Is it better to be absent when you lie upon a bed,
Presence close beside you, somewhere else inside your head,
Turning all the buttons in the channels of your brain,
Is it better to be all alone when absence causes pain.
Is it better to be silent when walking on the street,
Negating conversations with the lonely that you meet,
Turning face away from fears, frantic running fast,
Is it better to be silent when lonely people pass.
Is it better to be buoyant when spirit urges fall,
To try for more resilience when backed against life’s wall,
Pretending to the lonely heart that silent power wins,
Is it better to be buoyant while you flail to sink or swim.
Is it better to believe in dreams than curse the darkest clouds,
Surpassing all tempestuous with images around,
Fleeing to the hinterlands where dreamers send their prayers,
Is it better to believe in dreams than cry down oaths on never theres.
Is it better to be born a fool that never makes a plan,
Wisdom in the let it be’s instead of better than’s,
Painting pictures of their own while others purchase theirs,
Is it better to be born a fool and peddle varied wares.
Is it better to be born deaf, blind, all senses out of reach,
No touch, no taste, no scents, no sixth, distant from life, speech
Indifferent, heart of stone, oblivious to all,
Is it better to be born senseless than to feel the pain withal.
Is it better to suppress the self when angels beg their need
Though silent on a lonely cloud where usher’d tears fall, bleed,
Dripped upon the bed space where the absent hear, don’t fail,
Is it better to suppress the self when angels weep and wail.
scottishmomus 