HELIUM BALLOON (a poem by Franklyn Orode)

There are days when my shadow becomes so heavy on me
And I try peeling it off my sweltering skin so desperately
There are days when I watch anxiety strike the matchstick 
on my incendiary mind, dragging down my weightless body 
Along the murky corridors of memories, inundated with pains
As solitude joyfully pours out the gasoline, kindling the fires 
Until my solace becomes a smothering stack of burnt bones 

There are days when the coughing clouds spit acid on me
When rain comes pouring like prickly pieces of memories
And silence becomes a cocoon to recede into while I burn 
When sunshine feels like mosquito bites on a restless night
With all the oxygen in my room smelling like choking fumes
While fear jumps in through the windows to loot confidence

There are whiles when dusk and dawn seem like identical twins
When mornings come feeding my panicky soul with nightmares 
When nights fetch me insomnias from deep wells of toxic thoughts
And litanies like morsels of three-quarter inch gravel in my mouth 
Keeps me afloat in the puddle of my tears, while befriending hope
Which comes carrying me higher and higher like a Helium balloon