When a friend is sad
Under the blanket of sadness,
It is my job
To pull the blanket off her
And replace it with the warmth
Of my hugs.

That’s what friends are for.

I have always thought in words.
An inner monologue
Always was busy with thought.
Today I was thinking
About differences.
We all have differences
We are different
We embrace these differences.
Or, at least most of us do.
Well, anyways,
I thought:
Aren’t we all human?
We are-at the core-
The same.
We are equal in our humanity.
In fact,
Sentient creatures of all kinds
Share a certain humanity-
A certain awareness-
That all living things hold.
So therefore,
Why do humans, who so intensely value their own humanity,
Why do they oppress
And afflict pain
Unto their fellow beings of humanity?
Of course
I am not an exemption
Of the **** sapiens habit
Of inconsideration.
I am imperfect as the rest of you are-
I just want to know what drives
A few select humans
To be so unkind.

What are you feeling?
Overwhelmed
Why is that?
I don’t know.

Of course you know!
There’s a reason for everything.
What’s that reason?
I still don’t know.

Come on think hard, you aren’t stupid,
What is that reason you’re hiding from me?
I. Don’t. Know.

Who is backwards?
Me or them?
Should I know?
Is it ok that I don’t?
I DON’T KNOW!

I just realized
I say real a lot
Am I afraid of the fake
Am I afraid of lies?

I don’t know
Because I lie a lot
Sadly
I need to fix that
Am I afraid of myself?

You are not the same on the inside
You wear a mask
Why won’t you let me see
The beauty you keep from me?

COUGH COUGH! BLEGH!
I’ve come down with a case of “meh”,
I’ve got tremors and shakes
And “that’s due today??”
Nearly putting me into bedrest.

There’s so many things that need doing
And I truly cannot keep assuming
That I can avoid
The results of my choice—
I jumped in the ***, now I’m stewing.

Will this be my undoing?
One might have guessed
That I’ve quit and I’ve stopped
In an unending rest,
Am I still the best?
My grip, it is slipping:
Like an old, beat-up ragdoll
Whose threads won’t stop ripping.

Is this a real fantasy
Lost in my own ecstasy
Convinced this is reality
But really it’s just a dream.

If this is all a dream
A messed up fantasy
A nightmare set free
Into the real world
Why haven’t I woken up yet.

You ask
Why I cause issues
All the time.
I don’t say
That I don’t cause issues all the time.

You ask me
Why I can’t be normal
I don’t say
I don’t wanna be.

You say you’re scared
I don’t say
I am too.

Now they are all wondering
If, this time, I will reform
Or return to stumbling
Through life as if it’s a chore.

I hope I’ll be different,
To be rose-tinted, lovely.
I’ll reclaim lost innocence,
Locked, a key fitting snugly.

This, for love with conditions,
All this, to just make them proud.
I’m the newest edition,
Won’t you believe in me now?

I want to erase the fingerprints
I leave on your days, weeks, and years,
To drain through the gaps
In your floorboards,
To float through life,
Unable to embrace but
Too incorporeal to be slapped.

I need to

go.

Chatter fills the air
Stop blabbing away
Your empty words
Mean nothing
Speak when you need to
But don’t be fake
Please
And thank you

Catch the stars
Breath in the moonlight
Grow so tall
You can hold the moon.

Speak to an owl
Maybe a fox
In my dreams
Nothing is orthodox.

I cry
These lies
I’m not fine
Can’t we just be kind?

I look up overhead and see
A dark cloud that’s constantly following me

Everyone assumes
The sidekicks are always fine
‘Cause they’re too busy helping
When the hero cries
And the hero doesn’t have to worry
About getting hurt and dying
‘Cause you never **** off a hero
But the sidekick’s another story.
It hurts sometimes
For your story to be ignored
‘Cause we all got a story
But we are all told
That some are more important
Some mean more
But they’re wrong
Sidekicks have stories too
But no one cares about them
Until one of them is you.

If I began to write my life story
The pages would be meters long
The book would be miles thick
The words would be tiny and barely legible
And it would always be unfinished.

I was feeling much better
Then I realized my problems hadn’t left
This temporary relief
Was a very short-lived gift.

Words are my comfort-food
I’d binge-eat all day if I could,
But sadly it only changes my mood
And not my life (I misunderstood!)

Welp, that *****.
Eh, I’ll fix my life eventually
*key word-eventually!

S snow
N never gets
O old
W winter is so pretty.

The gentle flakes of snow
Caress my nose
And land softly
On a high bough.

Sadness is like water.
You sink beneath it
And it tells you to stay.

When you do,
it shrinks you
And wrinkles you
Until you’re nothing more
Than a clump of pruny skin
In a bathtub of sad.

To be honest
I’m usually happy,
I’m the happy me everyone needs.

But when I break
I crack
I cry ‘cause I’m human,
I hold the sad like a blanket.

But the blanket is ice cold
Yet it still takes a while
To throw it off my shoulders.

Amid the chaos
Of humanity
We try to fix
All of the wrong things
Convinced that
Fixing small problems
Will hand us
A small semblance
Of control.

It’s ok if you’re not ok.
Life is a lot of nay
Not yay.
But that’s ok
Because you still
Have a fight to fight
A thing to say
Don’t let life
Get in your way

Still waters run deep.
Still water people are rare to find
And even harder to keep.

Loud waters run shallow
Some of them are rather foul.

Still waters run deep
With an even deeper soul.

I’ve felt many times a day
That I’m from earlier times
FAR far away.

I never really ever feel like I’m at home
I’m a triangle fitting into a square hole
I get in the hole, but there’s something missing.

I feel like I’m from a year
Way earlier than 2006,
It can be a giant advantage
Other times it is a...b-bomb.

If you were an animal
You’d be a horse
Cuz horses are my favorite.

You are my release, poetry.
You know my deepest secrets.
I always write,
And I always will.

I cherish these moments together
Where I can be honest to myself,
And I don’t have to hide
Or even wear a mask.

You, lovely poetry,
Are a reservoir of me,
I poured my heart into you,
So cradle me softly, my beloved.

One day
I’ll be blown away
And you can look for me there
I’m not quite sure where.

I’m not sure what you are
You seem like a Star
A star that’s dying
And becoming a black hole.
I know that if I get ****** in
If I get ****** into him
I’ll get ripped to pieces
Yeah, I won’t come out again.

I think you must have come
From a planet revolving around another sun,
Because when you speak
I seem to think
That two atoms have collided.
When we crashed it was like the Big Bang
Two particles floating, floating away,
But then you slammed into me
And you blew me away.

One day
I’ll be blown away
And you can look for me there
I’m not quite sure where.

How has it
Never occurred to you
That I’m sad because
You’re always yelling
At me to do better?

A sigh, an exhalation,
Relief from all of the weight.
I float, just for a moment,
Just for an hour or two or three
Just us, only family
And yes, soon it will be gone,
But for now it is enough:
This feel of a feathery laugh,
That tingling warmth, that upward curve
Of lips and teeth, that playful verve,
This air of placid comfort,
Like a hug, enveloping sweetly.

I don’t dare let it go,
As a child clasps her mother’s hand,
Fearing that it won’t come back,
And truly, I can’t make it stay,
For buds will bloom and then decay,
But this is manna for the soul,
For now, it is enough.

And the weight, it will come back,
The scene fading into black,
The dust will blanket and will bury,
This moment, though it won’t last
Is a pinpoint of light to carry
When I am as the trodden chaff.

Chaos unraveled
Time ensnared.

For all of the travel
We weren’t prepared.

We are going insane
We are panicked to blindness.

This virus is a pain
So we must treat each other with kindness.

I may be dark
But I’m not blind
I won’t stick my head into the sand
I will not ignore
What is happening.
I may be dark
BUTIAMNOTBLIND

Build a tower
To watch it fall
Run and cower
When it calls.

Write a story
To burn the book
Take the glory
Take what was took.

Breath the air
To spit it out
Create with care
To be filled with doubt.

There once was an ignorant child
Who most certainly wasn’t too mild
Her first name was Quinn
She committed a sin
Being not polite but instead quite wild.

Unsaid words
Say more than sound.
I hear them everywhere
Lurking around.

But still they linger
On the tip of the tongue
A silent Ringer
Instead bringing demise.

They destroy worlds,
And hearts
And people.

These unsaid words have the power I do not hold.

I never knew how to act
I’m sad
I never knew I was this bad
That’s a lie
I just never tried
Making a wall
Within my own mind
Doing without thinking

This world keeps on getting darker
We have surpassed the marker
Of no return.

My mask is on so much
It has become an appendage on my face.

I’m a drifting planet
You’re a drifting sun
As I draw closer and closer
I must be careful, or I’ll be burned.

A supernova-however bright-
Is dangerous after the light
Mistaken, a moth to fire
I got ****** in your black hole
Torn apart like flesh in rapid gunfire.

It’s a beautiful day
The sun is out
It’s a beautiful day
To be out and about
But we shouldn’t do that
Fearing we will get sick
It’s only 30° F anyway
To my bones the wind’ll lick.

Don’t cry
You’re gonna be ok
Don’t cry
Don’t cry
Don’t cry
Or I will too.

Because we’re not ok

250 poems
Now it’s 251
Who knew I had so much to say
I thought I’d only make one!

That was a complete and utter lie
Guess I didn’t know
That it’s so addictive
To write poems on HePo!

I’m splitting at the seams.
I’m drowning in reams and reams
Of papers that are due,
I’m breaking because of you too.

Everything is becoming too much
You tell me to quiet, to hush,
But I can’t because there’s too much to do,
I’m sorry, I cannot listen to you.

A mix
Of joy and pain,
Plain as day
On the lines of pages.

Like a roller coaster,
Poems rise high
As the sunset
But soon sink low
Almost touching the ground.

But the thing about poems,
Is that they take any shape.
Sad
Happy
Painful
Pleasant.

It doesn’t matter
If you just wrote a mourning story,
You can still tell a tale of joy.

I have said that rhymes are liquid.
I wasn’t kidding.
Liquids take any shape and fit the container they are poured in.
And when they aren’t contained
They spill and spread everywhere.
Poetry does too.

Best wishes to you
As you leave me behind
“Drive safe, have fun, I’ll see you next time.”
But bittersweet is this goodbye,
Watching you leave to start a new life.

I understand that you have to go,
But I still wish you wouldn’t.
I feel like you’re changing
And I’m not in it.

Are we drifting apart?
You won’t stay the same.
But I know you love this change,
I can withstand the pain.

The power went out
The WiFi went down
The water won’t work
The lights won’t turn on!
But I can still see
Electricity or not
Thank goodness the power caved
In the middle of the day!

Look to the sky
See a mockingbird flying high
He sounds his call to us
I hear you, you are heard!

If you can find a doorway,
I beg you to go through.
Even if you don’t see one,
I know you will later.
If the doorway is too small,
Or the hinges are rusted and stuck,
Carve your own door in the wood,
Walk through with child-like wonder.
If all the doors are locked,
And you’ve lost your carving knife,
Climb over the wall,
Don’t sit and wallow in your strife.

People wear
Masks too much.
Not just on their faces.
Why they do so
I only partly understand.