There's a part of me
That cannot be bound
By any ties of time & space

It's the part of me
That lives
In all the corners of the world
I've yet to step
And in the hearts of all the people
I've yet to meet
And in all the decades and centuries
that led until the day of my birth

This is the part of me
That aches at night
And wakes me every morning
Reminding me
What it means
To be alive

I don't want to give
the monsters in me
A chance to slay you
Before I have my chance
to slay them

Only to find out
These monsters might make me whole
And maybe I will keep them after all

Because maybe these monsters
Fight for the parts of me
You love the most

We were like zombies
With coffee running through our veins; and
Unconscious thoughts travelling through our fingers
While the world was falling to our feet

And each day
We picked up our weapons
Our keyboards and our coffee
And we fought
The war of the American dream
Only to wonder

Who we were really fighting for…?

~JLH~

It's flower crowns
And shimmering gowns

Its dancing with a broken heart
Looking together
But feeling so apart

It's a mustang's engine coughing into the night
And stepping through the gymnasium's doors
Into the light

I thought Homecoming was about coming home
To everyone else
Not realizing Homecoming meant
Coming Home To myself

I sit under the moon
And the night takes hold of me
It steals me away
Until Dawn
It hands me back to the sun
And I will rise for daylight

But in between
Being taken by the night
And being given to the day
I will dream
I will see this earth's
Brightest and darkest moments
And I will see everything in between
I will see it in my dreams

And then I will rise
And I will live in the sunlight
Only to be taken by the night again
And see all the world's color
I see it in my dreams
Every night

She had no idea
What she looked like
Until she found herself on paper

She was no longer
Just a collection
Of cells, skins, and thoughts
Limited by
Where she ended
And the world began

Words on paper
Turned her insides out
And the outside entered in

This is how she entered the world
On paper

It began with a poem, from a stranger
The poet's despair, hope, and bliss
Whispered to her own despair, hope, and bliss
The truth of another
Unlocked the truth of her own

Then she dreamt the dreams
Of her most distant ancestors
Her world stretching bigger

The trees began to inhabit her
The truth of their roots
Rooting within her

Writing
Unlocked the secrets of Strangers,
The Secrets of her ancestors
And the Secrets of Mother Nature
And she found herself there
She shared their truths

First she found herself on paper
Then she found herself in the world