Calm as the Lone Rose in a Garden
When the world echoes in one ear
out the other runs a voice
swinging in a flapper dress.
You have no choice to put on a show. Offs
any notion of peace.
And when they say, just carry on, the voice
runs a marathon of laughter.
It says, in a whisper haunting each step,
You’re an ant on a boot which walks the Milky Way.
Remember that. When you think you’re okay.
You try to scream for the red stop light.
But the voice careens mind,
metallic bits of self. Scatter, clatter, fall.
Bounce once. Bounce twice.
And they say, just carry on.
We don’t see any blood.
So you carry on, because the blood’s in your head.
Always there, dripping.
but outside you aren’t slipping.
It stays in the cave of the mind.
Stalactites and stalagmites grown through.
Waiting to spear you thrice the next time
you trip in life.
When the world echoes in one ear
out the other runs a voice
swinging in a flapper dress.
Your legs are not yet chopped. Don’t be weak.
Says the voice. The lights are up, the music started.
Just carry on.
Just carry on shouting to silence.
You’re only an echo.
A rose reflected in a camera lens.
