When our world gets bigger than we are

like a golf pro, hitting golf balls

on a green, in the late evening

at a course, where he beat the record

at 17

our time, has expired, like the sunset

our choices shrink

like a laundry load

colors,

whites,

and red stripes

Stains, on our perfect dreams

We don’t know how to handle this pain

and those closest to us

rip open our wounds

where hate leaks out, like lava

a fire, that never exploded, churning, like a thousand desires

wrapped-up into one.

“I want the whole world or nothing!”

It’s easier to help a stranger, than your blood

when passion, is mixed with Chernobyl radiation

burning the ones, we love

splitting their cells, like misremembered memories

until forgiveness turns into forgetfulness

and we don’t remember how to put our family back together.

Out of the waste land, walks a man, who hasn’t died

even though, his days are disintegrating

What will he do, when the sun is a shadow?

He reaches for meaning, like a green caterpillar, clinging,

to life

because everything he has known and loved

has died.