Since We’re Sharing

Posted byJennifer PatinoPosted inpoetryTags:, , , , , , , , ,




Since We’re Sharing

we’re seeing different grey days
but it’s underneath the same
tattered blanket, the sky

crying on the rooftop,
for different reasons
you & I remain inside

different body & mental,
physical & spiritual prisons,
counting minutes as reasons

to keep on breathing, air
just as impure as it’s
ever been, heart beating

unsteadily, like it can’t
make up its mind, &
a million voices robbing you

of sane choices, & the stomach
holding every wound you feel
in its pit — it is what we see,

ourselves as monsters, as
hopeless, as messed up as
the rest of the lineage

nursing a breakage, tender
fractured bones aching
with the same longing for marrow,

& we want to so badly,
but we can’t let anything go —
I know tomorrow will be

the same scenery, muted greenery
in our different deserts, only one
of us is tuned in

to the higher frequency, the other
is lying low, waiting for
the winds of change

to stir the wires, cross over
a new channel, let someone else
take over & rearrange

these bars, our cages, reinforced
with protective lies, the kind
you tell to keep safe, the kind

that will only hurt you
in the end — & is that the answer,
why we’re still here?

to finish? because whatever
shoe drops next will be
in our size, our style,

our profiles in the dusk
when we could still hear
each other instead of just talking

were we born to be dead inside,
shades of humans, walking
like every surface is a bomb

take five, take fifty, we’re unsure
of how time can keep moving, how
others are sleeping

while we’re wide awake & thinking
the same thoughts — but one of us
is on the outs

& the other has gotten better
at pretending they can’t hear
the past’s screams & shouts

we’re hanging, we’re bad grapes
clinging to the vine, the lifeline,
too far apart to reach each other

telling the press we’re fine,
fine with whatever else
they want to juice from us

one of us is at the arrival station,
both of us are scattered,
the other prays for exodus

how we get there doesn’t matter,
the ending will still be the same,
we’ll forever be to blame


Published by Jennifer Patino

Poet in Michigan.

13 thoughts on “Since We’re Sharing”

  1. Wow, Jenn. This is intense and powerful. Here are the two parts that most hit home with me:

    different body & mental,
    physical & spiritual prisons,
    counting minutes as reasons

    and –

    were we born to be dead inside,
    shades of humans, walking
    like every surface is a bomb

    Really, a fantastic poem…

    -David

    Liked by 4 people

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  6. A profound and powerful poem! You manage to cover so many aspects of life; the personal, the political, the phycological, the ethical, the existential! You’ve plumbed the depths of life in this poem! And your writing is intense from start to finish! You’ve also got superb sound here! One of your best poems I should say! Simply great!

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