The class begins
The hell breaks free
This chemical knowledge
Burns straight through me
I have one quest
To pass one test
But even so
My victory is
Short lived.

You're my everything
My heart is tied to you
My love sewn into you skin
My flesh to hold you closer
Tighter
And I hope that isn't pushing you away
Because you have my heart tied
My love sewn into your skin
To have you leave is to take a piece
A piece of me
My flesh broken from you
Shattered
So I say that you're my everything
And that you've got a piece of me
That I would hold you closer
Tighter
And I hope
I just hope
I carry your heart on a string
And your love into my skin
As you hold a part of me,
**And I hold a part of you.

What does it really mean to betray someone?
What if the someone means something to you?

"Friends don't go behind friends' backs to talk about them"

But that simply isn't true.
Human nature of relationships is crossing lines and building walls.
These wounds can be healed.

A true friendship has its ups and downs.
A true understanding has flexible limits.

A true betrayal occurs without reason.

For the common good of others.
And the protection of what's right.
To push aside the hypocrisy.
And to sacrifice yourself.

This is what draws the line.
Separating the right and the wrong choice.
To see the outcome before the strike.
Thinking through each move you make.

Holding on until the end.
To not betray someone called friend.

You look to the clock and wait for the bell
Work set aside for thoughts of tomorrow
Unable to endure the rest of this class
This day
This year
You view high school as the dark  tunnel of your youth
And ask if there's a light at the end
You lose the purpose among other things
Though constantly haunted by reminders of grades
College
SATs
Taken over by stress
And eaten away by  uncertainty
Forced to test your comedic abilities
But
You are built with the power of strength
Knowledge
Patience
And each day you grow in these attributes
Maximize your potential
Take weaknesses to your advantage
Now, you look to the clock and wait
Wait for the future you shaped in this class
This day
This year.

Wind whips across my face,
as I stand along the shore.
Sun burning untouched skin,
my body aching for more.
Sand slips between my fingers,
each grain soft and golden.
On my legs the sea salt lingers,
creating a scent worth holding.

All representations of life and death cross
To create a duel meaning
Holding the farthest folds of time together
Seam to seam.

A contradiction to being
The reality to burn through my own
My mind welded tight to refuse it.

A hole finds its way to my center
Eat away at me, will you?
My knowing and my conformity.

Take together the farthest folds of my mind
Tie them
Seam to seam.

As life is said to be too short
I cannot speak my complaints
Fore I have only experienced a fragment of 16
Cut from the whole of what I am to be.

The flower in me buds and wilts
Exposing a vibrancy of colours
But one force takes the importance of all.

Light
To signify the moment of opening my eyes
The first birth of my existence.

The fade is subdued until the light reaches its end
The end beyond death
Where the white of the lily glows bright
Because life lives beyond the physical deterioration
Commonly accepted by reason.

To break these boundaries of understanding
I stand with one foot in each ground
The light in my left side
Signifying my birth
Rebirth and rebirth.

The life constantly recycles itself in me
Coming to the surface in a new skin each time
The lily means Easter
A new beginning

Before my first fragment of living
I came to my first renewal of being
Halfway across the world
A resurrection to the arms of who I now call my family.

This sunday of Jesus' Easter
Was taken to the use of my own
This sunday
I took my first breath
As Lily.

The light opened my being to life
A new life
With each came a new contradiction.

The petals that once were lain so gently on my skin
Fell away
Laced together with fine strings of me
My growth, my knowledge, my understanding.

A continuum of time
Slowly taking its destructive path
Finding its way to my center.

The right side of me
Which I have not forgotten since spoken of
So many existences ago
Takes footing in reality.
The happenings of death
Necessary to take its toll before birth
Rebirth and rebirth
Leads the light in me to falter
To take cover amongst the shadows.

But as a renewal of life blooms the bud once wilted
These deaths call strongly to me
The lily of life
Represents equally a devotion to the departed.

Fragments of my being were experienced in deprivation
Losing the light a lily so desperately depends on
Moments taken advantage of
Where the death digs deeper into me
It closes in on my center.

Repeatedly the light recedes far enough
My left side falls weak
I grow in dependence of what little left of me stands tall
My right sides firmly planted in the grounds of death.

Seemingly an end to all I have once known
The lily drops its last petal
I close my eyes.

My center is open
Exposed
And in me
...

A new light is revealed
A new bud is in bloom
A new being of me has been born
Reborn and reborn.

The white light radiates new strength
New knowledge
New understanding.

As I am raised to stand tall
To set my left foot down
To take footing in the light
But I find balance.

I realize that I cannot stand at all
Without the right foot planted firmly in death
In what has led me
To all that I am
And am to be.

My mind expanded beyond any reason once reached
Filled with contradiction
And a new lily's light.

Finally,
I am able to see the farthest folds of my mind
To find them tied tight once again
Seam to seam.

In elementary school
we had
cubbies

We were small children then.

Now we put stuff
in our
cupboards

We pronounce that as cubberds

Now think of how many times
you have added  "ies" to a word
when speaking to a small child

Do you have your sockies?

Where did you put you stuffies?

...

Put your backpack in your *cubbies

It falls heavily, it falls softly, it falls...
Each carving of nature, formed by divine hands,
Made to its own unique shape,
A pebble, a stone, a monument.
Attacks free of arms, escapes free of guilt.
Leaving its mark on history without a trace.
A simple charm of luck, a complex sign of love.
Holding up the world, until the moment it must fall.
Expanding the limits to block out what once was.
A brave mountain, a gentle church,
Offering open sanctuary like a warm embrace;
Delivering gelid confinement like an icy prison.
It is abundant.
It is forever.
And always.

Why does water fall?
Gravity take its course?
Forming glass upon the ground,
A reflection at its source.
Leaving joy within our hearts,
A smile across our face.
The rain does cleanse a mind unclear,
Then laughter sets the pace.
Let the rain fall on the earth,
Let the clouds collide,
Let the puddles form beneath,
And bliss will coincide.

We stand idly, our backs against the wall
Unknowingly the darkness awaits a time to fall
Though in the glory of your presence
You offer hope; life's undying essence.

Many still fall victims,
Caught amongst the shadows.
But, Lord, you wipe away their sins,
And guide the warriors in their battles.

Each day we pray and offer thanks,
To you alone shall we devote our ankhs.
Granting praise and seeking salvation,
All connected as sisters, no divide in cognation.

You stand as our king, our prophet, our priest,
Three beings in one God, to none we owe the least.

You hold us in our struggles,
And watch your children grow in faith.
You let us fall with the gift of free will,
Yet act as a guide through life's inevitable skaith.

Now we ask for your sacred blessing,
The gift of clarity to all our guessing.
We hope for entrance into your kingdom,
Life in eternity, led by your wisdom.