Shades of Gray

I alone see the blue streak in your gray pallid skies,

The one who sees the life inside your cold dead eyes.

I read the countless volumes encased inside one glance;

I know what you'd have spoken, had you thought to take the chance.

I understand the quiet man who hides beneath the dark,

The sunlight pouring on your grave, slicing through the stark.

I saw you stop the world with lead and hide behind your name,

Saw your quivering lips attempt to stifle your candle flame.

Behind the placid shield, I know, you wonder what will be.

You lie awake at night, I know, and worry for your sanity.

I saw the colored symmetries on the life you painted black,

I feel the agony in your breath, your wish to not come back.

I know the road that you have walked has tainted you with red;

Has lost you in the complications twisting in your head.

I see you try to hide your life in shades of black and gray,

And in your eyes you almost make emotions wash away.

But I'm the one who found the life within your cold dead eyes,

I alone have seen the blue within your pallid skies.

--M. Levien