Written [2007]

How many times must something be denied before it shifts and changes into something else?

For growth is the way of the world. Moments are not stagnant and the world shows us this. Even the cocoon, which seems to stand still in the roaring river of time, releases a beauty that proves this all wrong.

So what about feelings?

Feelings that rear their head in the dim slanted light of summer. Feelings that creep in like the warmth. Feelings that are never noticed because at the time, your heart is being kept in an envelope of joy.

Its always significantly later that you'll notice any real difference. The cold will have been leaking into your bones for months when all of a sudden a cloud will pass over the sun. For mere seconds, and you will come through your front door just as an orange diamond lands on the carpet of your stairs.

You can't help it, and you recall warm breezes and pieces of pizza. You recall midnight rides and loud music. You recall slanted smiles.

Somehow, between then and now something that hadn't been properly packed away has been allowed to grow. How long before they die? Because just like a cocoon, emotions cannot remain stagnant.

The world is full of hearts calling out to other hearts unanswered.

The world is full of people staring at other people's hands. Afraid to reach out. Afraid to shatter the thin glass that connects one person to another. Afraid that by wishing to draw one person closer, they will tip the scales in the wrong direction and never find their way back.

So with arms outstretched they hold back the tides. They could strive toward something better, but the possibility of something worse is too big a battle.

So we stare at each other's hands as long as we know their eyes are elsewhere. We try to remember the smiles and forget the frowns that hide so closely behind them.