At the Height of Summer.

At the Height of Summer

1.

I feel myself slipping

            Away from it all.  Not caring if I ever come

Back.

            I see a vision of myself ten years from now,

Raking leaves in a garden.  This is a promise

            I must make to myself:  to overcome all odds,

            To get out of being broken, used, abused.

Sometimes I see myself as someone else,

Giving myself a second chance at life, a second

Chance at success.

            Then I realize the only thing I eat for dinner

            Is ramen noodles.

2.

At the height of an Indian summer,

You are there, lost in a midst of twine.

            You staple out hunger like a sieve.

            End over end, you begin to sigh.

It is the sigh of the long-lost dying,

            The sigh of someone who has seen

Defeat and risen from the ashes.

            The taste of summer is heavy in your mouth.