Bruise

you wear your heart

on the inside of your sleeve

you dream of humanity

inside your imagination

you feel the pain

inside the walls of your heart

you speak the language

inside your muted tongue

you have music in your eyes

dancing inside your toes

you transcend complexity

inside the fibers of your being

you scream in the middle of the rain

inside that dry, cozy room

you cry in the middle of the desert

inside that fast-moving crowd

 

you’re like a bruise

just below the surface

painless until reminded

 

you’re like a simile

you’re like a metaphor

you’re like a word

I’ve never heard before

you’re like a star

you’re like an asteroid

you’re like a heavenly body

not yet mapped in the constellations

 

you’re like a book

you’re like a poem

you’re like a single page

with all the answers

 

you’re like a rock

you’re like a rose

you’re like a forest

at eye-level with the atmosphere

 

you are the black hole

you are the sea

you are the coming dawn,

 

and you are me.

4/21/09