Everything Burns

"Everything Burns"

I...

...We feel so distant

     even though 

you... 

     are sitting right there

not a few feet away,

I can see you,

hear you,

almost touch you.

My tender skin

feels everything now 

beyond

just the physical touch,

     it's too much to endure

     most days

     to experience

     the textures of emotion

in every moment

     only to find sadness and anguish

sift through 

to form your day.

I don't think I can do this anymore,

I wish we could have had

     a more fulfilling role

in each other's lives

     but alas

we only 

     now have

rooms 

     full of susurrous sounds,

whispering doubts 

     and crowns of thorns.

At some point 

my skin 

turned

     so thin

it became diaphianous,

     and so came the demons,

     to claim 

     this silken sheer of skin,

translucent to anger and rage

so obvious to you

that it became your tool

to control all our interactions.

I became a puppet 

at the end of your strings,

     too scared to be vulnerable

     in front of you,

Never meant to find anything

beyond what was meant

by anything you said.

All those seconds, 

those minutes, 

those hours,

never feeling freedom

beyond the notion 

of what you allowed.

It's not that we feel distant

but more perhaps 

that we just don't agree on anything any longer,

     because how I feel now 

     is my tender skin 

     has been flayed and scarred.

I'll never be the same 

and I'm trying to find

the courage to be alone and away,

but life is a tricky thing,

It's scary to live life as it were,

     It's difficult to find the strength

because in the end,

it's simple...

when one realizes that,

Everything burns.

-Armando Torres