When I first heard you
I fell in love with
your laugh

When I first saw you
I fell in love with
your smile

When I first smelled you
I fell in love with
your scent 

When I first touched you
I fell in love with
your warmth

When I first kissed you
I fell in love with
your lips

Man I feel like I want to 
stop writing about you because 

When I first thought about having you
I felt so stupid

Here I am writing poems about you
yet you still haven’t noticed me

my stanzas
my precious stanzas

how miserable I felt two poems ago
writing in single lines

I felt frustrated
what is going wrong?

I felt confused
what am I writing about?

I felt nothing
why can I not have that feeling
that joy
that excitement
that freedom
that every poet feels?

I realized 
that I had lost myself
that you were lost
that I was alone
that you were alone
my stanzas 
my beloved stanzas

every poet
starts with the individual lines

it’s their first time after all
learning the craft of poetry
but once you find her
find my stanzas
you start feeling an emotion
this extinct effervescent emotion which floods your body
feeling bursts of joy throughout the day

you feel the hugs
you feel the smiles
you feel the night sky kisses

in this world we are all finches

we all line up on the branch like soldiers side by side

ready to sing our hearts out for the hummingbird sitting by herself on the branch above

sing, she says to us

we sing, hesitating not once to speak our feelings

dance, she says to us  

so we dance, conveying our emotions through our movements

love, she says to us

and so we love, expressing our affection for her   

the dashing finches have worked so hard to win her love

but she must choose one

only one

but you see it is not fair to choose

how do you choose the one even though we are all equally eloquent?

you can’t 

for the finch who is the strongest

who has the voice which can reach all to hear

who has the ability to sing the loudest and the longest and the hardest

WELL HOW COME YOU'RE ALWAYS TOXIC WITH ME?!

OHOHOHOHOHO I’M TOXIC?! HOW ABO- 

-AND LET'S TALK ABOUT THE TIME YOU CHEATED WITH THAT DY-

*releases the deepest sigh you have ever heard*

right on cue 

this happens every few months

and it seems something out of a tv show

two people have a fight that lasts at least two episodes and then they miraculously never fight again  

but in this case it gets louder and extremer after the last timewhat do you mean last time? how many ‘last times’ have there been? which last time is it?

i don’t know or care

for every time it happens

the little eight year old girl cries with no one to console her 

My eyes lit up in wonder
as I saw the sky ta-day.

It possessed a special shade of deep blue,
with these delicate soft cloudy strokes of white.

They were all over the place!

Some were in pairs of lines
while others continued beyond the hori-
zon we could not see.

I imagine this vivid canvas was painted by God
or perhaps by God’s angels.

They seemed to be written in a 
language only we knew.

We walk under the sky,
following this sheet of music.

As the strokes are fading faster,
we discover the meaning.

So we run hard in hand
chasing after these strokes 
to see how this piece ends.

We don’t know how long 
it will take to unravel this piece,

but we do know
we will do it together.

And here we are
back to where we have started,

and I realize how
small this world is,

As I paint away with my imagination,
your face comes to mind
holding my left hand
as you kiss my scar beneath my left pinkie  
healing the pain away
as you stare into my eyes
weeping tears of joy 
as we touch, see, feel
each other again.

Shh!
It’s 11:24 again
Everyone’s asleep
I tiptoe quietly to the door

As I shut it ever so slightly,
in front of me,
you
aka my next door neighbor
aka the girl of my dreams
aka the most gorgeous person in the world

As we walk towards each other,
I gaze into you
settling my palms 
underneath your cool neck,
eye to eye,
smile at the ready
Nof if I missed you first​
;)
 

you and i 
were the unification 
of one and one
to become
one 

you and i 
were the blossoming
the flower
and the grass

you and i
were the weaving of silk
dependent
on each thread          

you and i
were the witness to    
the reader 
and the writer

you and i
were the joining together of 
lo and ve

remember the day we met at the meadow? 

how your braided petals 
spiraled endlessly,
like the loops 
in a bulb

how your voice
so soft and lovely
opened up 
like a flower 

how your head 
tilted towards the bees
extracting your 
kindness 
tearing my soul apart 

how your personality 
so tender and sweet
lifts me 
when i’m feeling down

how your face
so natural and inviting
intoxicates my mind
throughout the day

how i wish to hold your hands again
so fragile and gentle 
cool 
to the touch 

how i wish to see you again

To think 
it was another day
going to the bay
catching fish
being at the dinner table
with the grandmother, 
the fisherman,
the farmer,
the child,
eating to our hearts' content.

To think
it was another day
in 1908,
when we welcomed Chisso Corp
with open arms.

In fact,
we invited
your workers
over for fish,
but they insisted
at the dinner table,
“Oh no! Do not burden us like this!”
But they knew that the fish
were not the same.

It was because they 
produced fertilizers
with toxic chemicals 
released
into our majestic Minamata.

Because of you
the Minamata Disease was born, 
a neurological syndrome 
by mercury
causing the brain to be torn.

We soon realized
our fish,
our animals,
our bay,
our people,
were not 
the same.

The grandmother,