distant horizon
the sky above me is a storm
I walk along a road
an old state highway
that runs a straight line from one vista until the next
two lanes separated by yellow dashes in a line
there are no cars to pick me up
I walk alone
my head down not looking up
rain drops from the storm clouds above me
tickle my face
soak my clothes
even my boots are squishy
I have had enough
so I scream up at the sky
why, why, why do you make me want to die?
and with a loud boom the rain comes down harder
and I drop my hands
put my chin on my chest
and stand there
the desert filling up around me with the constant raining
until everything around me is a dark dull blue
and my breath makes it ripple

Tags: poetry, thursday poetry rally