Between the Lines

written over Easter

We play safe, by the rules

Exchange permitted words

And colour within the lines

But sometimes I feel us strain

Against the cage that contains us

Against the world that withholds us

And something that was hidden shows

A shadow of a rubbed out word

 

Me, with my net and beady eyes

The word catcher, the sentence snatcher

I prowl in the jungle between

Said and unsaid

Seen and unseen

I piece my treasures together

To a web, a patchwork quilt

Of what was never said

And what should have been

 

Sometimes, standing opposite

Sides of the web

It is as if you know

Won’t you meet me at the middle?

And we can be ruined together

The weight of truth too much

And we are stuck in our sticky sweet words

 

But now we must comply

Obey. Follow.

We keep out words to ourselves

Eyes to ourselves

Bodies to ourselves

Yet only one word it would take

For our lie to dissolve to a puddle

And reality to come crashing down