Poetry

We manifest our fear in our hands, as physical things; sometimes it pricks at our skin and leaves marks, sometimes it results in stiff fingers, cracking from a stiffened clench.

Close your eyes

Spin around

And point

Choose the felon

Choose the victim

Watch the tears fall

In joy

Gratefullness

Or

In sadness

Pain

Shrug

Because to you

The sun's glitter and

soft kisses from butterflies;

My heart fluttering.

Your hands cup my tears,

I always come back to you.

You make me smile.

My knees grew weak I didn’t know how much longer I could hold on, the air felt thin and empty. I reached into my bag for some relief but I was met with empty packaging.

It was like your second cousin,

the one who stopped coming

to Thanksgiving

most of the time

but shows up sometimes

and you remember a picture

of her holding baby you

with blond curls and energy always

i wanted to be a writer

collected words to form my thoughts

                              to dictate what i felt but couldn't say

Once, we believed in the Tooth Fairy,
a girl in glitter with sparkly wings,
who would sneak in the dark,
to swap teeth for quarters,
as if they were treasures,
as if our childhood decay
was worth more than gold.

Am I the rainbow or the rain that makes it?
You ask, but it’s me asking, too.
Do I paint the sky with color,
or am I the prism that bends the light?

One voice says: You are a song played in a minor key,

What a beautiful season

Yet i wish I knew what was going on

Behind my back

The memories I wish were gone

It happened right in front of me

But my eyes were to blind to see

Was it all a lie

i know all the words, of course. who doesn't? we are practically

brainwashed into our knowing, having to stand and face the flag

(when did you learn that it was hand over heart &

People say I should be--

Pristine

Presentable

Profitable

Prominent

Pretty

Petite

Polite

Pleasant

Perfect

Which one?