Sounds rather risqué, right?
Like an unmentionable body part.
Not a person you might care about.
No the other half of your heart.
Not my partner or sweetheart
Not my husband or my lover.
Any of those titles above
Will appropriately cover.

No, they call me your friend,
Your little buddy, your ‘thing’.
That last one I always suffer
As particularly insulting.

But, not my watchacallit,
My whatever, or such euphemisms.
They hit me like less than kind
And disapproving colloquialisms.
I mean, how would you feel
If I referred to your wife like that?
Calling her your sidekick or
Something like a stray cat?

I have no problem with asking
How my honey is doing today.
After all, that’s really who he is.
He’s my sweetheart every day.

So, think for a moment, please
Before you begin to speak.
Your lack of sensitivity can
Only make you look weak.
Just because we didn’t choose
The path you chose to take
Doesn’t mean you’re better than I
So, give this bigotry stuff a break.

He’s my partner and sweetheart
He’s my husband and my lover.
Any of those titles above
Will appropriately cover.

It tells us so much
When. A. Small. Dot. Makes. Us. Stop
We hold the power

The grand scale of things seems unimaginable
When our children listen to the legends and grow
Altering art in new amazing ways, watch their faces
So beautiful and young but still like those in their history books
Only wearing new clothes

When you showed me your words and your heart
In that moment my mind became opened to all of history
I remembered how this was only just the start
I supposed the beauty was created by me

I thought of the children

Their minds seeded on the shoulders of their heroes
Take a little here, borrow something there and create a dreamworld
You can see the cross section of youth and life in their words
In the ways they manifest beauty from something so much worse
My pens reflect the Sun's light spread like petals in their ***
I lift one out between my torn and faded fingers
And I hope I may have the privilege to be a part
Of humanity's ever changing plot

I am once again silenced at the precipice of speech
On the verge of verbal expression I falter
Stutter, mutter, fumble, and tumble over words
As if they were more than just words
And really something physical
Something I could touch

Eyes converge on my lips like a lens
Focusing the rays of indignation so it burns
Charring and shrivelling, those black paper butterflies
Flutter in my chest and tear up my insides
Moving towards my head, stop my lungs
I can't breathe
My heart is a flooded
Watergate, a dam rushing
A machine out of control
I think
I think
I think
I think
I'm on the brink
My mind is a man
In danger
His out of breath lungs breathing acid
Pursued by a hooded knife
In the lonely dark he runs
But reaches a dead end
No way out
No where to run
He spots the shape, the only escape
A silhouette in his eye
He wishes he would collapse, so he could just
Relax
Retire with a sigh
The burden off his mind
Everything gone
He would finally die

The sky departs and clouds surround
Our ship is on its way through the atmosphere
People gaze like ants from the ground
As the cockpit vibrations shake in fear

Thin wisp clouds disperse, hear the whip crack
As we climb higher over our tiny blue world
The sky darkens. Blue, navy, indigo, pitch black
We detach and float, spaced out in a whirl

I look out the window into the silence
At our planet and realise how small we all are
How big and empty is the universe
How my home is away so far

From way up here the whole world is green and blue
Humanity and its problems seem off in a dream
And the challenges I face, we face, what to do
Are no longer as hard as they once had seemed

I forgot when I
Plucked you
From the rose bush
You had thorns

The blood dripping
From my heart
Reminded me
You still hurt

Are you
In pain
Or in the ground?

Would you prefer
Silence
Or no sound?

Are you
Homeless
Or in debt?

Would you prefer
Disappointment
Or regret?


Are you
Deceased
Or confused?

Unmarried
Or abused?

Are you
Single
Or alone?

Alone
Or on your own?


When the long nights come
In a world that's all wrong

Where there are two wrong sides
To every bed
Where every sword
Has a double edge

Will you rebel
Or make a change?
Will you walk through hell
Or stay the same?

Will you use your anger
Or succumb to rage?
Will you play the part
Or take the stage?