While I smile

I build and build

Upon this wreckage

I place jewels upon

The splintered remains

Careful

Careful

I write this story in ink

My hands blackened

And tired

But the words

Are worth

The shade

As they banish the shame

And bring to life

A concept

I only dreamed of

Like sleep and sand

I gather

And the success

Drowns me

While I smile

The Cadence of Self

Sometimes I can’t breathe from all the grief

The deaths that came

Piece by piece

On tip toe feet

In choices made

In words that fade

In places that lay

Beyond belief

And still my gallows humor

A hangman’s game

Is the only reason I can say my name

And still my smile is tactical

This bedlam remains practical

And I am damned and blessed

All the same

All the same

I am shy in this place

Are these secrets often told

Still worth keeping?

Is the dreaming

Worth the sleeping?

When closed eyes

Are peril so sweetly disguised

Every death was

Piece by piece

Shall mine be?

No.

I refuse to go quietly

So I breathe

And leave behind the grave

Nothing in this world can be saved

Unless it wants to be