at your own risk

the ancient boards crack and chip
sending splinters into my heels
bending and bowing and
creaking with every step
voicing the growing threat
of giving way beneath my feet

red paint peels on the sign
Cross At Your Own Risk
one life behind me, another ahead
two worlds, separate and connected
one at each end of the weathered wood
gingerly supporting my weight

this bridge is condemned
too many it has tempted
and betrayed to their ruin
like the land it leads to
they let it fall into disrepair
to keep us on one side

and so I will burn it down
for I am tasked with its destruction.
As I test the strength of another plank
I cast my eyes forward and back
wondering, when I light the match
which side will I choose to stand on?

as the rose-colored lenses break

Star signs above us, moving us
towards destinies no one foresees
Beyond a veil of whispy sky
the moon looks down, a watchful eye
and here I am alone again
with the pain beneath my skin,
candles painting portraits on the wall
All the moments that made me fall
were just the shadows that they cast
a parlor trick from the past
The fortune-tellers say to me
They see the waves beneath my feet
but above the stars to which I pray,
the rain that waits to wash away
all the horrors that were left behind
There's a whisper in my mind
"Someday you will smile again"
and one word choked out: when?
but the wind just answers through the trees
as the zodiac shines down on me.

heads & tails

the future is two-faced
shiny and bright
but much too full
of lonely nights.

but

I am so grateful for you,
but...
there's that word
little good ever comes from it
so let's leave it at that:
But.
there are too many of them anyway

don't judge man by his actions
but his motives
we are not made of our choices
or our mistakes
we are made of the reasons we make them
and what we learn from them

duality

in some conversations
there are two planes
the pretense, the face value
and a hidden underworld
of thinly veiled truth

you can fall in love
in a single
starlit moment
and fall out
just as quickly
but love
love is a subtle dance
that takes years
to perfect