Aluminum

There’s a crack

In the third floor window

I bet the glass will break

Not with the current

Occupant

But with the next one

Or the one after that

I bet when the glass breaks

It’ll be night

But it’ll be quiet

And the cicadas will be keeping

Somebody

Wide awake

The kind of awake

Where you’re not sure

You’re awake

Until you realize you’re looking up

At the sly splinters of glass

That’ll go out into the air

Once a nice breeze

Hits the tree

Near the window

A little too hard

And gives the glass

That last push it needs

To obliterate

I’d like to push

On that window

I’d like to be the thing

That gives it

What it needs

To be destroyed

I’d like to be

The limb of the tree

I’d like to be the breeze

And the sound

Of the cicadas

And the crack in the glass

That started it

On its way

I’d like to be next to you

Late at night

When you’re awake

Thinking you’re asleep

Finding you there

Trapped in bed

Thinking you’re free

Wanting to dream

Unable to summon up

Even a nightmare

I’d sit by you

I’d comfort you

I’d feel the anxiety

The tension

As you wait

For the break

To happen

Not sure where it’ll be

Not sure what will be

The benevolent push

The nick of the knife

The tightening of a rope

The prick of broken glass

When it lands

All over a room

Knowing the room

Is destroyed

The way the window is

The way the house is

The way your memory

Of the night is

Of what you think

Reality is

The other side of the coin

Is a place

Where you live in a house

That is so much smaller

And a bed that is far less comfortable

But do we ever

Sleep

In dreams?

Do those parts of ourselves

Those fragile parts

Never need

To lie down

And wait

For the break that comes

In our quietest moments?

Do the parts

That seem like the other

Ever shake themselves awake

And demand to know

Who’s pressing on the glass?

And what if the glass

Never breaks?

What if the wind

And the sounds

And the quiet

That throbs

Like starvation

Just goes on

And on

And is never enough

To bring us

To the next part

Of what we hope

Will never happen

And need

To happen

Right

Now