BEER  to  EMOTIONS  inside:

Numb it.
      Make it fly.

Look into the mirror —
      see the skull
            within thy flesh

Find out where lives the why —
      somewhere between the bones
      and the part of life
      that touches reality,
      that dances with the day

Why do we hate
      all our little struggles?
      be numb to annoyances —
      be alive to the life,
      to the blood, the fiber
            of the day

Suffering blends with joy
      to such a degree that
      they are one and the same
      as the silver lining
            of a cloud is
      one with our souls

The sky rains down on the earth
      and we soak ourselves up
            in an ancient cycle
            of lost and found

It’s all in the air —
      can’t you feel it?
      smell it? taste it?
            It is there —
            everything.

You can’t run and hide
because it will always be there —
      in the very air we breathe
      in the layers of earth —
            the clay, the
            lava and fire
      and smoke of existence

The beer, the thought,
      the audible, palpable heartbeats
      uncover the layers
            of dirt, the dust of time,
            the everything that
      we’ve kicked up over our wounds
            throughout the years

Some things are like a shovel
      and help us
            dig it out;
      some things
      help us sweep it away
      to return to the winds
      without guarantee
            that it won’t
      return again some future day
            even tomorrow
            or in our dreams

And should we really be so selfish
      or stubborn or unrealistic
      that we wouldn’t expect it
      to resurface yet again — someday
      can’t we just feel happy
            and blessed
                  and free
      that it’s taken its leave
            for today?

Don’t be jealous
      of the birds
      with their wings
and the bodily structure
      to fly away —
an aerial view doesn’t
      necessarily mean
      that they have
            the capacity
to leave it all behind

The wings carry much
but the body carries more
and within our bodies
like an intricate puzzle
the mind fills up
with ever-heavy thoughts
and overflowing rivers —
thoughts & emotions
that spill quickly
      and restlessly
      into the heart:
and try to fly —
      just try it —
            I dare you —
with all that cargo

Perhaps it’s not
      the wings
      after all
that allow us to fly
but the breath —
the taking it in
the letting it go
the filling up
      with essentials
            of life
so there isn’t room
      for anything else
but the air, the breath —
and isn’t that everything?

We’re all running —
every single one of us
      is running —
            running from
            running towards
even those of us who
      think we’re content
      sitting perfectly still
are being carried along
      because no one
      or nothing
      really sits still
the tide would die
      had it nowhere to roll

—Terri Guillemets

100% unedited, written after my empty stomach made the acquaintance of two bottles Peroni Nastro Azzurro — a writing experiment to determine if my tipsy self made any more or less sense than its sober side — if you’re wondering, the results are inconclusive — I think we’re both a little crazy