It Never Seemed Real Before
_____by John DeCaro

_____Numb, solid senses surround my soul
Penetrated only by reality's claws
_____Rushing from all angles
Lukewarm raindrops begin to brush off clouds into my mouth
_____Flowing through and over me
A dull quiet feels its way across the ground
_____Making it difficult to get away
Gateways no longer lockless block off paths and cage me
_____With too much reality to escape
Fairies of the mind and their tag-along-emotions flee from me
_____While Joy is left to wander aimlessly
Like a lost child, I cry out for comfort
_____Of disembodied souls and the mindless rain
Rain alone hugs the contours of my expression
_____Branching out, tracing a web across face and features
Leaving permanent stains and hollows upon my soul
_____A new emptiness vacuums in forgotten feelings
Giving birth to compassion, A new found empathy emerges
_____Through intangible thought and rain drops crystallizing around me
Numb, sold senses
_____Listlessly struggling emotion, seeks escape
Trapped in their earth-bound cage
_____Liquefied life seeps out, radiated and slips away
"It never seemed real before the words came."
_____"But when I tried to will the words away..."
"The frosty reality froze the day."