Seeing a small tree's death
Takes away my breath
Much more than other people's do;
For it had so much more to live
So much more life to give
Than either me or you.

i don’t want to be someone who writes in pencil
and eats too slowly and walks with eyes that
are glued to the sidewalk and tops of strangers’ feet
i’ve been underwater for so long that
i’ve forgotten lungs are meant
to be filled with air; exhaling seems
more like something found
on the second star to the right, rather
than a process that is meant to be
done twenty-three thousand times a day

i feel like an old woman who
looks in the mirror and all she can see
are wrinkles and white hair and tired eyes and
the absence of who she used to be

but i am not someone who turns away
from sunsets and pretends
that darkness is all i’ve ever known;
someone who thinks
the sun will never rise again

because the sun will rise again—
the words hiding inside of me will
find their way out, because
i cannot hold my breath forever

i am not someone who writes in pencil
and erases the bits that are too
honest and too imperfect and too real
to claim as thoughts of my own

i cannot keep my lips pursed and
hands tied behind my back,
i cannot keep pretending i am
a shadow of who i used to be

my tomorrows hold suns much
brighter than ones that have risen
over horizons of my past;
i have not reached the summit yet

there is so much more me
for me to become

each day, i am new.

I observe the suffering
of both the small and great
My heart grows heavy, I can relate
Needless pain sent from one to another
At such a cost, do we really gain?
Any peace of mind that we have done good deeds

This diverse planet we love and share
Consume blindly, why don't we care?
Actions so vile, under the guise of good
made possible by ignorance and complacency

Follow not what has been constantly told
The absence of compassion and logic grows very old
Look within for the answers we seek
Those who appear to be in power are really quite weak
Let the wave of vibrations wash over us all
Rejoice as the sand castle empire begins to fall
The sea claims what man believes to be his own
In the end its just sand and stone
Belonging to the incredible planet that is known as Earth
Along with every living organism given the gift of birth
They deserve the chance, and so do we
To bask in the light of life, and to be free.