Poetry

Tradition is

Runner beans

Shells being cracked open

Until fingers are sore -

Sitting around a table with

A game of Dutch Blitz going and

Graham crackers with peanut butter

i'd like to think that the founding fathers, the framers, the men who wore wigs & makeup & helped make all this a possibility for me, would look at our country, at the cherry blossoms refusing to bloom next to the white-columned house engr

you've felt

the brambles and sweat, 

the curl of berry-stained lips.

you've seen

the cornflower sky stolen

by a red-orange river,

the evening still thick

with lightning bugs and laughter.

those who will come next 
should cherish the time they get 
for the minutes move faster 
closer to the end 

Scared

Nervous

Terrified.

We step

One

At

A

Time

Onto

The stage.

Chairs.

Stands.

Folders.

Music.

Piano music,

Starting.

And we enter.

I always wanted to be a better player but

I didn't really understand

How.

Two years of

Sort of almost having to

Lead

Being the only one who

Really cared enough

To do my best.

I want to grow up but I don’t.

But I do

but I don’t.

But lucky for me I don’t have to make that decision.

I’m forced to grow up whether I like it or not.

She’s little

Not even 8

But she has hope 

Hope that shines

Through her blue eyes

Hope that dances

Across her face

Just like how she

Dances in the rain

Listening to Taylor Swift 

I play for a lot of things.

That smile is one of them.

When we're doing something right

And you take fast four into two

And you're smiling and grinning and in full control

And we're not falling apart

I want to

Run into the shallows

Splash in the stream

Lay in the grass

I want to

Play in the forest

Race through the ocean

Be anywhere with you

At any pace

At any time

Anything

Beneath the looming wave roar,

a fury curved by Hokusai’s hand, 

the ocean rise, like a beast unbounded,

its claws reached to crush the fragile land.

When I saw you

No, not when I 

saw you

But when I 

saw you.

That was when I knew that there was something among me that needed you

always

to be 

near me