The Pearl in the Oyster

Souls stride with unbridled passion,

Beings coalescing into a society as

A heterogeneous fluid of

Raw, fearlessly flawed humanity.

Yet why is it

That we do not hear

Each other?

We walk in silent acquiescence,

Our minds unyielding as we

Forget to yell, mettle felled

By the eccentric ecosystem surrounding.

Why is it

That we do not see

Each other?

We see comely oysters in all

Colors, time-ridged textures, as the

Pearls of the mind

Erode, a slow slide into dereliction.

Why is it

That we do not feel

Each other?

The dusty gray populace drifts

With words of age to trade,

Stories, their denouements languishing

Lusterless and cloistered.

We write in inky filaments drawn

From the indefatigable diversity of

Human life, to calcify our inspiration

As a literary pearl in an oyster.