Too

many times we close
our eyes to life, to living
not wanting, believing,
seeing what is there,
is us, is the things we are
when we don’t know
who we are but we
close our eyes, seeing
smudgy grey darkness,
we create little pieces
of emptiness…shards of
forgotten dreams, we
build shadows with our
eyes closed,

and

ignoring the
good, the bright, the
happy, the moving forward
head up smiling life we
want…we build shadows
because it is safe, it is
silent and comforting
…knowing we are going
to fail-die-dive into nothing
because building shadows
makes us not real, not us;
we are masks and sheets
of black obscurity hiding
our eyes from the light

but

When we open our eyes
we destroy darkness, we
cancel shadows…it is
a million watt brightness
casting, streaming, burning
away the grey smudginess
burning away the down,
the denial…we shine a light
with our eyes open, with
our head up smiling this is
life as it is, we destroy
shadows when we open
our eyes, we live when we
open our eyes…we

are.