We are only people

We are only people,
We tie our hands to straining beasts,
That promise only stretching goals,
Elastic expectations, Self imposed.
We cannot reach, We are no good.
We fail at what we set ourselves,
We cannot measure up.
So stop and sit and be.
And hear the voice inside release.
Let go the ropes that pull,
The one tied to what was,
The one tied to what won’t,
The one tied to the other you,
That whips the fear within.
Sit and share the tears and tears.
Stop and sit and be.
We are only people.

When?

When she looked she saw the same old view,

Different faces, even different places,

But still the same.

Still the same.

The breath inside her drove up and out in a sad exhalation,

Unplanned, unconscious, unthinking,

disappointingly irresistible.

Again they told her things have changed,

Its a brand new world, glitter strewn and crisp.

Whatabout, they said, remember when.

But she saw nothing fresh,

she looked hard, so hard,

there it was, not what she wanted to see, but there.

But we dreamed, she cried, we hoped,

You claimed to be on our side, we stood together.

Be patient, you said, the time will come.

But when?

Are we insignificant?

Sometimes I feel so insignificant,

When I look out across great horizons,
See how simple water shapes monumental lands,

A breath of air cuts rocks to ribbons,

A few degrees smashes our hardest endeavours.

Sometimes I wonder whether we are just hitchhikers,

Parasites crawling through the coat of this planet,

Irritants yes, but specks of sand easily blown.
Insects with exoskeletons grown from misplaced pride,

We make this world twitch and writhe but for how long?
We dig deep though, rooting our egos in the earth.

Sucking nourishment from its core,

Hammering piles into its substructure,

Fighting to control its rhythms, regulate its pulse,

Make it beat to our time signature.

If we cannot make it dance our dance,

We will not be insignificant,

We will blame it when it fights back,

We will name its ways horrors,

We will drink it dry and sup it bare,

We will not be insignificant,

We cannot stand it.

We will kill it for our convenience and say it doesn’t matter!

We will look out across the great horizons,

And say the sun will rise, the sun will set,

What are we but creatures, tiny creatures,

What are we but passengers on this mighty beast.

I wish that we were insignificant.