The Poetry Marathon

You never could not be lovely.

It’s just your nature.

Whether holding up the globe or

or ensuring the kids are all right,

you’ve always been a force of nature.

That’s why I’ll love you the best I can

& deservedly so.

It’s a way of life;

anything else would just be unthinkable.

& long after the sun burns out, it’ll be irrelevant

because you light up the world.

That’s just your nature

& you never could not be lovely.

It’s always been one of the best ways to escape.

Whether collecting coins while jumping on mushrooms or

stealing someone else’s vehicle for our own amusement,

it gives us an out.

With endless possibilities, it’s not hard to see

why parachuting onto an island or trying to gun

down the enemy has enticed so many from so

many walks of life,

surrounded us

& binded us together.

The long, winding road never felt all that welcoming;

it just keeps laughing at you daring you to deviate from

its preordained path.

it’s the half-mile marker when all you want to do is

get to the finish line,

the ostentatious distraction when you need to finish studying.

Carry on & keep coming up with excuses.

That’s what they say. I know we’re here to become

something; it just doesn’t feel like it.

But at the end of the day,

we’ll get high, find our own universe,

& shape it to our will.

& when the time comes for us to

walk through the pouring rain,

we’ll select our last words & prepare

for catharsis.

So it begins.

Sun comes up alongside the blue.

as mortality tries to force itself on you.

Don’t know why;

don’t know when.

We come back to ourselves

& then

wonder what comes next.

Do we waste away in margaritville for the foreseeable future

or let it waste away in us?

When all is said & done, you can’t

help but wonder what was all this fuss.

Maybe it’s just the universe

trying to have a good day

or maybe it’s the rest of us

trying to find a way

but i think we owe it to ourselves

to see what it has to say.

When it feels like your own age is

insufficient, where does that leave you in the

grand scheme of things?

Do you try to pander to the adolescents or try &

blend in with the tedium?

There must be a middle ground somewhere;

you just have to make sure it’s stable enough to stand on.

Keep on flowing no matter how they try to stop;

they are irrelevant

insignificant

in the grand scheme of things.

So let it flood & we’ll be behind you

ever step of the way

They hid in the sand back in 2016 &, look, I get it.

We didn’t have the best choices but that does not mean

your voice has dissipated. It must be heard lest we spiral into anarchy.

That’s why this time around, you need to come out in full force, get your head

out the beach & let the world know what you want the future to look like.

Square one was always the runt of the litter

but then again we all have to start somewhere.

The longer we traverse, the more we become wont to

it all; every last bump & crack in the long-neglected pavement,

the shrubbery on all sides that generously provides shade on those

sweltering dog days.

It’s all a bit much but there’s no such thing as being too prepared.

In the middle is mostly hinterlands, not much to see apart from a few

tumbleweeds & the siren song of the long-abandoned wolves pawing their

way through the desert. But it’s only a temporary setback on the long road out

of misery. In the blink of an eye, you’ll arrive at the terminus, sprawling as far as the

eye can see. That’s when you’ll realize the road was the answer all along.

That’s what we said to ourselves on that day.

We would not let the universe get so close to the

brink if we could help it. & we have

thus far

whether that keeps, though, remains to be seen.

In & out

as unintentional as anything else in this godforsaken existence.

Back & forth

lest you drown in your own insecurities & shortcomings.

Up & down as you take it all in stride & keep holding on

Side to side while everything around you starts crumbling

Diagonally as you struggle to cope with what existence has become

Left to right until you can’t anymore.