Putting mascara on the eyelashes below your iris,
is like making a promise to yourself that you won't cry today.
Sometimes it's a promise you keep.
Other times your tears run black with broken promises.

True beauty is complicated.
But you know it when you see it.

It doesn't exist in one person, or even two.

Rather, it's a wonderful collaborative effort
That everybody pours themselves into.
It's a universal sharing of ideas
That can be given, not a face, but rather, a heart.
A SOUL.

And I don't have to call it out or say it exists
But you know it does.
And with every word each writer scribbles
They all blend together colorfully beautifully.

What's gone has made me what I am
So I shall not fear what's ahead
But put trust in what will be, will be
And choose to live instead

I refuse to live in the now, worrying
What may or may not be
But take this moment in time
And live it totally

There's no time like the present
To breathe deep and feel alive
Living in the here and now
In each moment as I rise and thrive

Now is all there ever is
It's the only time that's real
So as the future takes its course
I’ll leave the past to heal

you placed me carefully
in a cage
labels as chains
hope as the key
left on the outside
fear as the walls
surrounding me
all to forget
the real animal
it lies within you

For everyone, I was always too much,
For you, I was never enough,
I still yearn for your touch,
I am tired of being tough.

Breathing has become a torture,
Every time I try I find myself suffocating,
I feel like a mourner,
Weeping over our ashes, waiting.

Doubt is what you gave me,
It’s crushing my lungs,
Please set me free,
I no longer want to sing tragic songs.