Slowly, In Reverse

Wrinkled hands

Caught

On cotton threads

Soaked

In water

The mind 

Teaches

The body how

To adapt in

A new environment

Involuntary

Evolution

Encompasses

Eternal

Change

But these wrinkles

Do not come from

The water

They come from

The age

We evolve

Only so long

As we

Are not

Dying

And then

Like a 

Cotton thread

We wither

Slowly

The thread
Sponges the water
And expels it
When wrung by
Crossed fingers

Promises
The heart
Makes
On behalf of
Chemical reactors

Until the
Reaction
Is just
The last
Beat

Life
Is just
One
Long term
Deceit

- PatInTheHat

And My Small Soldier

Mentioning a past demon
To a soft spoken
Small soldier
Wreaks internal havoc

I do not judge her size
As the strength of her heart
Beats ammunition into
The demon of my soul

The bullet holes released
The light from the darkness
The light I thought I lost
In a previous life

I fought the soldier as
She struggled to fight
The overbearing opaque world
That lived inside of me

The battle grew fierce
And the strength of her heart
Seemed to be winning
Until I helped the demon

With my shaking fingers
I closed each bullet portal
That she had created
In an effort to save me

And my small soldier began to break

The cracks of darkness from the demon
Spread like the fire in hell and
Fear spread to her
And the base of her troop

I became the demon
And the demon became me
The troop knew the way to
Defeat the darkness of the demon

Was to defeat me

__________

Time killed the demon
That once lived inside of me
But not before haphazardly
Spreading more of its evil

Destroying other soldiers

Invading other troop

__________

The one who looked hell
Straight in the eye
And battled until her heart
Couldn't take the pain anymore

My small soldier deserves more than an ode
Instead: a statue built to the sky
As a long over-due

Thanks to you

- PatInTheHat