"They Gave Away My Dog..."

Empathy is seldom viewed as a gift by those that have and understand it.  

"They Gave Away My Dog..."

People do that -

yeah they do

and there are the reasons

all the reasons in the world

people

do things

for,

because,

and to...

And it isn't just for children

women, men, 

boys, girls...

teens - lovers, friends

classmates...

strangers.

Seems we earn

the price of admission

to the understandings we live within...

and re-experience things others believe as only dreams

- bad and worse.

Words hurt - and looks,

and hands, belts, sticks,

...silence,

guilt, innocence,

wishes, wants, the world as we live in it...

life as only we CAN live it.

People hurt us -

family - even "friends",

even ourselves.

Seems you don't just find strangers

or perhaps you thought you KNEW a now stranger

but really didn't even know your self at all.

I've lived the flinches...

hungry, cold, heat,

rain, rot and wet -

dreaded sound and light,

life and death

and prayers - answered and not...

the hand of GOD and how It 

"touched" and took e v e r y t h i n g

and every one and left

so many shattered me's behind.

What IS and ISN'T - really right,

wrong,

and the gray inbetweens - life

we live or not -

as any particular time may pause

and exist in a now that's all a me has.

And it isn't all just tears

- I know that

touch and feel that,

breathe and hold that so close and tight inside.

but the ...the rest... is so near

and neither is it forgotten.

God forgives sins

but we pay for them with every breath

each nightmare, daymare,

moments held so close they ARE our skin

each wish we believe,

each promise undone...

the fingertips drawn down life's chalkboard

echo and echo long in our

...distance..

Can you hear the heartbeats?

Do you ...hear...here... mine?

I do...

Chris

Author's Note

feel free

Reviews

[...]

I can never not be touched by you...

[jacob erin-cilberto]

that is such a truth with Chris' writing....i too am never not touched by his words.

[KLMazon]

This seems to really tie in your About Me blurb. Life's terms of service really can suck, especially when those who claim to love & now us are obviously operating under a completely different contract than we seem to have been handed.

[Ruth]

I hear...and feel...sigh...

[Cyndy Robinson]

Sometimes I hear "I wrote this poem this morning". I have never been able to write like that. I write something, and pick at it for weeks most times. Even after I think its done, I might pick it up a month later, when I am not so close to it, and pick some more. This obviously is a piece like that. It is very well written, thought provoking and very philosophical in nature. Very well done.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i do hear yours, Chris...have lived with the flinches, lived in the gray in betweens, in fact, spend most of my life there...

and have been hurt worse by family than anyone else...but the heart is still there, and it does still beat.

you wrote me...as you often do.

thanks for this write.

j.

[Corset]

you are amazing, the stuff "real" poets are made of, but there is still no way in hell I would be able stand in front of a room like you do and pour it out, but I can dance for you :)

[captain]

Its been long I haven't read you, Sir. I always find your words deeply profound in simpler approach, well done.

[Lyn Anderson]

Your words always strike me -- it is the honesty, and the subtle approach -- simple, yet complex, like people, like life -- very nice, my friend.

[B. Boileau]

I found this moving in many ways. And I suspect written by one who is at one with oneself...



bill

[Chris]

Thanks Bill, I appreciate your pause AND thoughts.

[Chozen1]

This was brilliant in so many ways the poem actually spoke to reader as they read through it.My favorite stanza was about God forgiving sins but we pay for them with every breath that is so well thought out and deep

[Chris]

Glad you paused and even more that you understood my intent to speak with rather than at...