you have a soft face
and a breakneck smile
seen one way
only to turn and be another
fractile and shifting
like a prism of a million cuts
get used to one color
shift to 100 others
you see the rainbows all around
and claim they come from others
                
               in the wrong lighting
               prisms are colorless

they spoke of a future
full of hopefuls and maybes
their voices are soft in awe
pitched and fast
with frequent pauses
inventing what could be
laughing like it can never happen
laughing like its nothing serious
laughing like they haven’t dreamt
every night of this
and that to admit is like admitting
a guilty little secret

i. i am gentle
the sort of gentle
thats slow and soft
but does not yield to touch

ii. i am fluid
my core is solid
i am swirling around myself
at any given moment
yet my gravity is centered

iii. i cannot be contained
to try is to lose me
hold me and i will
drip through your fingers
and solidify elsewhere
call me and wait
or do not call at all

iv. i am gone
i am miles ahead already
always somewhere else
at a point i have not yet reached
too impatient with Now
to linger a moment longer

a sorrow all consuming
swallowing my limbs
rendering me still
for now
till it spits me back up
and rests
while I make up for lost time
to do all i can do to
move a little farther away
before it swallows me once more

where a storm brews
where the crows linger
where the people know them
but not by name
far away from where they had fallen
long ways away
from where they will rise once more

for now
they sit in the corner
of a place they love
building wings from feathers
left behind by the crows
who stare unbothered on the road

the first pair of wings were too small and ragged
a thing of pride but no structure
not meant for flight but holding them gave hope

the second pair took years
knowing the basic formula now
each feather painstakingly placed

the third pair was an experiment
a challenge to push the limits
to use instead of the pristine second

the fourth was a throwaway
born of desperation and frustration
with these they flew and fell
  
the fifth pair was a copy of the second
but fine-tuned and reinforced
and with them the crows left