i.
You are a leaf caught in an eddy
All motion and no progression
Spun around in a sickening swirl that leads to
Nowhere
You are a boot lodged in quicksand
Your owner and twin have escaped
The vicious vacuum, running away while you remain
Stuck
You are an astronaut lost in space
Cut loose from any anchor,
Adrift in a cold that doesn’t care and leaves you
Numb
ii.
Have you ever stood still on a street in November
While the leaves rush past you,
Smacking against your legs as they dance
In the wind that is never strong enough to pick you up?
Have you ever stood still as a wave crests,
The carpet of sand yanked out from beneath your feet,
Letting the wall of water smash around you
Before it scurries up the shore without a backward glance?
Have you ever stood still in a crowd in some big city,
All these voices of all these people with all these plans,
A hurricane of progress and passion perfecting all of the world’s problems,
And here you are, in the eye, passive and purposeless?
Have you ever stood still?
iii.
Have you ever felt like the whole world is moving but you?
Like you could invent your own laws of motion—
As everyone else speeds up, I slow down.
Have you ever felt like a character in a bad dream?
The one where your sneakers are glued to the street
And the bad guy is coming and you want to run
And everyone else is running
And you
Just
Can’t
Move
iv.
If an external force
Is what it takes
To make mass move
Then please—
Save me from
This massive mess
And set me speeding
Because I have not
Stayed in rest,
I have been stuck there
And, oh God,
I want my velocity
To be greater than zero
I relate to this a lot recently, and your descriptions are so accurate and poignant. “And, oh God,/ I want my velocity/ To be greater than zero” I get that so much that I can’t even explain it. ❤
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Thank you so much, Grace. I love when another people can relate (not that I’m glad you’re feeling that way, but just that my words speak to more people than just me). ❤
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I understand ❤ 🙂
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Um this is amazing ❤
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Thank you, Abi. ❤
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Dearest Abby,
These are wonderful!
Love,
Grammy
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