Inspired by art

Just because you laugh, does not mean you're happy.
There are strings attached to every emotion you give.
What a gift you are to those around, living quietly, helping them.
You never cry on their shoulders or grasp their hands firmly in need.
You give wise words and envelope every one's pain.
But yours is quickly negated because you can not face it, you won't.
How long before someone notices you dangling there?
Suspended on strings of false happiness and pride?
How long before you just let go?
Would anyone even notice that you have?
But you are not brave enough.
So the story ends here.

*********



Closing my eyes I still feel the pain of waking up -
Or did I?
Conversation reverberates, I choke on tubes placed to aid breath -
Such irony!
A simple realization and I lose the presence that once haunted me -
Is she awake?
Deeply sleeping yet still aware and questioning -
Did this happen?
The beauty of sound jars me, brings me back -
A new location in time.
There is too much left undone and unanswered to remain ambivalent -
I awaken fully.
Renewed with life and the happenings of a new chapter -
It remains unwritten.

*********




Shaking hands travel skin, nails layered with polish, dark and imperfect like her.
Heated breath lingers accentuated by sounds only total release can bring.
She is coming undone with herself and by her own doing.
Fingers pulse deeper into satin, lost in the memory of his taste.
Her back arches, writhing in fading visions of long nights in whispered ecstasy.
She preserves the only positive memories of a lost relationship.
Held in the tangling of sheets around wrists on a bed of nails she occupies alone.

*********



Hidden tragedies
Lost faith
Innocence tarnished
Hope fades
Broken realities
Still beautiful
Inner power flourishing
--
Walk away
You have no right to linger
--
Waiting to prey
As she becomes whole again

*********