The Ink Runs Red

James Friedman

These writings

Grow and Expand

They soak in my thoughts like sponges

And bloom

Taking up all the space in my head

To the point where sometimes I have no idea what I’m saying

Or what I’m seeing

And all I know

Is that somewhere inside me

I am somewhere else

I am afraid of this infinite

It scares me like few things do

I don’t know where I end and begin

I can’t find the boundary of my thoughts

They slip into each other

Flowing from streams to form rivers

Snowballing into oceans

And what starts as a page

Becomes more than me

More than my mind alone

More than my heart could know

These writings

I wonder what was there

What precursor first beheld their form?

What forerunner was replaced by the ink that seems to run red no matter the pen

What spirit on paper remains locked inside my head

Will those bygones forever escape my treading feet that fall in stride to meet nostalgia

Or will they change their pace in time to dance forwards and back across my linear consciousness within this stream on earth

A wake away from birth before my answer is refunded

A vow lays rescinded amongst cinders in the air

The pen remains

When all else has burned away

When will I see them again?

All I see now are words

Alike memories, telling me

Cannot be erased

Cannot be replaced

And all I see now are words