Month: January 2026

You don’t believe in me
Regardless of the names
I have been called before
God miracles peace even love–
If you believed
You would have come here
To bare your soul
Now this is just a
A safe place
To put aside
The armor you wear
Check your wounds
Even though you’ve
Convinced everyone else
You’re unbreakable
Here you allow yourself
Doubts fears tears
If only for the moment
I’ve heard you talk to yourself
To urge yourself forward
I’ve seen you sit silently
Slowly eating a meagre meal
I’ve smelled the ale and antiseptic
You treated wounds
Of spirit and body with
How long can you
Keep this up?
You fight an eternal war
Only allowing yourself peace
Out of sight of others
At an altar
You don’t believe in

The hip beat
Has me tapping my feet
As the lyrics
Candy coat my soul
In complacency

It’s hard to escape you
Your influence is everywhere
Everything has been predetermined
Daily rituals dictate my days
I can’t skip any services
I can’t just walk away
So I have to endure
Don the robes
Wear the beads
Of a believer
Memorize prayer and mantra to
Tell you what you want to hear
Because I have no power
I cannot defy a deity
If everyone believes in you
Work should not be a religion

Keep on going?
Not much to look forward to
Just more words on a page
Who am I showing up for
Backing myself into a corner
Audience already left and
I’m still onstage

I wish doubt
Was a feeling
Easily forgotten
Not chains
Wrapped around me
I daydream
Happiness is
Something I look
Forward to
Instead of something
That frightens me
I hope longing
Turns out to be
A shortening of sorts
Like getting out
Of a shower not
Escaping quicksand
And maybe
Despair becomes
A folktale and
Loneliness
A campfire story
Because I want to be
Entertained not to
Live any of it

Ask you a question
Without a voice you answer
Hands pinpoint letters
Spelling out long sentences
Ideomotor effect?

Check out the “MeThespaceYou” YouTube channel

to see video recitations of “The Space Between Me and You” poetry:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMC-gbkVdiFSHBN-1rV2x9Q

Getting in the way
Trying to make an impact
Taking actions to change the status quo
Cannot tell if things are different
Rinse and repeat I don’t really know

Can you see me?
Parchment attests to my worth
As well as actions backed by sincerity
But nothing seems to work

Can I affect my surroundings
With the tools I have at my disposal?
Are good intentions loudly spoken
More forceful than any modest proposal?

Will I nudge the universe this or that way
Just so I can achieve my agenda?
Will I reverse the curse of inaction
Or will my first official acts be undone by referenda?

Action wrought from thought
Birthed with insistence
Resisted by other actions
Permutations defied by perturbations–
I am overwhelmed by what to do next

Given up
Listening to you
Because the words
You say aren’t real
Raw and unedited
Just agreeable
Sound bites
Tape-delayed

The only way
I can love you
Is through
Deception
Sprinkled in my chores
Subtle gestures I hope
That make you wonder
Box of candy moments
Uncertainty yet
Playful surprises
A radiant smile when
I serve your meals
Fresh linen touched by
Jasmine musk sandalwood citrus
When I change the bedroom sheets
Bite sized compliments
I’ve planted in and
Pickpocketed from
Our brief conversations–
But when I clean up messes
I stumble a bit and
Remember my place
The particles I wipe away
Every day when I work
My heart
Disintegrating
Piece by piece