forward future

the world only

contains laughter

if you silence your own

and look long enough

to not find it

and realize that

you wasted your time

with the sea that massages

the land and the birds that sing

songs they barely understand and

the people who you never got to know

for you were always there like woe

quiet

listening

for the laughter that never came

until it did,

after all those moments lost,

from you

*

the world is

a joke without

a punchline

and a laugh

without a gut

that somehow still

produces a mess afterwards

and words alike

*

hope in the future

doesn’t hold much

hope for the future