I love you.
And because I do, I want to say I’m sorry,
Not for the sins I may have committed, but for who I am.
Unknowingly, I’ve slowly suffocated you—
Smothered you with attention, and not for your benefit but mine.
And though my heart may not stop to think about my actions, my brain does,
Sending warning after warning, when I may step too far.
And there’s only one answer why neither my brain, nor my heart can stop.
It’s because—
I love you.
There is a fine line between a friend and a foe,
One careless step – and fractures take their toll.
A fragile thread by unseen tensions spun,
One step too far – and what was whole undone.
So often formed with little strain,
Yet just as fast dissolve in pain.
What once felt easy, light, and strong,
Can turn to silence, cold and wrong.
What blooms in trust may rot without a sound
For trust once cracked is rarely ever found.
For bonds are built through patient art,
With love and kindness at their heart.
Yet when mistakes and tensions crawl,
Those pillars crack — and shadows fall.
Thus guard the line no eyes are trained to see,
For foes are often friends we used to be.
In certain homes you can’t wear shoes;
The option isn’t yours to choose.
It doesn’t line up with my views,
But I can understand it.
Though I was just surprised to read
That certain offices took heed
And told employees that they need -
In fact, they did demand it -
To shed their footwear at the door,
No matter what type that they wore.
This order they could not ignore;
The high-ups did command it.
To me, that is a step too far,
For shoes show who you really are
And wearing slippers might just mar
Your rep and how you brand it.
At home, you maybe act the slob,
But when you dress up for your job,
No boss should be allowed to rob
Your look, the way you planned it.
I think I lost my way somewhere
I’ve wandered off the map
I’ve gone as far as I might dare
Without setting off a trap
Give me a hand
Show me a sign
With you to back me up
I’ll be just fine
I fear I’m going off the edge
I see but empty air
I stand alone here on the ledge
And I haven’t got a prayer
Give me a call
Throw me a line
With you to back me up
I’ll be just fine
I guess I’ve gone a step too far
And there’s no going back
Sometimes I wonder where you are
Can you get me back on track?
I think our paths
Might just align
With you to back me up
I’ll be just fine
Give me a hand
Show me a sign
With you to back me up
I’ll be just fine
A step too far, brings right of passage to a ledge
Fluttering at cliff walls, pushing life’s brittle edge
A sheer instinctive thrust, with no trust to pledge
Now or never moment, undermines fear’s wedge
A chick leaps off, flailing frail wings fail to fledge
Featherweight of hope meets a ten-pound sledge
Crashing straight down, no safety net to dredge
Next guy flaps like mad, landing softly in a hedge
Strum on my wrecked nerves 'til I faint
cuffed and connected to your pick;
I'll be the oil on your guitar
hitting your pulse points with my gasp;
Left with need I'll have no complaint
except when the encore's a trick;
That just takes it a step too far.
like your hand on a broken clasp;
Turning you on with my desire,
becoming the craving you rasp.
He rode his horse side saddle
Across the rolling plains
Scarlet polished finger nails
Gripping diamantéd reins
A little cocktail hat
Resting on his head
Dingly dangly earrings
Sparkling ruby red.
This dandy of the cowboys
Dressed to impress one and all
Showing off his finery
On route to the Ranchers Ball.
Beneath his jeans he wore
Briefs, suspenders and a bra.
He’d baulked at a girdle as being
Just that one step too far.
Tonight was the Ranchers’ Ball
So what better chance
To show off his finery in
The ladies excuse me dance.
He was tough and he was macho
With no more need to impress
No more need to conceal
He need wear a lady’s dress.
And any of his workmates
Who laughed at that right
Had better be good and ready
To beat him in fair fight.
His heart pounded with pleasure
He wanted to scream and shout
This was a changing world "
Tonight he was coming out.
In a frail rectangle,
Dark and sweet,
A man found his sorrow,
Fire beneath his feet,
Cross the delicate line,
between Heaven and Hell,
Smirk the sins of his past,
Life was so simple back then,
Now the pain of all will Everlast,
And pray for ignorance and conceit,
Sighs and cries will be abandoned,
Weak the motionless play in discrete,
Balance the pain and the torture,
Terrified the soul,
Scream your defeat.
A step close, a step too far,
A step closer, a step afar,
And the man fell….
Useless was his life,
Endeavor of money and high street.
And so the next man approaches,
Delicate the bitter sweet….
…
In a frail rectangle,
Dark and sweet……
……
Will event of creation be revealed
By the James Webb telescope
Concentrating time
Like a kaleidescope?
Galaxy after Galaxy
Slowly being revealed.
Will the moment of Creation
Always remain concealed?
Will we ever see the glory
Of the birth of timespace,
Can James Webb ever show us
Creation taking place
Or will that event remain
Tantalisingly out of sight
So no Theory of Creation
Can ever be proved right?
Is the James Webb Telescope
Just a step too far
Should we not accept
We are what we are.
Just because we can
Doesn’t alway mean we should
Maybe sometimes a mystery
Can be for the common good.
Should the thirst for knowledge
Remain achingly unsated
Do we really need to know
How such beauty was created?
Are we unique sentient beings
Set here to record and investigate
Or an accident of nature, by chance
Unable to accept our inevitable fate?
James Webb Telescope enables us
To less blindly search, to grope
Towards an understanding that may
Give our species future survival hope.
Sometimes it emerges, often buried
Surfaced through various triggers
A match lights the taper
Feelings of helplessness, like grass bent in an uncontrollable wind
Then at a step too far, a push over the line, over the limit
It comes out, feelings blown asunder, yet clear control,
This anger, is it with others or of my self
Never external through violence but strong, direct, steely
I am sent air ward, elevated blood, pulse, all heightened
And after? A time to reflect, mirrored back
Face in the glass, forced to face
Inward critic, was it me? Genuine nonetheless
And then what
Does it go? Quenched, resolved?
I have no answer for this
Only the aftertaste of emotive experience
Shared perhaps, seeking other view
Bringing solace? I don’t know for real
Yet after time it does fade
Until the next flare, the next ignition
I wait with expectation, I hope I learn
From each angry moment
I recite and read aloud,
wander, lonely as a cloud,
then emulate and create
as memory stimulates;
Swim against poetry's tide
therein,an enigma hide,
perhaps,a step too far,with
Tennyson,crossing the bar;
I dream on Will's sonnet verse,
figuratively,sweet and terse,
lazing life away,with songs
compared to a summer's day.
To conjure an opening line
ever,remembered,as mine.
| Year Posted 2010
You need to lock that one up.
She has a wire lose.
She does not fit into your family.
Or our neighborhood.
Where is the shrink ray?
Let’s zap her and put her into the mouse hole in the bedroom.
They were all onboard until he got to the mouse hole.
Where is this hole? Demanded my mother.
Why were you in my bedroom? Demanded my father.
I knew he would go too far.
He always did.
He is my dad’s best friend, Jack.
He has a knack for getting me out of trouble.
I adore him so!
Not your bedroom, her bedroom! He said.
Pointing to me.
Jack always goes at least one step too far.
I am sixteen, and know little, but I knew this…
I recite and read aloud,
wander, lonely as a cloud,
then emulate and create
as memory stimulates;
Swim against poetry's tide
therein,an enigma hide,
perhaps,a step too far,with
Tennyson,crossing the bar;
I dream on Will's sonnet verse,
figuratively,sweet and terse,
lazing life away,with songs
compared to a summer's day.
To conjure an opening line
ever,remembered,as mine.
Copyright © Brian Strand | Year Posted 2010
Post Comments
Looking back over my teenage years
socially not together as others are
feeling alone keeping my self to self
being extrovert was a step too far
My main source of enjoyment each week
was soccer at my local team being a fan
meet up with a few guys there in support
shouting on Killie hoping to be no also ran
Going to the cinema quite a bit
on my own enjoy the big screen
sometimes straight from work I'd go
got fish supper before home like a teen
Never really had any friends
didn't go holidays in these days
then learnt to drive a motorcar
gave me more freedom ever always
Looking back now they were difficult times
felt real isolated think in this world alone
God's hand was upon me though was unseen
His purpose to find me my true cornerstone
God was in no hurry to draw me
He knew all the future all planned out
using my experience in teenage years
in later years would be my blessed fount
(This is written about my memories of my teenage years, My local soccer team Killie was its nickname as its proper name was Kilmarnock. )
A WORDS WORTH
I recite and read aloud,
wander, lonely as a cloud,
then emulate and create
as memory stimulates;
Swim against poetry's tide
therein,an enigma hide,
perhaps,a step too far,with
Tennyson,crossing the bar;
I dream on Will's sonnet verse,
figuratively,sweet and terse,
lazing life away,with songs
compared to a summer's day.
To conjure an opening line
ever,remembered,as mine.
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