Toronto Poetry Slam - Online open mic

When I'm gone...
Know that I came here with hope,
That I banged my heart like a drum to the music of your voices
I was ready to bleed crimson catharsis for the cadence you carried me into
Held my head higher than ever before like I was suddenly a giraffe
And yet like that aloof and caricatured character;
I stuck my neck out,
I felt the dull thud of blunt instruments
And so I am scarred
But it is a mark of pride to have been here
To have breathed with each battle a cry of joy
To have been stung by the bug of beauty
When I’m gone...
Know that I said I loved you, because I meant it
Just in a far-off, long distance relationship sort of way
How it was always easier with an isthmus between us
As though the estuary of ephemeral could be sullied
There are too many bones in the river these days...
And I fear that we are choking,
But know this,
Know it well,
There was fire in the veins of a mortal
There were wings on the chipped shoulders of pride
We were glued together feather dusters, but dammit;
We were ready to fly
And we may not yet be clipped
Grounded
As our words
There is still hope,
Know this
Please believe this
Long after the greyness fades
When the rainbow returns to our purpose
Where passion adapts to cliff-faced crags
And ego scrapes its knees
We came here to weep, laugh, crash...
Our societal accepted selves were dropped on the floor
Like dance moves grooving beyond telepathy
Know that we believed in each other
We called ourselves sisters and brothers
We were children playing a game
Never knowing how easily it would be
To blame
To forfeit opportunity for finances
To crush each others rib cage while stepping out of our hearts
We have thrown our last dart at truth
Our last medicine absorbed by the disease
When I am gone,
Remember the voices of the dead,
As we came for hope
To believe
In anything other than the Olympics of wordplay
In the spirit of haunted beings
We were being real
And it was a dream...
But everyone wakes up eventually
And has to leave...