Love is not a Hammer that Stays in The Wall, It’s The Light Pouring in

by James Diaz / December 30th, 2018

oh father
it’s the freak out
the pay to play with body against shadow lines
and no one knows exactly where it all went wrong
someone is singing it’s all earth’s timing
now you know you don’t build it up by breaking it down
you carry it higher
this one leaves you
and another one finds you
the first but not the last hit
we’re counting
in the low mass mountains
the alder beast
with hungry eyes
is never satisfied
oh father
is it true you never knew how to love
so you just leaned into hate instead
was I the name you gave muteness
way I walked / talked
tinkered with the light
through all the holes you made
see my house, now
it’s a thing of love
and I’m not losing any sleep tonight
I got my soul geared toward lost things
got hope where you wrote me in all wrong.

James Diaz is the author of This Someone I Call Stranger (2018, Indolent Books) and editor of the forthcoming anthology What Keeps us Here: Songs from The Other Side of Trauma. In 2016 he founded the online literary arts and music journal Anti-Heroin Chic to provide a platform for often unheard voices, including those struggling with addiction, mental illness and Prison/confinement. He resides in upstate New York, in between balanced rocks and horse farms. He has never believed in anything as strongly as he does the power of poetry to help heal a shattered life. Read other articles by James.

This article was posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2018 at 8:01am and is filed under Poetry.