Truly Alive

their standards rise, waves descending over my head

in a crash of quiet,

rolling about in my mind as unsettled as

stars after the universe was angry enough to explode into life.

and maybe I feel a little too much,

extending my reach too far, over balancing until;

I fall into the crevice,

never to escape from

this dark world.

damp dreams and shattered mirror fragments that

bite into my heels, reminding me

of how far I have fallen, and how

the ground rises up, quickly

to meet me now.

I was never a good swimmer, and

I was never very afraid.

how can love be feared why should

love be feared?

I never understood.

and maybe it was never a thing of time,

or reason why.

just a thing of wonder, and the shock of life

as you breathe again.

as you breathe, alive.