I dare you to read this poem
start to finish and ponder its words
allow it to linger there in your churning thoughts
and not let it flutter off with the wind and the birds
I dare you to write a response
a poem from you to me
to answer the questions a pose in this poem
consider them carefully
Why is love so impossibly complex?
Why is time so quick to slip by?
Why do people change their mind
and curse and cheat and lie?
Why is the world so angry
Why do regrets ache so bad?
Why is it we must lose it all
before we know what we had?
Why do we get attached
and learn to care TOO much?
and yearn for unknown souls to intertwine
yet recoil at a stranger's touch?
Why do we fear so badly
emotion, love, and the risks we never take?
Why do we waste the chances we get
terrified of making a mistake?
I dare you, answer me these riddles
Humanity still struggles to figure out
for the non-existent answer
lies between reason and doubt.

There comes a time for realizations.
Realize you aren't perfect so you shouldn't try to
conform to society's shiny little frame of perfection because
it's artificial but defy definitions of
traditional beauty and perfection and create your own meaning
of flawlessness.
Realize beauty from the ashes is the
purest kind of all because
all the ugly has been burnt away.
Realize that the monsters you used to be
afraid of under your bed
are not what you should have been
fearing but the ones inside of your head,
whispering to you alongside
your inner demons and there are things
in life far scarier than the dark.
Realize there are certain types of cold
that are not wintery or measured in temperature,
the kind you don't feel but you become
and that the worst screams are silent
and not produced by lungs
but glassy eyes instead and silence
can be loud and sometimes
just because you are standing in a crowd
doesn't mean you can't be horribly lonely.
these realizations are the definition of pain
but if you trace your scars far enough back
you will find that it was all worth it
considering what you learned in the end.

Perfection is such an ugly concept.
Fortunately,
Beauty and flawlessness
are not synonyms.
Society twisted its definition though.
Into something hideous.
Something unattainable.
It's meaning has gotten tangled in the words
and lost in our worlds demented web of lies.
Pretty shouldn't have a size
and I'll be the first admit despite my shame
I'm guilty of thinking that
sometimes
before I catch myself
and remind myself
Beauty is not tangible
or even explainable
Beauty
one of the few words
that are not words
but concepts
and one of the few concepts
that are left undefinable.