The Space Between

Growing up, I discovered a place that is beyond darkness.

A neighbourhood so grim, but in the same deep breath you could call it the opposite because I have this uncontrollable attraction to the grey contrast, and I accentuate the rural canvas with black.

I try not to travel through these exhausting thoroughfares, but I’m pursuing an incandescent fire. Sometimes I’m a finger length away from grasping the heat, then I blink and see my skin is burnt to a crisp while the scintillating ball of warmth shrivels in the distance before my eyes.

When you shine your attention towards the vibrant landscape, it only gets watered with glyphosate.

If I want to enjoy this spruce, I have to fend off the man with an axe and a plaid long sleeve.

I wish that man was chopping down the tree to brighten up my living room this Christmas.

But instead he’s hacking away the little lambent light I was treasuring.

Occasionally, the often cloudy district has intermittent life and you can relish in its blue skies.

Maybe even for a period of time so lengthy that you can almost forget the gloomy climate.

You can actually see your own teeth illuminate because the corners of your mouth are trying to stretch and touch your ears.

It would be a lie to say a meteorologist could tell you when the overcast weather is forming. Because he can’t. The shadows are so sudden, and can be severely crippling.

However, what if you had an umbrella to shelter you from the blistering impact of these raindrops.

What if you can equip yourself with marmalade tinted sunglasses and see this treacherous planet anyway you want to.

You can, but it’s a battle. The sun rays require rigorous effort if you want to catch a glimpse.

Never mind the idea of holding onto it….

….But it’s possible.

Anything is possible.

Crusade against the evil entities, the ghouls and goblins that try to overtake and restrain  you.

My advice to anyone who enters this godforsaken town, when you see that glow in the beyond the clouds, you scratch and claw until you’re submerged in its utopian aura.

You focus on the path, not the obstacles.

Don’t get lost in the journey…
Don’t  take a left or right turn…
Put on blinders, and never look back.

This place has left me broken.
It’s left me weak.
It’s left me for dead on the ground crying.

Kicking, PUNCHING ME AND STOMPING relentlessly.

I hit rock bottom in this,
this,
whatever this is,
constantly….

…..But I get back up, and so can you.

You take the bit of hope, that one percent of a smile, that one light and you hold it, and you manifest it into your whole world.

You squeeze it so tight, as if every time it’s in your hands you’re running towards the Super Bowl winning touchdown.

This place visits me, and I don’t choose when.

All I can do is prepare…

Because this isn’t a place you disembark a plane for, this place is behind my eyes.

It’s the space between my ears…