Nothing Remains

My fingers grasp at the void, empty-handed... My heart lingers at hollowness, emptied out... reminiscent when time got wrinkled, worn when night and day left, and only nothing remained. The embers of my burning words wither into the palest of ashes, it makes me think of dead skin cells— they are nothing but dust sloughed off, then piled up into dusty corners, forgotten. Minuteness discarded, a lover’s crumbling skeleton. A noise barrage invades my soul’s silence, an onslaught of thought and reason— A wailing, pounding, desert squall that drowns me, shattering the dam of tranquility. I plunge back into this abyss of loneliness. Of course nobody’s there. They have all been long gone. And here I am, with only this vast void as my company. It whispers, it screams and echoes into my mind, what they’ve all been saying all along, that I brought this upon myself. Maybe I did. Of course I did. Of course I did. Maybe I did. Back and forth, back forth it goes... I seek sanctuary in dreams, for it is only there that my sea of loneliness becomes a sea of ecstatic happiness... I seek sanctuary in dreams, for it is only there that I am welcome. Touch me Not! Noli me tangere. Wake me not... Silence has blocked your ears. The shattering of my heart was unperceived, so I am left alone to take extreme care of these countless shards. I can’t afford to hurt anymore, as I have done to the others. With my words. With my long-winding, droning and ever-boring words. The death-inducing kind of boring. And only nothing cared to remain. I am left with no choice but to be one with this nothingness, flow along its waves, imbibe it and become it. Nix. Let me evaporate, let me join that cycle of seeming nothingness. That nothing, that stark quiet before the storm. Breathe deep into that void. Inhale nothing. Hear nothing. See nothing. Say nothing. Then wait... Can you feel me now? As nothing touches you. *** This was inspired from Catie’s “Nothing Remains”. In choosing this, in no way am I saying that her poem needs improvement. It is brilliant as it is. I chose this poem of hers because it moved me and spoke to me. Thank you, Catie. 10181920121124p1243a