Juxtapose Poem by Tsani Jones

I can feel you taunting me
And nothing moves
A standstill of all the fury...
It's all on pause

Like the dying heat
Of a burnt match,
I feel the last embers of light
And cling to them for my life raft.

It's all here
Fitting together like
A perfect puzzle,
But I can't see the picture.

Let me float above the clouds
And look down on you-
Lay down and meet me
Where the earth touches the air...

A pause where a kiss should be
A ghost where my lover's touch should be
A hole where this heart should be
And it all amounts to nothing.

Passion would hold your hand
And walk on the shore,
Love would caress you
As the sun cascades to oblivion.

This mud is a waste of my time
Water doesn't quite cleanse
Sins held alone, punishment borne
And my crime is love.

Sleep, child, dream-
Flow down to where I lay
Become one with the silt
Spring these young reeds into life!

We break ourselves to be healed
And sit alone in the crowd.
We are islands unto ourselves
Looking at the ocean with our dreams-

Never diving.

So is love the illusion?
Or is denial the paper mache backdrop
That denies me?

I feel you like a tiny ant bite
When all is silent
And every river made from my tears
Drowns you.

You are in my eyes
When I see myself,
So are you the story
I worship in my mind,

Or am I the figment of your imagination?