Life by the Line

by Cody S. Decker

My whole life
Is now one big poem
Where each day seems to be
A long drawn out stanza
That always starts
But never stops
The things that used to be
Normal
Aren’t normal
Anymore
Each moment
Now presents itself as
An opportunity
To pick apart
And make it my own

Words that should be
Passing through
Stick around
And stay for a while
They work their way
From the front of my mind
To the back
To the front again
Weaving between
The life I see
The life I think about
And the life I actually live
Some break off along the way
And slowly turn
A single string of thought
Into cut up pieces of worn out yarn
That wind up crudely glued
Between lines on paper

I used to think about
How it would feel
To be a writer
What went through their minds
From day to day
How they could manage to make
So many words in so many ways
Say so many things
I’d wonder if they knew
When inspiration struck
Or if they had to look for it
And work at it
To find what needs to be said

Now
I know
And when I find time
Between inspirations
I tend to think about
How it would feel
To be normal
Again

I won’t lie
The thought of living
In a world where
A moment of silence
And looking out my front door
Was as simple and relaxing
As I needed it to be
Sounds like a dream
Even if
It were only for today
It would be nice
For my mind to get the chance
To rest
And let my eyes
Do all of the thinking

For once

But if that were the case
Today’s yarn
Would’ve never been cut
And these words
Would’ve never found their way
Between the lines