Survive: Collected Poems

Negative Space

Why is it so easy
For me to find the words
To pull you away from the blade,
Away from the brink of death,
When I'm struggling so hard
To keep myself back
From the sweet sting of a steel wasp?

We are hypocrites
With contradictory charges,
Pulled together but not enough
To finally connect.
We are hypocrites
In orbit,
A constant dance of electronegativity.
We can never touch —
But we're strong enough
To keep each other in orbit,
To keep each other from spiraling
Into the vacuum of negative space.

Negative space.
Isn't that where we already are?
Two pessimists,
Creating their own storms,
Only ever optimistic about each other.
So what would happen
If we broke out of orbit?
Is positive space the opposite
Of negative?
How could any space without you
Be positive?

Perhaps negative space only refers
To the spaces in which we are alone.
For the pressure of magnetism
And the equal distribution of an orbit
Is far better than the one-sided
Implosive pressure of being alone.

Then despite the buzzing of ions
Clashing like titans in the air
Around us,
Despite the fact that we are surrounded
By an invisible war,
Our space is positive,
If only because our eyes meet
In a collision of galaxies,
And our voices are heard above
The void,
If only by each other.

Our space is only negative
If we make it so.
But we are pessimists.
What are we to do?
Hypocrites and pessimists,
Each living in our own negative spaces,
Pointing at each other
And each trying their utmost
To turn the other's space positive.
Anything for each other.
But not for ourselves.
What are we doing?
This can only go on for so long.
Wake up.
If you want to save others
From breaking out of orbit
You must also save yourself.

Don't worry.
We won't break out of orbit
If we both change our charges.
Let us both change our charges
To positive.
There is no need to return
To our solitary negative spaces.
We need not let go of each other.
Perhaps our charges are too strong
For us to join hands,
But we will remain
In each other's sights.
The glimmer of our eyes
Reassuring us
And igniting our frozen bones.