Brother

Life has become leaden upon my shoulders
As the days wear down and colors fade
That inbetween time where fall crystallizes into winter
And the world begins to echo with stillness

The taste of the season changes
As the world congeals into a mirror
And frost collects upon its edges

Brother

The great emptiness
Swirls around and down
Back behind my eyes

And the world seems a parade of ash
Marching across an endlessly vast plain
Of broken reflections and numb voices

Brother

The ache inside grows into a dull pain
The future's clarion call seems so far away
Even the small steps I must make this day
Seem to me to be those of a child in his father's shoes

There is so much empty space to fill
There is such a distance between what is and what must be
I have never known such a burden
As that between where I am and where I must be

Brother

I hope you will see me there
I hope that we will reach that time of golden dreams
Together, at our best, as kin

For now though I will inhale this cold air
And let my skin taste the bite of winter's whispers
And pray that the warmth inside my heart does not bleed out
And fade as the colors of spring so often do

For now, brother,
I am broken.

8:28 pm
09/08/08