Trust has the strength of steel yet is more fragile than glass
Iridescent blue,
breakable yet indestructible,
A vase carrying flowers
of every color
In its womb,
the warm sweet pulsing nectar
Of love and respect

People walk by,
averting their wary eyes
Keeping each other at arms length,
Isolating themselves in bubbles
It’s every man for himself

My bubble encloses me in
Safety, nothing can penetrate
This barrier, more soothing than
The warmest bath, the sweetest lullaby
I am safe…
At a price.
Bubble or vase?
It is my choice.

I walk through my barrier
Suddenly cold, wet, naked
Shivering in the vastness
Of a hostile world
that yanks my hair,
Beats me until
yellow and purple blotches appear,
Slashes at my skin and
warm blood pours out
staining the cold dead earth
With their cruelty.

Everyone either walks on in apathy
or lashes out in cruelty
or is curled up unaware
in their bubbles
bobbing their heads
To music pulsing
from sleek white ipods

If only I could get to the vase!
I run, until I am numb and on fire
And I reach for the vase
So I can breathe in the fragrance,
Dip my cold bleeding finger into
Its soothing liquid so this bruised
And beaten body can be healed

But someone else gets to it first
And throws it to the ground,
And the vase shatters
into thousands of
infinitely small pieces. Flowers
Are strewn everywhere, suffocating
And beginning to wilt.
Their fragrance
Is gone, and now
they reek of death;

The liquid seeps into the ground
And is gone forever.