Perfectly imperfect,
I like your quirks.

Hair as smooth as chocolate gelato,
my boy from Montescaglioso.

Skin ain't bright like a tangerine (though you're sweet as one),
but as dark as the moon who married the sun.

Almond shaped eyes,
blaze without doping.

Arctic Monkeys were right,
I could't stop dreaming about you nearly every single night.

And that smile,
that god awful smile that releases like Frank's albums,
without even realizing that you're taking me with the tide.

Sometimes the world forgets to notice but,
Ti ricorderò per sempre
*I will remember you forever

A daughter gives birth to a daughter,
Unknown and untouched, a stranger among strangers.

Her eyes are as big as the smile on her mama’s face,

Her being fills the tired and aching crevices of her mother’s body
As she soothes the pressure her mother has had to carry for a while now.

She looks at her daughter, really takes a look at her.

Her pale golden brown skin reminds her of the chai she used to make at home, the pungent aroma filling the entirety of the tiny bungalow cluttered with metallic pots and pans,
She still didn’t find uses for all of them.

Over here, there are strange phrases on these tea boxes, marked up with words like “real” and “authentic!” And it tastes stranger everything tastes so…bland.

She’s trying to fit into this movie poster with America as the Director and immigrants as actors, and the neon yellow flashing bulbs ceremoniously decorated around the word “diverse” because nothing feels right, even the clothes merely trying to cling onto her bare skin, as if they don’t know how to fit her.

Tiny movements and a tiny heartbeat,
And she knows why she came here.

Knowing that her daughter will never have to feel those salty tears produced by the paranoia of the unknown, making everything seem so bitter.

Knowing that tonight, and every other night, her daughter will be tucked under a blanket of opportunity,
And laying on a bed of dreams.

She stares out of the window, the warm summer breeze making her cozy and she soon blends in with the darkness of the night, hoping that everyday her daughter would be able to sleep as easily as she did tonight.

Love will remember.

When it's permanently etched into the veins
of the leaves,
barely clinging onto the branches of the trees,
waving not goodbye,
but until next time.

When it's nestled into the u-shaped symbol
our mouths make when we feel something
so tremendously warm,
that we cannot contain it anymore.

When it's powdered in the snow by our footprints,
keeping our bodies from floating away,
no fear.

When our cold breaths catch in our throats
as the words are frozen,
replaced by the sounds of our rhythmic heart
beats,
loud enough to replace our need to ******* scream
our feelings.

Cold bodies, warm hearts.

God, it's so hard to write these days.

My hands quiver from the cold silence in the house,
My thoughts tremble like a leaf just barely attached
to a tree,
the wind silently waiting to sweep it away,
no mercy. Just like them.

They think I'm still here,
but they've lost me a long time ago.

I am just like them,
ghosts attached to a physical being,
haunted by everything.

But they cannot revive themselves.
I can.

I have not locked away all my pieces like them,
I am tender and I will not be numb.

Breathing.

Do you see what we've become?
Do you see how you've drilled your
filth in our sore skulls?

The throbbing pain we try so hard to numb,
gritting our teeth so hard to try to permanently
keep our mouths shut in fear of letting loose
our tongue.

I have self-control. She doesn't.
And one day, you'll lose another one.

And you'll foolishly try to throw a life-jacket,
but I'd rather drown.

So for now, she'll sit quietly spewing venom,
silently realizing how much freedom she really has.

And then ****, just like that,
she'll no longer be ******* the lifeless air,
but vanish into it.

Do you think this is a game?

Breaking hearts with no shame,
wiping your guilty hands and
doing it all over again.

You take, take,take,
but the weird thing is
you give as well.

You give lies upon lies to
keep yourself up high,
trying to stabilize.

But one day your river will run dry,
and you'll lay in the cracks wondering why.

Dear someone,
be careful with your heart.

Don't let it out too long,
don't let it break apart.

They will try to rip it away from you,
and when you get it back,
you will be merely holding scraps of it.

Dear someone,
be gentle to yourself.

I know you just want to feel warm again,
to not be shivering from the lack of love.

But take care of yourself first.