Are your feelings real

Are your feelings real

The words you choose

Do they come from the heart

Are they yours

Do you borrow them

From a melting pot

Of memory

Where they have lain

Waiting to be redeemed

Or were they pilfered

Filched from the back

Of an envelope

Sealed with a lovers kiss

Do they creak with age

And repetition

Are they twee and empty

Shallow phrases

Lacking the reality of

Truth and emotion

The muck and grime

Of living

When so much

Is lost on a twist of fate

The turn of a coin

Lives ruined with the

Flick of a switch

Hearts broken

With the swipe of a hand

The nod of a head

And the vital loss

Of a common thread.

What of this thing

Called verse

Is it worth

The trouble of

Being written

Is it really important

When beautiful words

Are not so difficult

To stumble across.

If you pick and choose

Where to look.

If there is to be art

In this reckless jumble

That somehow tumbles out

With what seems

Apparent ease and

So little consideration

It is in their transition

From heart to mind

Blood diamonds

A challenge to find

How they become

Rearranged to be fresh

And new.

Not simply about them, us

We or they.

Painted graffiti

Tattoos for the soul

Words strung together

On a roll.

But about you

The real you

Whoever you are,

Whether you know it

Or not.