Girl gives sunshine smile
A boy reacts with the moon
Galaxy flirting

I was an infant sounding out
vowels on labels fixated with
complexions not hearts.
Sermons spoken spilled salt

on wounds shaped from moments
when the sword was mightier than the pen.
I was mute as black blood
streamed letters the mature read

and dismissed as chicken scratch.
Pleas to unlock the chains noosed
around my heart, never heard,
until my ears opened to self acceptance—

the song hearts dance to without shame,
the vernacular spoken without stutter.
The key frees my soul from shackles
and dissolves the branded lesions borne.

They were just words.

See me as I am:
A broken masterpiece shackled in chains.
My wounded soul bleeds.
Time cannot heal the lesions broidered
on my flesh, nor the scarred past
that is my graven present, my son's future.
Envision the dream, a hollow
glow shimmering in the night,
searching for the key
that will unlock freedom.

I love you.
You are water that hydrates my soul
and yes, it is a dry, vacant wasteland
longing for your touch.

Tell me you want me as much as
I need you.

You are sweet nectar for a healing heart.
Hold my hand. Pull me out
of the darkness. Wrap me in your
embrace and I will smile.

This isn’t right, but it is a spell
I cannot break.

You steal the air from my lungs with you glow,
and I am born again.
Whispers dance in our streets and slip
in the cracks beneath us.

Words I should never speak erupt
and burn your ears with heated passion.
Your lips are sewed shut in surprise.
Compressed truth is pressure I no longer feel,
but I am numb because of it.

I long for you to whisper sweet nothings back,
but this love is forbidden.

I gaze into the moon’s eyes like
a child seeking a lost friend.

In these shadows, I find pleasure
planting seeds with roots hooked
in Fear’s rich soil spurring a hollow
tree with rotten skin.

I branch out in search of a soul,
but the majestic globe shines and
scatters the night, exposing me to
warmth that fills my belly.

I am whole, in touch with
the part of me I lost: myself.

The moon ignites a path that leads
away from a troubled past into a bright future.