The sky was an abyss of gloom,

As the trees billowed in the breath of the wind.

The stars sang secrets to the moon,

Above a castle holding lovers within.

An age-old monarch was outraged by his daughter’s betrayal,

It is a wall.

It is stiff, blank. Unmoving. 

It guards the paradise 

That she knows belongs there.

It is a stone

Waiting for her, the sculptor, 

To make it mean something.

The form of letters slop and curve on a page

like a human body. 

White paper, bare skin,

The line of a belt below a belly button:

the line of a notebook just below a sentence. 

The insistent decision that

The world is beyond repair because

No longer will

Human nature fix these things.

Negativity and pessimism

Invade the land of

Enthusiasm and assurance.

The problems remain

Because