Never

Never has it’s teeth on my Future,

gnashing deeper into the soft tissue of Psyche,

applying pressure to the two-cent-ply with its molars,

splintering Knowledge, making it a pyre for everything I thought I knew,

phantoms that haunted me with Hope.

*

Never has stalked me

for weeks,

first as soft Worry; brushing past as whispers,

depositing seeds without casting its shadow,

keeping me to the dark with Curiosity;

reality unfurling into seams of questions you chase but never catch.

Doubt, Regret; the twins batting the thread, coaxing them into knots,

then, while fussing with the twisted lines,

Never pounces, prodding,

pushing me away from all I know,

out into the open,

forcing me to see Fear on my face as I am paled with Epiphany,

horrified that I Will Never Be Anything,

that I Will Never Be Known -

*

I don’t know who I am,

I Am Being; an Existence Still Exploring Life,

like the galaxy,

like a craving,

like math problems,

like a person who knows what she needs to,

learning what she can,

and is spending her life

being better.

*

Never unhinges its jaw from my side,

round eyed,

defeated,

and pads home with its comrades

while I nurse wadded up, wet Truth with

Acceptance as a salve.

*

Art found on Pinterest.