Michael Kromah

A Lonely Stake

A lonely stake engulfed in snow

From pierced land

Blood rivers do flow

And with cut hand

I learn and I know

That despite any demand

I will never grow

So I stand alone

Surrounded by frost

Away from home

I consider all I’ve lost

So I seek in flesh and bone

A purpose even with great cost

I give my heart

An eye, a ear

And every part

All I hold dear

I release my grasp to find new start

I give in to the fear

That without purpose

Without guidance

I am lost to time

A lonely stake engulfed in snow

Box

Each day

A small piece of my heart dies

But it’s ok

Because I take that piece

And I put it in a small box

And I take that box

And put it in a bigger box

With all the other pieces

And maybe

One day

When the hole from all those pieces is bigger

I can take that box

Filled with smaller boxes

That have rotten pieces of my heart inside

And put it in the hole where my heart should be

And I’ll be just rotten enough to match

Heartbeat

after Polaris Booth

I squeeze my heart

And pump blood in manually

I continue my manual heartbeats

To survive another five seconds

Why do I do it

Because it’s what you do

But why do I do it

I can’t tell

I push another breath into my lungs

As a lump rises in my throat

I know I’m not alive

I’m barely surviving

My lungs try to fill with air

But they only fill with blood

My body grows heavy

My blood pumps at a crawl

I squeeze my heart

And I push my lungs

And I wait for them

I wait for them to return to their shape

I hope that my black blood

Can flow again

My eyelids are heavy

My legs drag along the ground

I sway as I walk mindlessly

I can’t do anything else

But walk blindly

Pump my heart

And squeeze my lungs

Hoping they return to form

Hoping I return to form

As my vision grows hazy

I remember who I was

A child full of whimsy

A person who cared

Now I survive

I survive in hopes that I return to form

I survive hoping I will care

But my heart isn’t filled with whimsy

My heart is filled with black blood

I wait for my heart to return to form

But nothing happens when I squeeze again

I wait for my lungs to fill with air

But all that’s left is the lump in my throat

I wait for a heartbeat

But nothing comes

I couldn’t even survive properly

And I’ve forgotten what it’s like to live