Stone-Paper-Scissors

Poem penned for the anthology Existing Loudly, The Write Order, 2020. Avalable on Amazon.

I pick a lifeless stone to pour in life with imagined birds,
And ephemerality is the nemesis as in stone I set my words.
Stone, that fragments scissors and all that crosses in its hour,
While all it takes is paper to stifle and wholly crush its power.
I pick a lifeless paper, breaking hearts to make words bleed,
For perhaps no resistance restrains my mind, to be freed.
Paper when cannot dout, hurts with paper cuts unabashed,
Till scissors leave it to be nothing but cursed confetti gashed.
I pick scissors to end thought lives, to end a doomed existence,
To end a trail of mindful steps, with much convinced insistence.
And it’s all said and shred with rue, all that’s meant for shredding,
It’s a stone that leaves it with no more than futile dreading.

Scissors slash paper, paper throttles stone,
Stone fragments scissors yet could I ever be alone,
Nought fades warmth of smiles I carry, with love and cheer,
Memories I anchor to, that my heart holds close and dear.
And there’s no fire that could douse a cut, a tear, a lie,
The imprints my mind endures, just another one more until I die.