THE
FIREWORK
HEART
by STEPHANIE STAHLMAN
 
 
T

ime doesn't pass

The way you think—

The mind grows numb,

The eyes no longer see.

 

Can you touch reality

If you fail to breathe,

Breathing in monotony,

Blinded to being free?

 

Maybe choices damn you,

Maybe inaction breaks the knee—

But if you fly on potential

There's a peek into happy.

 

Happiness in freedom

Joins the fray somehow— 

Strides for joy, found compromised,

Dodging lines of ambiguity.

 

T

his firework heart

Has a temperamental home,

Fractures by the memory— 

Fallen for sunshine possibility— 

Pavement-echoed steps,

Shouting sunshine-regret.

This firework shot

Knows not which colors fade.

 

So firework freedom

Starts to burn a new name— 

Life begs to renew,

Cries of fresh embrace.

 

W

ith hollow shades of grey,

Preying on sane brains,

This directionless monster

And these depths rip to pieces— 

The trails to something beautiful again.

 

Split hairs on a split memory,

A mind pleading clarity—

Balancing the haunting

Between the faithful and the brave.

 

But this firework heart,

It breaks for innocence—

Is there something new to find?

Is there a new peace in a child's eye?

 

The search for glittering answers,

Breaking bread with the devil,

The road ahead unraveling,

Trying to run into a calling.

 

I

s this firework freedom?

Can you taste a bit of everything,

Stay with strength burning bright,

As sapphire-echoes blaze the sky?

 

Or is weakness in freedom?

Do we become shells?

Do we punish our souls

Into the lazy and unrecognizable?

 

It's a firework falling,

Something brilliant losing form—

An emerald spark slowly dying

Where promise once shone.

 

It's not a natural failing,

Playing out like an aspiration.

Purpose becomes fleeting,

No hand to hold the bleeding.

 

S

o the firework heart, breaks—

Love-sparks fizzle and fade.

Say reach for the sky—

And find freedom in the fall.

 

This firework shadow

Finds a grip on us all,

What we become as we rise

Illuminates, less or more.

 

If there's an outlaw to freedom,

Let that presence expose

The firework heart,

Pushing hope through the narrow.