desensitized

we are desensitized
blinded
finding and losing
throwing away
tin-rust dreams
eaten by time
and sighs of surrender
cut into the dough and yeast
of a moonless life--

where do you go when you lose the force
that pulls the tides from under your feet,
the certainty and surrender of direction?

we cease our belief
in fairies and dragons
while secretly wishing for heart-pounding mysteries
to fold us into complete abandon,
transform us into shepherds
and sheperdesses
with magic residing under our fingernails.

we pound ourselves out on rocks,
never broken,
only molded
with time and movement
and the hottest fire,
we are smooth
and fiercesome, at the same time,

if we could only see.

failing and building
failing and inventing
new life.
we are fallible and infallible
darkness and light
The beams in our eyes
are always stronger than we know.

Our only true failure
is the thought
that we have failed at all.