moonshine

Imagine if instead of death,

We likened fire to birth

Kindling our purpose

To extinguish Hell on Earth

You see—I live in a world

Where we all fall on the spectrum

Leaving people speculating

Wondering if there’s a Heaven

Cause from day one we’re taught to hide

Those things unlike the others

Stuffing DNA frames with secrets and shame

            Gripping on to self-blame

            Cursing your name

            Jamming in bits of pain

            Getting tired of this game

            Convincing you I’m sane

All the while my soul’s been smothered—

in helixes

     here it is

     don’t exist

     if you insist

Craftsmen we’ve become

Building structures, casting shadows

Seceding from the Sun

Carving self-hatred arrows

Arrows for a martyr

            A repeated “self-starter”

            “Never gonna toss that garter”

            “Sister’s always been smarter”

            “Life only gets harder”

With each gouge you fall farther

                                                Down

A familiar fault line—

Reminds you

That the moon too

Has been known to shine.

And you never feared the darkness

No, you hid only from what it held

But, running from the smell

of a rotten mind can leave you blind

to all the light inside your shell.