I watch the words fall
Like raindrops
On a windshield
Slipping, connecting
Forming streams
And forging rivers
I watch the words
As if they were not my own
As if they came from
Somewhere else outside me
For I have lost them once
And sometimes the fear of silence
Blinds me
So I watch the words fall
Like raindrops
As if they fall from the skies
Though they fall
Unexpectedly
from my own
Gold specked
Bloodshot
Hungry
Eyes
I look into the glass
It is melting
My reflection
Distorting
Slipping
Like waves through my hands
A tidal wave
Everything is ephemeral
Everything is rice at a wedding
Trampled underfoot
The light refracts
With a misstep
We broke our mothers’ backs
It was a long labor
And the pangs echo
Like the end of the world
It is coming
Like a train
And like a tornado
Like the last rain
Before the flood
Three
Two
I do not battle
Sleep
In the morning
I do not battle
The sadness
Not really
My battle is
The darkness
Invisible
Masked
By the dawning
There is a trumpet sound
Unheard
There is a battle cry
In the silence
There is a battle drum
Inside us
While the deaf world
Is stretching and yawning
Yes, we hear the darkness
In the dawning
mind mandarins 