The Shoulder Shrug

Part I - News

The hands didn't twitch

The legs didn't itch

for a maniac stride,

tearing the stitch

His eyes didn't jump

The heart didn't thump

He said nothing, but not

that his throat was a lump

Life had dealt again

cards with burns and stain

He looked on at them

with a quiet refrain

He was facing the walls

where breaking nails crawled

It was tempting to imagine

himself on the floor, sprawled

Part II - Future

The bars might explode

into pencils flying slowed

Their black streaks will fill

the eyes, he forebode

There would be a noose

And a limited range of hues

And a cracking floor on the feet

that'll set the colors loose

A uniform will shout

A hangman will out

the shimmering ghost of death

that doesn't fool about

He thought of the sound

that the plank was bound

to make when it cracked

and was no more the ground

He thought of the stretch

that would sure make a wretch

of his neck and his breath

But it looked like a sketch

Maybe the tongue will out

and gasp or flutter about

No, it would just hang

and leer at them no doubt

This prison set him free
Its lock gave him the key
The endless time told him
life was just a moment to be

Part III - Friends 

He had come to have friends

in not people but elements,

friends he need not talk to,

or talk, it all depends

Like Air. The first of them

Comforting, stable and a gem

Never changed or turned on him

No habits or evil to stem

Sometimes she was grim

when she came to him

with the loss of someone loved

whose stench it held to brim

Other times, however rare,

she would buzz with a fresh affair

Someone must've been let in or out

and she'd smile from my ear to ear

Another friend I soon fell for

was Water, though it was much more

elusive and rare to come but when

it did, it made it up damn sure

The stretches that went by

without it made me shy

of the pleasures we'd had

that left me spent and dry

I wish I could bathe more often

But I never asked the one

who came and unlocked the doors

Maybe 'twas the right amount of fun

I could talk about it no end

about the shivers it sends

through me to touch and be touched

by water, its streams and bends

But lets move on to the third

companion of mine, the earth

The solid, still and steady

The friend with no mirth

This friend, I always wondered,

was it a friend or just under

a debt, guilt, an oath?

to hold my weight and blunder

For it never talked, or told stories

Never had a mood, teary eyed memories

to share with me, to let me in

on them, oh no, hard from the quarries

But I give it for a quality rare

It cares for me when I'd care

And slaps me hard when I slap hard

The Ground, my friend, is ruthless and fair

Part IV - Enemy

Life's good, yes, with friends like these

But what is life without enemies

An enemy I'd always had

It was the Bars, the Bars that tease

They stand with backs all straight

In never a mood for debate

Stern, alert, too proud in power

But it's how they're serious I hate

And look how they stand

all formal and grand

in equi-spaced files

Not one freak miscreant

It used to be a distraction

Their stillness waiting for action

Their steely observing gaze

and their judgments showing no fraction

Sometimes their spaces between

would tease me and demean

Surely the escape wasn't through them

And escape I wouldn't, but why act mean!

Part V - Life

My crime in that other world

where Light existed and swirled

had been unforgivable

Some nights I shook all curled

But the new friends had been sweet

Acceptance had turned down the heat

They stood there, let me be

They folded my conscience neat

Life was good.. no wait,

it was just life, zero and sate

No clue how long it had been

without real urge or hate

Couldn't tell when I slid

to peace that respects the lid

on top off my head, now settled snug

that used to blow off when it did

Couldn't tell when I started

to love the caress good-hearted

of the truest mirror, the floor

that still couldn't answer being farted

Couldn't tell when I missed

the third person tone, to insist

on my plight and took on to 'I's

Oh maybe you noticed and were pissed

Part VI - Dream 

Couldn't tell when another

friend of mine, or rather

this secret acquaintance wild,

turned up in metal and leather

I'd met this friend a few times

in moments unguarded, sublime

who left me on the rope when it cracked

invariably, every single time

So you see, this rude friend, Dream

would barely shake hands and beam

trying to introduce me to Death

but me, such a brute, I scream!

They scamper away, hiding out of sight

Dream, the matchmaker; and Death's cold bite

and I'm left panting, blinking, being stupid

caught by the mighty Ground's might

And as I said, I couldn't tell

when this Dream fellow swell

came back one day

with a sin-dark smell

It's like it had purpose, oh sad

It barged in, like always it had

But no, it was different this time

Darker and calmer, not half as mad

The first time ever did I hear the Bars shout

Not all of them but the closest ones i doubt,

the closest ones to metal, and uniform and leather

The three of them came in, calm throughout

The uniform spoke, clearly, slowly

The leather shuffled, the Ground made lowly

sounds of disapproval, impotent screeching

And the uniform said, the same words holy

That this was the day, that I was to die

But it didn't seem as evil, can't say why

They drawled on, didn't run to me

Didn't push me down, didn't beat me or tie

Didn't do anything, except stand and talk

And told me honestly, didn't leer didn't mock

Just stood there, calm, let a bit of silence pass

then turned and left, like breeze would walk

The metal rod, the leather shoes,

the uniform, the Dream whose

previous meetings were awkwardly violent

left this time without tying the noose!

Part VII - Apex

I stood for long and spoke to Air,

had a chat with the Ground bare,

they told me it wasn't Dream at all!

And all I managed was an empty stare

Death was coming, surely, sure,

but not like a bull running through the door

Rather like a calm, honest kinda chum

And somehow, this gore, it didn't feel sore

So my hands didn't twitch

My heart didn't tug

And my legs didn't itch

but my shoulders did shrug