who are we?

who are we?

are we a mountain of dreams or tragedies?
a pile of screams and tattered teeth?

who are we?

a young man’s kiss only to exist?
to subside?
to resist?
a temptation of bones and skin?
or a wrinkled, capsized sale of him?

a begging cry to the pity
living inside your empathy?
living beside your proximity to the sunken eyes
a liturgy for your hollowed flight

who are we?

the voice rattling
buried in your skull
when you lower it
when you count the swells
your clicking tongue
counting echoes bouncing through waterways of your lonesome mind

he must have sung sometimes
pushing his calloused hands
and you would swish your socks to make the falling sands
and would she hum along
clucking on blocks of wood
knocking through her throat to resonate

but when the fingers changed
to gnarled scraps of torched iron that scraped your back
branding you to forever shake
and forever bleed
waiting for the gong to swing

who are we?

the silent swirl of a body grown
cleaning out holes that were left alone
when the rhythm fills in the cuts left inside
when the rhythm fills in the caverns’ sighs
and she cowers sometimes
covered up
when her fists fly through the spinning air
and the blinking beep
and the spinal shake
but she stretches out, meows and stops the shake

and with a whispered strength
she said goodbye
let go of years of anguished lullabies
welcomed in new life and a chest of dreams
said, “i forgive you, sir, though i still can hear her screams.”

who are we?

i was grown before i learned to walk. and my hungry belly taught me to talk.
and on the backs of warthogs, the throats of men
i left my song with bits of thread
i gotta job that keeps me up at night
another job to keep me looking bright
another job to keep the baby fed
and another job
i got no time to sleep
so if you gotta minute, do you gotta minute? do you gotta minute?

sometimes i wish i wrote the epilogue before getting stuck inside this twisted plot
but my daughter’s got my eyes and she smiles now
so i got this warehouse job
and i got this other job to pay the bills
and i got no time to sleep
because when i fall asleep the shots ring out
and when the shots rang the ground was glistening
and when the shots rang out out no one was listening
and he screamed and screamed; no one was listening
and why do you sing if no one’s listening?
and why do you sing if no one’s listening?

and i say

we are a bunch of sprigs tied to each other’s wrists
we are a sunflower bending in the wind
and your brother’s scream is in my throat
just as the rainclouds spoke

and your teeth and bones break as the dandelion
who is just a weed
and she feels her stem break
and she cries out a melody
to your cracking sound of flesh

and as the water pulses in and out
you are a rebirth of a drowning house
so we sing to let our demons out

for we are one heart

and i say

someone is listening.