A Footprint Loosely Carved

You seem to hold it in so well, but sometimes when you exhale

I can smell the fear creep from your nostrils,

And sometimes when you speak I hear it sneak past your teeth,

An uncontrollable yelp, desperation crying for help.

You wear faux-confidence like a mask,

Hiding the void saved for whatever identity you hoped to find -

But never did.

You pretend to be a real person, but I see through your glossy facade,

I've got you figured out.

You traipse linearly through time looking neither forward nor back,

An empty shell in search of a new set of insides,

One to replace the set that departed as abruptly as youth.

So when truth finally hits you like a torrential rain,

Don't masquerade that void with your learned obscurities,

Let it fill the remainder of your half-empty glass,

Let it wash you away like a footprint loosely carved.

-a.l. knox