I Wouldn't Trust a Pen (If I Were You)

Expectation is the creation

Of imagination; often felled

Before the very eyes that prized

The picture that they held

***

Sometimes, due to lack of practice 

Our small sacrifices seem large 

-er than they really are

We don't admit how slack our track-record is 

Until circumstance raises the bar

***

Sometimes hearts are arks of safety

We store in them fragments of yore

(sometimes hearts break; they do mend 

But never quite 

back 

To the way they were 

Before) 

***

Pens keep secrets 

But oh, they spill them too 

I wouldn’t trust a pen 

If I were you 

***

Life is give-and-take 

It makes plain the hidden man 

By how we give 

And what we take 

***

If love is

Patient and kind 

Maybe that is why 

True love is 

So hard to find 

***

Night ink is bolder 

Than the ink of day 

It spells things that morning

Never quite knows 

How to say

*** 

Loss is more than havoc 

Wreaked on comfort zones 

Some takes its time 

Like the surging sea 

Washing away stone 

***

Swift words are often hurtful 

If we want to be wise 

We should take a moment 

And cut them down to size 

© Janet Martin