Ascend

Three months now, things have slowed down
A life turned upside-down
Self-inflicted? Perhaps, one could say
Only helped me understand the way

It feels to deal with cumbersome silence
To bottle up with such quiet violence
Reliving days I thought long past
Only to become amassed

An Atlas with six worlds on his shoulders
Entombed with stress-filled boulders
How much can really be held
Before these weights shatter the weld?

Does he dwell on the abyss
Of ones he truly does miss
The same who can't return to say
'Everything will be okay.'

Same name shared
Yet decades compared
A soldier to the poet, save
For words on the flowing wave

Long more than he could see
Somber strength and soft plea
That one day the poet will pride
And shake the world with a tiger's stride

Cast off the shackle and weight
Accepting the very fate
Future, bright like a jeweler's fine steel
May the poet feel --

Safe in his place
With tears down his mother's face
As no one else may
See things that way

So worry not, for days inside
Are where I can best confide
Being true where it matters most
The only place I can boast

Of warm welcomes and love
When push comes to shove.
Too safe? Perhaps.
Stopping as time seems to lapse

Worry not for silent musings make
Strength in ways that will never break
Priding the soldier with his pen stronger
Maybe now, lasting longer.

Author's Note

Open to review!