Poetry

You tiptoe around

Your feelings

Keep them in a bag

With a zipper

And zip them up

You say you're like lemonade

You can be sweet

But you can be sour

And people told you

We have something to learn from

(the toddler who smiled

while he peeled his banana

and ate it in five bites

and gave us all high fives)

(the lady with orange glasses gray hair 

Everyone likes

Vanilla ice cream

But chocolate 

Is better

So they take chocolate

And the vanilla ice cream

Just sits there

And melts

Until it's just a puddle

Everyone likes

As a little kid

People used to tell me

How they would love

T0 get in my head

And see where my

Questions

Ideas

Thoughts

Answers

Come from

I bet they thought it would be

This road starts but never ends

It has choices but never a decision

This road loves and never hates

It continues and never stops

This road is improvised by all step foot upon it

It inspires and changes

Revolutions are bathed in blood,

In death, betrayals, and cruelty.

Yet, we often associate them with freedom,

The oppressed rising against the oppressors.

You trace the ridges of the flower.

The sole daisy in this field.

A dot of yellow against a vibrant green.

Your toes burrow in the dirt.

The soil covering your feet.

At dusk, the city climbs into trees. Streetlights fold into branches; apartments blink like nesting owls. Commuters dangle from vines in tailored suits, sipping moonlight through trembling leaves. You knock on my bark-body, and I let you in.

What if I never find it?

What if all of this is for nothing?

I've been hurt by caring before.

It's easier not to...but it's been a freedom for me.

I don't want to give that up.

I want to take the next step.

My soul feels like a broken doll left on the shelf that hasn't been touched in years, my porcelain face cracking as my smile begins to fade, something that took so long to perfect. 

There is a different version of me that leaks out,

dripping ink on these pages,

hollow and raw,

saying all my thoughts.

A flow of words that may have never left my head,

Here you lie,

Upon the grass,

Clover disguising your fragile body.

Far away from your nest and kin,

How did you get here?

Ruining your innocence

Ruining mine

Comes the wheel -