Poetry

We need more joy in this world, 

we need less of this depressing sense of life, 

when everything around us is so beautiful. 

But we only look through a gray lens to see it. 

her voice sounded heavy to her, filled

with the unnamed emotion

everyone had told her to expect. except

she hadn't. she'd rolled

her eyes at the shiny pamphlets and blog posts

Humid air drifts through the streets

Carrying the scent of damp leaves

The birds sing songs of joy 

While gathering food for their young

Flowers begin to sprout among the grass and moss

A close companion

love, appreciation, happiness,

a place to go

comfort, recognition, excitement,

until the companion disappears

sadness, confusion, loneliness,

and the place to go is empty

I'm an artificial human

Thanks to the drugs

I'm full of artificial feelings

And artificial love

Real emotions hurt

But I'll be alright

So long as my prescription

Is refilled on time

A grandmother bakes

A batch of warm cookies

Peppered with butterscotch chips,

A chocolate kiss pressed in the center,

For her grandchildren

It starts with rain.

Sometimes it comes slowly with a drizzle,

but this time,

it starts without any warning.

The rain drops from the sky

in powerful sheets

and the world lights up for a fraction of a second

You’re everywhere I look—

I can’t escape the photos we took.

This haunting obsession

I thought had passed returns,

sharp—

sudden,

like a looking glass.

We were happier then—

Kiss where ink and flesh align,

carved to summon touch.

Skip the space between my lips,

spewing oaths of love.

You feed me want— then starve me dry.

A feast of glances,

You aren’t what I need to breathe like a fish out of water

Aren’t what I desire nor the sounds of laughter

That make me smile.

“Liberty and Justice for All”

Liberty and justice 

For people who are men

For people who are white

For people who are heterosexual

For people who are rich

Overwhelmed

by everything unexplainable,

everything that can't be put into words.

There is too much that needs to be let go

so it comes out silently,

but is never fully gone.