Eyes are the doorway.
Enter this typically smiling place

but a frown will form;
the gut seeming stuffed with aches and pains,
even between cracks and crevices,
attempting to crumble borders.

Once silent as a whisper
this great nation
pushes and pulls
tugs and twists.
the hurt almost unbearable...

thoughts ranting and raving;
emotions racing down the drain.
once triumphant beats slow their tone;
the music soon inaudible.
all slips away...

And as heated air scalds and burns
deep beneath the flesh,
sprouting vines wind 'round ---
so suffocating.

Eyes dry as a bone
the Sahara
has become an ocean as well,
flooding the depths of that which is
my soul.