Wednesday, April 12, 2017

I'm Water In Your Cupped Hands

The intensity of your focus
- trying your best not to spill a drop,
makes your hands tremble
which sends ripples through me, 
pushing me further to the perimeter, 
further away from that comfortable center you've created for me.

Your head is down
- tunnel vision becoming hazy over time.

I seep through your wrinkled fingers, 
ebbing over the taut pads of your palms.
Your focus is waning,
and here I am straining to keep it all together. 

All at once,
I break.

I separate my molecules
and evaporate into the unknown.

You break down 
into tiny particles, 
and kneel at the foot of the shore, 
the brine touching your toes 
and streaming down your cheeks at the same time.

Not knowing
that in a three nights
I'll collide with your bedroom window sash. 
I'll gather what bits of myself I can find,
and catch your gaze during blinding lightening flash.
I'll find myself to your well, 
I'll rise to your faucet, 
and it won't be long until I'm in that glass on your nightstand.

I'll pass through you
- like an apparition stumbling toward you,
off balance and arms stretch out
seeking an embrace.

I'll leave behind
some kind of trace,
so you won't ever have to be alone. 


Jordan R Shaver 4.12.2017

Monday, April 3, 2017

True Story


She whispered "someone's in the house".

In one swift motion 
I went from supine on the bed, 
to gliding silently to the end of the hall. 

I took my family and wrapped them, 
bound tight and comfortable and quiet, 
and tossed them to myself 
already waiting at the bottom of the steps. 

I tucked them safely amongst the warm blankets of dust 
and hidden treasures, untouched. 

I ascended to protect all that I've accumulated 
and with no fear
I turn the corner 

The whispering shadows are still here. 

I honestly would've given them what they're looking for
if they'd just ask nice.
I still might 
but the primal urge to fight 
and save these that are mine is just too much.
 
So I break the quiet with a guttural HEY!
As heavy as a rock 
and as devastating as that stone being dropped
into the glassy stillness of a lake at dawn.

The silence is shattered.

And I hear the thud of their hearts hitting the floor.
I can count to a thousand 
by the time they re-center themselves
and try to figure out how to react. 

I'm two steps away and my hand is aglow.
Like a lantern
my face is illuminated
by the biggest fist I've ever held in my life.

Their demise is inevitable at this point.

I flip on the lights and apologize to my parents for yelling at them.