STORIES IN MY HEAD
***********
Walking down a crowded side street,
My weary head hangs low, careful not to meet the eye
Of the others who pass me by.
Afraid they may see the thoughts spiraling that
consume me in my screaming head
The darkness swimming with all the creatures of dread.
Sometimes those thoughts speak louder than the words that
escape my anxious mouth,
So I walk on, careful not to look up…
I’m afraid they might see me today…
I’m afraid they might see what I could be…
So I walk on, careful not to look up.
…Above, the clouds dance at an inferior low
Staring at the sunless sky, I dream of a silent mind…
One that neither screams nor talks…for just a quick minute.
…But I can’t imagine that the universe could ever be so kind,
For my hopes and dreams of a one minute silent mind.
I hide behind my story-inspiring music…
Instrumental poetry blaring in my ears,
The tunes that calm my soul, as I carry on down the street,
Careful not to meet the eyes of all the people that I meet…
They don’t know what it may have took,
For me to traverse so far today…
From the warmth of my morning bed,
To the place, where all the stories live out in my head…
Passing by all the people whose eyes that I try not to meet.
They don’t hear all the commotion of the traffic that lives inside my thoughts,
As I so cautiously, try to make sense of it all,
connecting the strange dots.
Traveling through the downtown, I take notice,
Everyone looking at each other throughout the crowd,
Wondering whose eyes are behind the stories that they see…
While I hang my head low…
Careful that they don’t see me.
I wish to stay secret…
To hide them from this contagious darkness…
trying not to let it creep….
So that only I am the one who has to
escape from it as I sleep…
I carefully walk on, in time to my music
Mysteriously passing on by,
With my head hanging low,
Careful, that nobody else,
Meets my eye.
– Ariana R Cherry 2019
Ariana R. Cherry: Poet & Artist 