FOREVER

I used to live in monochrome.I used to walk while staring downat feet that never took me home.The world wore the off-white huesof dirty sidewalks, dirty shoes.Above the ground were dark grey skies,horizons of a compromise.I didn't like to look around.I used to live in monochrome.I figured I was colorblind.I used to live away from home.I thought I had no home to find.I used to live in shades of grey,until a flash of green one daytaunted, teased, and ran away.I chose to chase, and as we raced,caught in a chromatic wake,saturated with sensation,iridescent inebriation,I drank in color, real color, vivid and opaque.And where the catch replaced the chase,a rainbow met a pot of gold.Too much color to behold.I knew that I had found my place.I knew that I had found my home.Just beyond my reach Is something I should know. The quiet whispering of new senses Murmur in the back of my head. There is something important out there. Comprehended only in fragments, It speaks of profound mystery, And suggests resolutions. Like a blind man learning to see, I am presented with random patterns That convey new knowledge When put together properly. Stumbling about in the dark, I should be able to find my way. The information is all there, But I do not yet know how to use it. Across an abyss of unknown, I feel a new bridge under construction. When will it be finished? How soon may I cross? When that time comes I will plainly understand Things that existed outside of me, Things that I could only guess about beforea morning draped in clammy haze.smoke and shouting; lines, delays.a chill my clothes can't keep away.i'm told my place; i sit and wait.vibrations rumble at my feetwe start to move we pick up speedthe little people turn to blursmy heart drops out we leave the earthwe're plunging through a cirrus seai clutch the seat and we break free...A morning bathed in baby blue.Warm and welcome. Pure and new.No horizon. Endless skies.A sun so bright it hurts my eyes...floating free above the weatheri feel this flight will fly foreverNintendo controllers (no hands to control them).A little red backpack (but lacking a back).Grapefruity glasses (with no lips to sip them).A four-towel rack and a newspaper stack,Half-empty cider and half-eaten bread,Sweatspots and latex and sand in the bed...I can undo dispersal, entropic reversal,Vacuum and launder, restack and restore.But why am I feeling like something is missing?Why do I feel like there's less than before?Laughter's more than "h" and "e"s;colons and parenthesescan't light a room, even on the brightest screen."Hugs," as closing salutation,isn't quite the same sensationas face-to-face embrace, in an awkward closing scene.True... but...Once a decade's done its damage,ex-ex-strangers who can't quite manageto dig through memory's mud and dust to dredge a voice or face,will find preserved in inky blobsSandy's Brooke with Wade and Bob:laughter ringing long long after the crash replaced the chase.You'll say I let our tether sever.I'll say I let us LIVE FOREVER