.

On an island
in the midst of the crowded city street
Traffic lights blink
as colored tear drops hit the pavement

One way signs
all seem to point in your direction
casting aspersions,
via black and white arrows

Sidewalks filled
with throngs of gawking onlookers,
mouths wide open,
peering from the side of their faces

The deepening sadness
leaves you vulnerable to prying eyes
leering at your flesh,
exposed to high rise windows

You hang your head,
chin against your unclothed chest
and you see not one,
but two shadows on the asphalt

Suddenly you are
draped in the finest cloth money can buy,
shielded from the audience
who now divert their attention elsewhere

Turning, you see a friend,
naked, as his clothing now adorns your body
and you feel safe
with him at least for the moment

and sometimes a moment is all that is needed

When I was eight
At the park

Playing football
Getting dark

Older kids
Stole our ball

I can't stand bullies
Not at all

Then out of the blue
Three more kids appear

Did I mention they're black
So now I felt fear

But to my surprise, they said
Give the ball back!

What's going on?
I thought they were black

This confused my young mind
From all I was told

Stay away from the blacks
Or you'll never grow old

That one little act
Fifty years ago now

Changed the way I see color
Changed my vision and how

Today I was out
With my eight year old son

God, how I love him
We're having such fun

Then I see someone starring
No, it's more like a glare

I can't be that ugly
It must be my hair

Then an old thought creeps in
From way, way, way, back

She's glaring at us cause
I'm white, and he's black

So my prayer for this world
And I hope you don't mind

Is the day we can say
We're all color blind!

Amen

motions, like sky breezes
dancing along the Milky way
we crept decoratively
hand in hand

to the masculine side and back
me leading then you
followed along the firefly
paths

there we met hand in hand
breast to chest
woman to man
in majesty

Do you mean the ones who live on the other side?
Clear across the ocean, two miles in from the tide?

The ones that live with little means or the ones that live like we were meant to?
That work, play, stress, fear, and cry, just like we do?

The men who were created from the earth and the women from Adam's rib?
The ones who fall asleep staring at the same galaxies wondering if we're all there is?

Do you mean the ones in straw houses near dirt roads?
That learn how to survive on the land and wear the clothes that they sew?

Others and me,
I'm sorry, pardon me... I'm just slightly confused
Because when I think of them, I think of me
I can't separate the two.

When you took your last breath
I died.

Mum❤

My body is the planet
My heart is the people.
It is fighting itself.
The blood popping from their vessels like the volcanoes erupting.
My heart hates itself.
No more than the mirror on the shelf.
My body is evolving.
My body as the planet,
But somehow my emotions are changing with the tide of the ocean.
The people hope for a promotion,
Like the brain in all glory,
This, this is my planets story.
Each scar is a war,
Originating from the heart of pain.
Beneath the scars there are bones,
The support of my world,
The atmosphere,
Keeping all that is bad out,
But yet the bones keep breaking.
These seeds of evil keep coming out,
And I am feeling dark.
These bones,
The atmosphere is breaking
The ozone becoming as thin as paper,
My bones as paper shall break.
This planet of mine,
This body of mine,
Has something to see.
These eyes as oceans,
They flow within me.
The oceans as eyes so calming.
Stood in the dark place, but the water remains.
The one thing that holds beauty when the people’s actions do not,
This is the area in which we are taught
To read people.
When you look in my eyes,
Though not blue,
You will see life.
Life as the sea, because there is a world within the waters.
So much life and profound hope to be seen,
And here is where you look.
These eyes see sadness just as the oceans become *****,
You can poison the heart, the people.
You can break the bones, he land, and tear them to shreds,
But the eyes, the oceans will move on.
It will roar.
And the brain you ask,
This brain is the main part in which I operate.
It is the history of which Ive seen and what Ive not,
Learning from its mistakes and taking the past as learning tools,
Not criticizing the last fools.
My brain sees the unseen.
My brain is not the people,
For not everyone understands the past.
My brain is not the land, not the bones,
Because bones will fall.
My brain is history.
And history is not to be forgotten.

.
In a destined voice I shall speak my heart
beyond waning sunsets with colorful smiles
and fields of dancing sunflowers,
waving at me in the breeze like they know me

Standing here above all else,
feeling taller than I should
builds a certain strength in my soul,
energizes this tired, once worn out man with new life

Breathing the altitude’s wintered air,
a rush of splendor entices a gleam in my eye
For whatever beauty I may see, there is always her
and I can truly look nowhere else

I have climbed this peak, fought the terrain, the cold,
clawed and scraped on this day
so that the world below, humming autumn tunes,
meandering like ants performing their duties

Would know what I am about to say,
in this moment of peaceful serenity,
eyes wide open, conquering my fears,
pulse racing in fevered flow as anticipation swells, is true

Taking a deeper breath burns my lungs, but in a good way
as I move two steps closer to the edge, gather my balance
and shout from this apex of the world,
“I love you more than anything”
in hopes my desperate echoes find her listening

All strung
out
       on
sadness,
empty shells
of needles
      that injected
the next defense
      to keep me going
splayed upon
the coldness
            of metal
somewhere in a place
lower than
the floorboards
of the nether regions
of a private hell,
where no one sees
      the truth behind
the doors of
           beaten swords
of silken pictures
in frothy shades
of effervescent green
a smiling happy family
in which the
sounds of drowning
can only be
             vaguely heard
a faded gurgle
       in an ocean of sighs

Somewhere, there,
the pain in my veins
spreads like
a self-administered
                       drug
only it's not
my prescription, at all
just a parody
from the very
    sick doctor
who shares
          this house,
meant to
be a home
one who thinks
he knows it all
but knows nothing

In this dreamlike weaving
of staring blankly
into alternative spaces
when all is so heavy
that even breathing is a task
I suddenly remember
   who the **** I am
and push my gaze through
the ceiling cracks
to look up at
         the stars,
receiving their
            shadows
           of light
      like a blessing
   upon my
   nettle-stung
    tongue
and
       rise