"Proximity"

"Proximity"

The hardest thing I'll do
is think of how to look at you
and smile.

Honestly,
I thought it would take awhile
to place you in this setting.
Loathsome trials so unrelenting,
a dozen moments worth regretting,
a hundred miles and no forgetting still...

The door sill sealed
to these sound proof chambers.
Resembled infants in their manger
seeking refuge from it all
where the darkness crawls
and holes are punched in walls
and bottles are hollowed out.

There's nothing left to talk about.

Conformed to this routine.
Crush it all.
Burn it clean.
Stare at the steam and inhale vapor
then do us both a favor
and look away when you address me.

I've yet to perfect the task
and my masks are worn.
Most of them torn from my face
by hands that used to soothe.

Rather rude to norm:
The misinformed
but we are so very astute,
aren't we?

Nothing daunting.
You don't taunt me.
Terribly gaunt to be concise.
What you want you don't say twice.
You play nice until it earns no thrill.
The sudden chill of altered will
withdrawn beneath stints of indecency.

Life visits frequently
to remind us of that
which we try not to recall.

The fall.

Who stands to be victimized
if we both proceed to plummet?
Met you at the summit
on the very cusp of insanity.
How clear does one think
while pushed to the brink
dangling loosely from the edge?
Released my hand from the ledge

but the descent felt like a lifetime in the making.

Found some distance.
Captured grace.
Lasted briefly until your face
found reason to incite me further.
In a murmur I have cursed you.
By virtue alone I am thrown
yet I survive this fall
albeit with broken bones
and I still have not received levity.

You lay there next to me.
Blood you swore you'd never taste
has gravely disfigured your face.
Can't turn away and you lay there.
Sufficient to say that we'll stay here
and my difficulty will remain true:

The hardest thing I'll do
is think of how to look at you....

...................and smile.

Written By: Devin Joseph Metz