Line Division

An experiment in poetic form

I break myself apart by line forget the fluid moment

we are broken and so we mask the chaos with our words

match the emotion with song

cover the self with a blanket of sound with the comfort of sense

when often, there is no comfort only vacant

meanings:: images tensions:: signs

closure sweet closure

then, pause

an opening

to antithesis & pathos contrast & balance

don’t hurt me

don’t reject me

don’t hide me

beneath your signs like a monster under the bed

I am the music of language the loose stresses of personhood an open-ended question

ready to be tied into knots of sense for acceptance, as if acceptance were

a sonorous cadence, as in sleep propelling our meanings forward

then back in a rocking motion

toward hallucination toward a lift of the syllables out of regular speech

into a miracle

yet, we are lazy we slack off after a stress

we refuse tension fear it like a bug

discovered by

flashlight’s cold heat: soft luminescence

a leitmotiv — the soul’s identifying melody

stress me preach me to God defend my worth

scan me like I’m worth studying pick me apart from the bones iamb me, break me into pieces

number my words like the stars invite me into dialogue with myself

pronounce me like a prayer remind me why I’m here