Secret Moonlight

There’s a secret moonlight in your eyes
behind the excesses of a busy day
the layers that you’ve laid upon our soul
when your thoughts don’t match the words you say

There’s a silent scream behind your tongue
the one that patiently awaits permission
till everyone sleeps, adrift in their dreams
but instead, you bite your scream into submission

There’s a deep yearning behind your smile
the one that wants nothing more but to be let out
set free upon a world with so many rules
so you can break them all, rip their hearts out

There’s a buried rage inside your clenched fist
the one that wants to be let loose
fighting back against the world’s rage
as you pull yourself free from its noose

There’s that secret moonlight behind your eyes again
I see it clearly now  just as I see myself
Both of us needing to be free at last,
step out of that long-open cage, and let the fears melt.

Daily Prompt

Hand Me Down (Tanka)

Clothes and toys, recipes and jokes, advice and prejudice: we all have to handle all sorts of hand-me-downs every day. Tell us about some of the meaningful hand-me-downs in your life.

So many regrets,
of a life long lived in fear
Too many desires
ignored till they disappeared
Life half lived, year after year

So you pass them on
Like they’re trinkets in a box
Regrets and old fears
Weighing us down like they’re rocks
As we push against the locks.

Daily Prompt

Darkness

Darkness falls around me,
evil lurks wherever I tread
afraid to reach out, my hands frozen
in fear I wallow, I might as well be dead

What demons do I cower from?
What cherubs have I driven away?
How this putrid chill engulfing my soul
overwhelms the dawn of each new day.

Leading myself out of this darkness, I struggle
gathering threads of courage to face my fears
yet never have I been so lonely in my sorrows
drowning in an abyss of my own tears.