corners

corners i have walked around corners when i should have stood still driven fast in slow zones and sat at the apex of silent stone walls i've said words i meant when i was high and regretted when i was low twisted sentences until they were wrung too dry to matter and left paragraphs drowning for want of a word my soul aches at midnight and burns at the zenith of emptiness crunched and crushed like flattened cardboard; my shelter from wind, my home under the dry blanket of arizona dust i’ve looked into the eyes of a broken old man seen the sadness built around his journey and the hopelessness erected like a still-empty cross, awaiting his outstretched hands i have watched while he dries tears from the face of humanity, saddened by the race of mankind scratching to get to the same corner i walked around when i should have stood still tolbert