untitled

Perhaps a problem, this not believing in heaven:
there’s no set way to picture where you are,
but then I get to choose that your soul is a star.

My brave friend, you can’t die at twenty-seven–
in addition to the long year to mourn you,
I have a long five decades to remember you.

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Wanted: Alive

backstory: A friend was reading aloud from a play.

I started jotting down two words at a time, two alliterations. I ended with a list of 22 words to work into a poem:

life
line
swell
sound
alone
above
dawn
dream
sky
sea
freedom
fulfillment
several
swimming
vision
veil
mistake
man
stranger
seagull
want
wanted

Wanted: Alive

the sound and the swell: a wail, then the silencing winds;
now, the sea and the sky: the nourishing of the rising above

when the line of your dawn’s horizon is broken
you alone can still see beyond it to the new world

when the line of your life is cut in several places
you alone know you can now sew shut more holes

there is freedom to be found in admitting one’s odd vision;
there is fulfillment in pushing aside that veil of tears, of fears

the man that wanted to fly, the seagull who wanted to speak:
are they chasing a dream? no, just conquering conformity

is it a mistake to be swimming upstream, flailing, fighting?
no, little fish, it’d be stranger to want only what’s at the bottom.

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Fine. Here.

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Hazy, tired, my eyes are sore
but my eyesore: the blank page
so while my being says, "No more"
my brain still paces in its cage.

..... It has to burst free and give chase
..... for my pen can't stay in one place.

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Shelter

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Come in from the rain
Come in from the pain
By the fire, get warm
Dry out from your storm.

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The Wizard's a Fake

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He tells me I’ll see a way out of this
But I know he can’t medicate the pain
He won’t admit that this is hit or miss
He insists there’s always sun with the rain.

What he doesn’t see is that I’m the one bluebird who can’t fly over the rainbow.

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Just Put Your Mind To It

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You lie
You deny
while every day I’m mauled.

You sigh
won’t try
I’m aching, appalled.

I called
I bawled
but you just left me there to die.

I crawled
I stalled
and now you expect me to fly?

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(untitled)

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You could peek into the next room
see how to unlock your worried soul
but you took the healing offered
and you shoved it in the keyhole.

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