I would suffer for you. Black and blue know no pain like being without you. You are the world to me. I am afraid of what I would be if you were not there to guide me. Nobody may know, or even agree that we are meant to be, but they aren’t us. They don’t know what we know, or understand happiness as we know it. Love… is immaterial. More than flesh and blood, more than money, more than relationships...

I can get drunk on the way you smile. Every piece of me hides in the dark until you saunter over with your home-made laughter.

You’re deadly, in just the right mixture in the day and night. You could kill people with the way you make them feel—terrible with how they abuse your kindness or emphatic with how they feel safe, listened to, and understood.

You show that purity and strength are an ex...

Murder… I told the priest.

An egregious sin to say the least.

I’ve killed myself all too well.

That’s a pretty bad circle of hell.

I’ve stolen moments and I’ve lied

To try to keep my options wide.

I’ve chosen pride over humility

In an attempt to hide ambiguity.

I’ve been so angry and so greedy

And ignored friends who I deemed needy.

I’ve followed my heart a little too fast;

Ensured relationsh...

It’s this dream again. I really hate this dream.

“Hello?” No response. “Hello??”

Again, nothing. The water seems too eerily still; even my yelling leaves the surface undisturbed. And this brisk, wet coldness that seems to coat my fingertips, nose, and cheeks is accompanied by no breeze.

I feel like a wet sock—or maybe a dewy blade of grass.

Instinctually, I think to reach for the pocket of m...

A revelation! Elation

In flight of or in spite of

Despair from unfair

Choices and voices

That lead the need

To end a journey where

Knowing less or

Not at all

Isn’t all that’s there.

An epiphany! And any

Newfound sounds

Of discovery uncovering

Truth; unseen meaning

Hidden and forbidden

From view until

You learn

To start living.

A rhyme! A time

For control that tolls

A bell of order well

Until ...

Life is like a sharp stick…

One day, you fall off a branch and someone finds you. And they decide you are one of many things, possibly many different useful things at once. Poetically, you only need to be what you are. And that’s life—you are only what you are, aren’t you?

I think I’ve based everything I’ve ever been good at to learning how to be useful. It’s nice to be needed, right? When someo...

It’s time to try. My throat is dry and my heart is sinking, and my fingertips are so numb I can barely move my hands. But it’s time to speak up, or he will never know.

“Hey, I need to tell you something.” Stop shaking, please stop shaking.

“Yeah? What’s up?” He turns around. It has been a quiet walk back to his place so I don’t blame whatever tension he feels after 20 long minutes of silence.

“...

Unlike owls who can turn their necks to ungodly degrees for viewing predators, I can sense when you have not practiced your Spanish. I do not have to look very far for that, honestly. My big eyes see nighttime practicers.

I see through data and patterns, hunt unlit streaks, and alert students who are falling behind with sarcasm. Hoo-hoo? More like who…needs to tell me what sie is in German, righ...

Memory is what drove me.

It used to make me so angry.

And that gave me the strength

To conquer whatever I dreamed of doing.

One day, I decided

That being angry no longer suited me

Because it also came with a lot

Of unresolved pain

And anger towards my mother

Who did her best to raise me

Given everything she was faced with.

All the challenges

I didn’t know

Because she was walking a path

Nobody in...

Embrace me,

For I am an escapist

Who never fails

To belong

In the wrong

Places.

I am so used to my freedom.

So much so, that choices

Tie me down to consequences

That I asked for in good

Consciousness;

Knowing me—

I asked for flowers

And was met with rain.

When will I grow up?

I’ve been soaked in blessings

But my root rot

I could never seem to cure.

Bloom where you’re planted…

But staying in o...