Please Dance with Me (Poetry)

BOOM!

The barbed light

pierces the night.

The raindrops braille the dirt.

Like a tree that’s struck

my mind is cracked in two.

“GO AWAY!

NO!!!

PLEASE STAY!!”

Eyes shut, face crumpled,

my mind screaming so loud

I collapse to the ground,

hands covering my ears

to drown out the sound,

that no one else can hear.

On the outside I look fine.

Hair pulled into a ponytail,

face expressionless,

though my eyes are waterlogged,

tired and sore.

The light cracks again,

like a whip slicing my heart.

My body jerks back

with a painful yelp.

I fall halfway down.

I’m on my knees,

back arched.

My eyes to the sky —

The light shows me

all I wish to hide.

What I want to run from:

The emotions I cannot bear

to keep feeling,

to keep living,

to keep experiencing —

Amy, keep breathing.

It’s dark again now.

I am the storm,

so why does it hurt me?

The dark grey clouds cover my mind,

thoughts colliding like sound waves.

Boom! BOOM!

Dissipating with a violent rumble.

My thoughts are my enemy!

How can I harness this energy?

How can I take this electricity,

and re-route it into positivity?

…

I can journal.

I can write.

I can push out truly

terrible rhymes.

I can draw.

I can breathe

until the storm passes

and calm finds its way

back into my chest.