The Reflection Pool

I saw the sky fall down,
one star at a time,
and holding hands, we
danced and skipped to our
childhood chant:
ring around the rosie,
pockets full of
memories dreams hopes fears
ashes stain the whites
of our eyes and new shoelaces.

As heavenly bodies fall,
so too do we, one by one,
rocketing towards a fate we
did not believe in until, of
course, it was too late. We build
walls up, to protect ourselves from
what follows behind us and to
shield us from what we cannot
see coming because fate,
it is not real.

Stardust wafts, clinging to
shoulders like dandruff while
true love and soul mates become
the illusions of a disillusioned mind,
twisted by shoulds and musts,
should nots and don’t-you-dares

because walking down the middle of
this story, you can’t tell if
it’s about the past or insight
into the future. Our setting can
be found on some level of Dante’s
Hell but there is no GPS location
because man-made satellites can’t
reach the pits where hearts and souls
are lost to the memories that
keep us tethered to the place we stand.