If you try looking out for the well-being of yourself
you're not looking out for the well-being of others.
                                                                ­                         
                                       If you're looking out for the well-being others,
                                       you're not looking out for the well-being yourself.

I see an image—
breeze, they dance time.
River breeze,
the ideas worth sharing
GROW
like fish floating in a trail
of the lightning whipping
across the sun with
the dancing moon.
Ripples—
I see an image of a way
across the midnight surface,
the sky tip toes
at the edge of celestial festivals.
The thunder is envious
of a starry night.
But you seem so far away,
across the water there is no bridge to meet.
Shine like the reflection cast in pale deception,
only kinder.

to define love.
You'll be baffled
bewildered & broken by the end.

The cynical ones
will laugh,
say it's dead,
overused and cliche.
Why try write what Whitman, Dickinson, Frost & Shakespeare
have already covered?

The romantic ones
will wax on for hours
describing inner & outer beauty
compared to anything that strikes their eye.
Why can't you see it's everywhere?

The hip ones
will scare you,
take a ****
& describe some detailed carnal fantasy
involving tapioca & a talking *****
named Pony.

Ask a lawyer,
they could tell you the legal definition.

Ask your parents,
they will tell you something trite about seeing it through.

Ask little kids
for an adorably wise response.

Ask a dog
as it's ******* your leg.

Ask a scientist,
they will describe the chemical reactions in the brain.

Ask a prisoner,
they will tell you it's something they miss.

But never ask a poet
to define love.
Your brain will hurt,
half your day gone
& you'll be left heart broken
by the end.

Good/pure/light/
could not exist
without
Bad/evil/darkness

My self could not exist
without
My family.
But I am
not
enslaved by them.

Their misguided
stubborn
and droll attempts
to impart
their guilt & sadness--
stemming back from their childhood
insecurities of when they didn't fit in,
or when they saw their childhood robbed
by a church/cult
with an idea of The Truth.
And their despair over
the death of my older brother--
who didn't even live a day--
affected their judgements
on the decisions I've made.

I could hold on to this,
be bitter,
& upset...

but I'm not.

I'm happy/
& learning to be copacetic...
For I was born unto
negativity
but charged
with positivity.

Tonight,
for the first time,
I feel like my age
when my friends describe me
as an "old soul."

My bones feel hollow--
like glass in an oven,
my breath shallow--
a shadow fading in an overcast.
Ancient lessons drool
out of my mouth,
a tired tongue parched
and dry from the sands of time.

My mind yearns for "good 'ol days"
so far in the future
it seems like the past.

But gasoline has been poured
over my campfire harmony heart.

I'm just getting started.