One Eye Open
Look at my arms
And you’ll see the scars
Like stars
That twinkle in the light
Made with the blade
of a razor sharp knife
That I snuck inside this cell like cave
Room of wonders
Where I lied awake and wondered
Night after night
What it would be like to fly
And flee from all of the voices
That have tortured me
Memories I’ve since lost to the sea
The black like abyss; unknowing
Haunts my knowing
Of times I dreaded, now I miss
It wasn’t always like this
Until I dropped that bright pill
On my tongue
Swallowed down the red hill
Of my throat
Often hoping I’d just choke
But instead found a way to float
Out of the coat
Like skin
Is it really such a sin to find ways to
Blow my mind?
I climb and I climb
Out of the trenches
Making my way past
Their barbed wire fences
Just so I can leave
My senses
On a journey never far enough
To end up on a gurney
Only far enough to know
We all have a long way to go
Before I reach
The end of this road
And where the next will lead
No one will know
Before I go,
You should know,
I’ve lived my life the way that I chose,
One eye open
The other one closed.