Mother ocean,
Fin me against ruins,
Held close clam and bow.

Hey, I gotta deal with trauma before it deals with me
I think about you often but not all the time
What are you like when emotions arise?
And how do you look like when you rise?

So yeah, I dream about you
But not every night
Gotta know your strength when you open a jar
You know the maps of the world seem so dual
So what if I'm waiting until you aren't so far

See, I wonder about you sometimes
But I wouldn't choose you over me
Think what you think
But I wouldn't change a thing

Yeah, I know.
Yet, I'm still here.
While you're so chill and cute in my mind.

Just like the spots on my bedroom floor
And the coffee I drop
No matter how slowly I walk
I slip & spill
Why do you always make me feel
Is there something more I need?
So I keep tripping and splashing
because that is all I know
I plan to dive in to get to know you
Like I know every split end of my own
Then maybe just maybe
you’ll turn into crystal clear liquid gold
You are just water to me
But I wish you could purify me
Only you are coffee
And you ever only always stain

Hey, I’m Arcadya. And I’m addicted to happiness & I don’t like to cry. Though, I have cried in the face of happiness more often than I try. I used to write love poems but now they are all about me. I’m also a runner & I can run so fast before you can blink an eye. And I’m sorry if I left you behind. Know that I have a lot to learn and there is a war within I needed to fight. I just got so inspired. My buttons were pushed & I just got so **** high.

Hi, I’m also called A. And I’m addicted to self-improvement, the search, & the high. I’d go to high stakes just to feel alive. And I refuse to drink drugs, cause I wanna do it on my own. Here is a little on my soul, it looks like the devil & sometimes I just wanna be so ******* bad. And trust me I don’t need to be saved. And I don’t **** around. I’m in love with the hunt itself. And it's true I have a lot to learn. And the lone wolf **** is hard to die. And God knows I need to learn to lean. But if you are still around, know that you really light my fire. So, if you are still with me. This means you can keep up. And man, I **** with that. I dreamed of a world who knew the real me other than the ones I count on my hand.  

So hi, I’m Danya & there is more to me than what meets the eye. And trust me I only get better with time. Don’t get it twisted, I’m a sweetie at heart. My momma taught me right. Yet, my daddy made me tough. So, I’m always at my prime. And I’m laying this all out on the line cause I said **** It, I’m gonna fly high-class with my art in one hand and my heart in the other. Cause I do it for love not validation. And you’ll be seeing me in the city flashing lights.

One moment she was there and the next she was gone,
I remember the harmful and the favorable,
Even though she caused wounds, she still did not deserve to be demised,
Dreams in her eyes killed by the men who stole her force,
Still, she is the one to be charged.
Loved ones sit at her funeral remembering the delicacy she once was,
Her last days were far from first rate,
But she could have stayed
I stepped in her rope, the last she was traced,
One moment she was here and the next she was gone.

He steps on my toes
You could say I have the whoa's
When kisses blow
I never met someone like you
You smell of good things
Some of my favorite things
Spill em into pieces
Show me something only phases can see
I'm too weak
My heart can't heal
I can't part ways
I just can't deal
Just ask me again
So I can finally say
All the things I could
Never say.

He was a killer
He’d never call himself a manipulator
He once called her Aphrodite
Now he'd call her a stealer

He was a smooth dancer,
He did it for pay until it became less for play
He was a smooth talker
He always knew what to say
How to say it
He wrote them in poems
Hoping she'd read between them
But she chose to never see

He saw himself as selfless
But why did he portray and play
She was Coquette
He was a fool, so he'd lose
She saw herself in search of something pure
Gravity pulled her to another
Someone she could never forget

Now I can't wait to forget you
But still I have love for you
Wish you'd find love within you

He was a book of burned pages
While She was a firecracker
Setting fire to all pages that came her way.

How are you?
How you been?
But tell me
Please, why do you have to fill the space?
With your voice
Are you scared?
So, tell me now
Do you really care?
All these feelings boiling up to the surface
So, all I say is: I've been better.
Cause that's all I can say.
I'm trying to be authentic to myself
Sorry I'm not sorry it makes you feel uncomfortable
Hopefully, it's too much for you
So conversations end here
Or you say blah blah “everything will be alright.”
It's not that simple.
But now I know
If I don't want to speak
I'll simply say: I've been better.

And if you are smart enough
It ends there.

What a child
He knows how to play
He speaks in silence
Holds his tongue
His eyes read worlds of wonder
He's feeling the pressure to
Become now a man
But don't forget my dear
Don't fear and learn to steer
Honor yourself
Feel those feelings
Don't push them away
Trust yourself
You were so authentic that day
I wish you well
And hope you stress
Some time to play

Walls cover my heart
Walls shove me apart
Speak in honor
Just a girl who is letting go

So nice, so nice
You seem so nice
Once nice, once nice
They seem like lies
So, I guess I'm not that nice
Sit at tables of high opinions and high voices
I just want to runway
They all seem so nice
Not at all superior

I'm just my father's daughter
He showed me how to stand my ground
Well, I guess we aren't that nice

Secluded
Lost in a Trance
I never want to Wake Up
Unlatch or Wear Me Out
Fascination all around
Immersed
Unwrap me or Throw Me Away
I'm Dying to Bring to Light
What's on the tip of my tongue
Simulation Under wraps
Hush, Hush
Broadcast of the Night
Bare all Night
Confined in a Castle in the Air
Call it a Daydream or a Pie in the Sky
Just Store me
Release me on a Lonely Night
This is my Sacred Word
My Promissory Note

Infatuation,

Expedited deep blue,
Quick sand and double time,
Full vanity.

Intermission,

Recall and evoke,
Your inner beauty,
Cost and stature.

You forget as easily as forgetting an umbrella on a train
You were double-dealing
You were forced to discover
Nothing fades when the door is forced closed
You see the parts that would bore you
Because they would bore me too
So, you visualize & visualize sometimes  
Sagas that run off the page
The only way you can cross the line
Because you are human
And you desire what you cannot have
You realize what you have money cannot buy
But still, you wonder & wonder  
Because you are only human
Still, you have everyone convinced
You have told lies on top of lies that now  
Somehow seem true
Everyone is so convinced
But what if the joke is on you?
So, you keep your hands tied as long as you can
Hoping all of this will be worth the time
But God holds your truth tight
The only one who knows
What is authentic & pure.

it's only a matter of time before i throw you away
an old wrapper
a flavor i am over

so honest so real
why do I lie?
and put on a mask?
perspectives you see

aggressive aggressive
i bathe in passivity


heartless and careless
i build you up
but if you can't keep up
boy, bye

boring boring
if I’m not entertained
well this is goodbye

it's not personal
it is what it is
we all have an expiration date
and honey, yours is up

resentment is all i know
if you were excluded from your own blood
you would do the same

it's only a matter of time
until they do it to you too.

He’s ahead, memorizing my patterns to avoid questions that don’t want answers
Heart streams of warm pastels is how he feels
I enjoy swimming in your baby blues
Fresh air, on shores
Unanswered questions, but the wind whispers, “You can go a while longer.”
So I pocket the questions

You hold the power within, trust, and breathe
We are tidepools eyes locked
You will get all the answers you need.

Presence is only found here
So count your blessings because this moment will soon disappear
I am so curious, curious moments, are you curious too?

A spacious yes
Like the air of a first spring day
He leaves space to feel and sigh

Groundedness yet playfulness
Set a safe ground for both of us
Together, to finally heal.

Words of seeking fair,
Like drifting glass lost at sea.

Head above water,
Break Free.

The dark night of the soul
Is not for the dual and the cruel
To my anxiety, darkness, and depression
You have erased my image
Taken and deepened my sleep
Just give up, lose the grip, and just lose the grasp

You have no command
Just my notes of sadness
If you can't understand this path
Just be gone

Shame on you
Like a flicker of a candle
I try to hold onto the night
Like I hold onto the reasons
The truth is I am running out of excuses
I am so tired of being afraid
Breathing itself you were in my hand
But I keep asking questions
Answers already sewn into my deep dark soul
Strain and tension
I am a golden okay
My heart, my soul, my mind, my beloved
You have done so well
Congratulations
You are the evening mixer
The morning elixir.

Oh, mother ocean,
Anchor me with salt and sand,
Tides of wonder ashore.

You honor your emotions and how you feel, even if it disappoints him. You give him space to make it up to you. You practice letting go even if it's hard for you. You stay open, hope for the best, but know that either way, you will be ok. A man who cannot honor your boundaries and respect your time wasn't worth it anyway. Simple instructions: Call her and reschedule. A woman doesn't wait, she lives her life with or without him. He is not powerless, he always has a choice to turn things around. Let him show you who he is. He can redeem himself. Sit back and relax. To build a strong foundation, it takes the two of you. But you set the standard.

Refine and persist,
Flow and lean into the unknown,
The secret of design.

Can I trace someone’s edges without erasing my own?
Can I open the door, and still keep walking myself home?

Let me fall in love,
Like petals, not like thorns,
Bare feet firmly rooted.

I hold the answers,
I am the answer.

But remember, if your petals never bloom,
Then who will ever witness your soft essence and know you well?

So tell me, Goddess of love,
Is there a way to fall in love without being overtaken and being consumed?

He held my stitched soul’s attitude, honesty, and bluntness
He shadow lit my strength as an empowered woman, not as fractured glass
He knew our brilliance, and how they directed rage towards us
Mosaic man on radio repeat in my mind
Repurposed tenderness, curious, willing to learn
Mirror man, a feminist man, a really good quality man
Ten words a second, a talker, reaffirming my museum of mannerisms
A woman, not a girl

These views, language, and experiences are not yours but hand-me-down feminism
The women you slept with silk spined, open relationships, queer and lipstick logics
Spiral of boredom, you loved these women until you fell apart, holding on to them tightly, you femme forged their rosewater rage
Moonlit grit, vulnerability, zero *****, causality, poems turned into pages of your lovers of a bunch of *******
Not you but echo's of me, calling myself back home

I gave you mirror spells in laughs, wishful thinking, holograms of hope, that maybe this time could be a coming to finally become
I gave you images of complex womanhood through TV shows and pop girls
I reminded you of the treasures women have despite adversities, phoenix fragments and the ******* patriarchy
I gave you a new perspective you never heard of, nor could you comprehend
You have my inheritance of insight
Poems to unstuck your artistic block

Political awareness, my skin, my story, hidden in shame, buried under my ***** roots
They never left, reawakened, always within me
Piece by shining piece to regrow once again what was once forgotten
Never looking to a man with wild forged grace, it’s all within me, a ritual of return I always had and never really lost
You and I the unwritten story of us, so you will always remain borrowed light that was returned with interest

Your name fades in smoke as I remain
Your mosaic of magic, an illusion, when really, it was my brilliance
It was mine all along, what I gave away
What I forgot I could be, now I remember, now I return.