Rubble

Flashing arrows point all the way

Burning off the night 

X marks the treasure

And on my open palms appear

Patches of purple light

Love is a perfect circle

But ours has a gap that won’t close

In my latest sweet rejection

All I see is the child wanting

blindly grasped for an unknown shape in others

I watched my dad walk up and down the highway

Trying to find something

His bones rattling on the inside

And a voice easily panicking 

I want to ask him

Am I lovely?

I often forget to care for myself

My hair grows long and wild

Things get tangled inside

Sand, fingers, hearts 

We can’t all be happy

But we can be beautiful can’t we?

Beauty is the consolation prize

His wandering, searching, ever-changing philosophy

Like a bird that can never land

He taught me how to ask difficult questions

For the things that have no answers

But no one ever taught me

That he should love me more than I love him

And it hurts too much to think about sometimes

Somewhere on a mine in Mexico 

A child goes to work instead of school

And nothing ever gets better

When children support parents

It’s the kind of rubble

That falls through the gap

I can’t close

I always seem to be sliding backwards

Instead of getting any better

Someone tends to take

All the good I’ve saved up for myself