John McKinley Pride Jr. Poetry & Art

"Looking for the Cause Unknown Rains Evenly" Sometimes when this darkness sets its claws deep within me, love cannot find a way to fit itself within this lifeless coffin I have become. I lose all hope. I lose all I once was. I lose every sense to live. When this darkness sets in deeply, I come to realize I am withering away into this abyss of heaviness, nothing to stop the fall of the sure end that perceives me. I sometimes think happy thoughts to stop the fear of death that grows like the roots of a Ficus tree inside my twisted veins, which raises up the foundation of what once was a stable life I could call my own. The thought of sunshine upon me and the smell of greenery, the laughter of children playing and old folks talking of their golden years, all brings a smile to my muted face and caresses me with color again. Some how unwillingly, the darkness creeps back up into my heart from under the rock I smashed it with, bringing me back down to reality that my life has bee

"My Til Parts of me scattered here and there, with a soul of black and blue. The floor is where I lye, the truth is what I hide. Parts of me are missing and parts of me are hiding across the room and back. My tiled soul lay, stepped on today and tomorrow with no sorrow or thought of the next. I have myself in a corner and I can't get out. Forgetting this wall that I was against, because I've been here so long, I can't even remember my name. Lying here through night and day, parts of me scattered here and there with no care. A soul of black and blue, everything is starting to look truer, as my tiled soul lays through out the days. John McKinley Pride Jr.