Sipping From Fragments Of Dreams Poem by Abby Koning

Dreams
Are as starlight in my eyes
Carving rivulets in my cheeks,
(oh, such anguish)
Racing through the air
To splash on the ground
In a puddle of tragedy,
Drenching my feet
In sorrow and starlight and tears

Infinitesimal razor-edged stars
Slice into the rubber soles
Of my ‘impenetrable’ tennis shoes
And torment
My even more ‘impenetrable’
Inner soul
Causing pain upon pain
Even as they diminish
And melt away

My tears dissolve the stars.

My feet are immersed in a shimmering liquid
I lower myself to hands and knees
And cup the opiate liquid
In my filthy hands

I drink of fragments of shattered dreams
I drink of loss and emptiness and worthlessness
I drink of unfulfilled desires
Of promises
Of hopelessness

The taste is bitter-sweet.
My soul aches.
My stomach churns.