words

avoiding eye contact becomes priority above all,
at no cost shall we stray from this principle
as ancient as time itself.
the space between us clouded with thick plumes of smoke
like the aftermath of some great tragedy,
the silence unmolested save by the hollow voices
of dead heroes lamenting their fates to the wind.

the ghosts of our pasts hang about like vapor trails
refusing to die, suffocating the air with a toxicity
known only to the species of our calling, profound
in its simplicity yet overwhelmingly intricate,
vines of self-deprecation that choke the life
from our sense of stability, our will to breathe,
our belief in a higher power and a purpose to existence.

still no acknowledgement, our hearts vacant and depraved,
lips that burn with so many unspoken words.
much is lost in this stalemate between reason and feeling,
time the ultimate cost of our abstract communication,
for the heart may bear witness to such downfall and recover,
but the hours cannot turn back and heal the memory.

we burn in these moments from fires once started
can never be controlled, even through the realization
that every passing moment brings us closer to the end,
we refuse to let those flames die, and the silence
we create destroys far more than we may ever truly know,
still we avoid each others gaze and fill the night with smoke.

-S.C. Martinez