The People Who Were Fearless

I've never known anyone
who is fearless
The way I figure
if you're never afraid
of anything
it means you've got
nothing
or you think you've got
nothing
which means you don't care about 
anything
enough to be willing to lose 
everything
Over time, they change
But then again,
nothing
ever stays the same for long
So maybe one day
I'll meet someone who's not afraid of
anything
but I won't bring myself to know
such an empty soul
No, instead
I'll look in their dull eyes
fearlessly defiant
and declare that they are quite possibly
insane
and then I'll take their empty bottles
and fill them will all the fear
I fear for them
and then they'll have to fear
trying to shake off the one person
who cares
I've never known anyone 
who is fearless,
The only people I've ever known
are people who were fearless


 

amaryllis

CA

YWP Alumni

More by amaryllis

  • Forgotten altars

    You blink and look and stare
    and stare

    As if trying to find the snag in the dream
    the catch in the sweater
    the cards hidden up someone's sleeves

    The meaning of this miracle that tapped you on the elbow
  • You, Tree

    As I sit on this stump and read
    from these pages of your cousin's pulped flesh,
    I burst with the excitement of next year seeing you draped in color,

    You. master of graceful loss.

    You, vessels of wasted breaths,
  • spiraling

    Spiraling odes of love and loss,
    lost pages strewn on the desk and the floor and the eyes and the sky and my limbs,
    each one with a piece of myself I do not want to see anymore.

    what have I created?