Copied from a blog on People of the Second Chance (POTSC)
I was driving home from a prayer meeting and reflecting on a a twelve year old girl I work with whose parents divorced last week. Got me thinking about how sometimes you’re desperate to find the right words to say to people. Whether it’s this girl or the homeless dude on the street or your friend who has screwed things up big time or even just talking to myself, sometimes finding words that speak light and hope and life is difficult.
Sometimes our hearts are wrenched from within our chests, trying to find their way into our mouths to say there is a second chance but our tongues can’t contort themselves into anything that resembles words. We just stand there flailing inside like an accidental skydiver or a mute with a song on his heart and the moment passes and we don’t get to say anything.
I want to say words that have some meaning
That bring some clarity to proceedings.
I want to say words like reconstructed vases
That issue speeding tickets to the minds of broken people
That shatter self delusions of the permanency of fragmentation.
I want to say words that invite citadels from quicksand
That call sprawling empires out of house fires.
And I want to say words like mismatched Lonsdale battles that smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
until you see stars.
I want to say words that fell lampposts and their fluorescent falsities
That summon darkness out of lies and summon stars out of darkness
Words that speak of burning fireballs more than streetlight bulbs that pop and die.
I want to say words that rip through flesh and shatter ribs
That grab hearts and massage to
Slowed
Down
Beats.
Be
Low
Res
Ting
Rates
Where
Oth
Er
Sen
Ses
Grow.
Where eyes see dances between aphids and ladybirds
Or ladybugs or whatever you want to call them.
Words that call for no names just descriptions
Of the glory of silken wings birthed from brittle shells.
I want to say words that pinch noses and breathe hurricanes into drowning lungs
phhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Words that explode cotton threads from stitched up lungs
That let lungs gasp breath and life and hope
That shake off shipwrecked ropes that hold anchors that weigh down light
And keep hearts heavy.
I want to say words that make folly of the now and mock the antiquity of death
That punch holes in mountains and erect floodlights in caves
Words that scream “THERE IS NO FEAR HERE.”
I want to say words that excavate a tunnel through the darkness
words like pickaxes and sledgehammer blows and furious hands
that scramble like desperate rats for cracks of daylight.
I want to say words that fail to echo, no walls for bounced back waves
Too expansive and eternal for nonsense like chains and padlocks.
I want to say words that say
We’re not done
It’s not over
And
And
And
I’d just like to say a few words.
That bring some clarity to proceedings.
I want to say words like reconstructed vases
That issue speeding tickets to the minds of broken people
That shatter self delusions of the permanency of fragmentation.
I want to say words that invite citadels from quicksand
That call sprawling empires out of house fires.
And I want to say words like mismatched Lonsdale battles that smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
That smack into your head
until you see stars.
I want to say words that fell lampposts and their fluorescent falsities
That summon darkness out of lies and summon stars out of darkness
Words that speak of burning fireballs more than streetlight bulbs that pop and die.
I want to say words that rip through flesh and shatter ribs
That grab hearts and massage to
Slowed
Down
Beats.
Be
Low
Res
Ting
Rates
Where
Oth
Er
Sen
Ses
Grow.
Where eyes see dances between aphids and ladybirds
Or ladybugs or whatever you want to call them.
Words that call for no names just descriptions
Of the glory of silken wings birthed from brittle shells.
I want to say words that pinch noses and breathe hurricanes into drowning lungs
phhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Words that explode cotton threads from stitched up lungs
That let lungs gasp breath and life and hope
That shake off shipwrecked ropes that hold anchors that weigh down light
And keep hearts heavy.
I want to say words that make folly of the now and mock the antiquity of death
That punch holes in mountains and erect floodlights in caves
Words that scream “THERE IS NO FEAR HERE.”
I want to say words that excavate a tunnel through the darkness
words like pickaxes and sledgehammer blows and furious hands
that scramble like desperate rats for cracks of daylight.
I want to say words that fail to echo, no walls for bounced back waves
Too expansive and eternal for nonsense like chains and padlocks.
I want to say words that say
We’re not done
It’s not over
And
And
And
I’d just like to say a few words.
