From the Sikhote Alin Mountain,
I gaze at my world coming to an end.
I feel the sharp spear
peirce my brother's heart.

Blood trickles from my sister's mouth and
I taste its unwanted metallic zest.
The strench of Amur Basin burning
fills my nostrils, telling me my time

is limited. I pace, awaiting my poachers,
killers stained with the last
essence of my family.
This destruction of my kind hurts my soul,

but I stand to fight in the name of Amur.
As my band of enemies approach,
I summon the inner spirit and my
roar blankets the mountain air.

I feel my ancestors with me and
charge with the force of a thousand
tigers to my certain death.
The final battle begins.

A daunting sky releases the moon's glow
on the shy lotus sprouting from
the cave's hollow splint.

The wind bullies her fragile frame
but she stands unbreakable.
She is unwavering and fearless.

The showering rain chills her spine,
but the lotus is numb to its touch.
It will not control her fore she has learned

to weather the storm.
So she smiled and danced in the rain
and the moon envied the lotus flower
of the night.

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 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.

The air fills with the smell of buttermilk
biscuits and sizzle of patty sausages.
The whistling song of the red breasted robin undercuts the sizzle.
The rest of her orchestra accompanies her.
Crickets chirp, squirrels cheep,
and the blue jay tweets its solo.
They serenade their audience with
Nature's 9th symphony.

As the aroma of morning breakfast seeps into the living room,
the children stampede, ready to savor the sweet home cooked meal. My sister tells me good morning and hugs me.
I fix her food first.

After I feed the rascals, I sit back in my cushioned chair
and place my plate of biscuits, eggs, sausages, and syrup on the wooden table.
I enjoy my cooking as I listen to
Nature's concluding sonata.
The rising sun warms my arm
and signals this will be a wonderful day.

Take a picture it'll last longer.
It. The moment you loved me.
Capture the state of euphoria
before it fades.

Instill within me your remembrance
for you are like dust in the wind
that blinds and brings me to tears
when we are together.

You clasp and rip my broken heart.
I choke on your empty promises.
You will not give me life, but for the moment, I live in temporary bliss.

Soon the storm will return and reality
will steal everything I wish you gave me.
The moment will evanesce like vapor.
The picture will last always..

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.

Invite me into your nightmares.
Open your gates and
I will walk by your side,
holding your trembling hand.
You are not alone in this.
Trust me.

Show me scars and I'll
show you beauty that
marks battles you have conquered.
Look into my eyes and see
Your rawest form and be not ashamed.
I am not.

My love is the infinite stars
That twinkle in the sky and
Set fire to your heart.
I will be your light in the darkest hour
And I will guide you to safety.
Follow me.

I am the still voice that will calm
your troubled waters,
bringing you peace.
Just believe me.
Allow me to enter
Your castle and together
We shall build a dynasty.

And those nightmares will become
mere memories...

With eyes wide shut, my mind paints a vivid picture of the girl I love.
Everything from her frizzy hair, to her weird thumbs, and her amazing mind.
Her laugh makes me weak.
The energy in her spirit causes me to question everything
I ever denied of angels and God.
For if He exist, she is His prized possession.
Your wild antics keep me on my toes.
Your seducing smile sends chills down my spine, cooling the passion burning feverishly in my soul..
But this is a dellusion of the conscience.
When I flip my eyelids you are there,
but not subjected to my love.
You are free of the burdens I place on my chest.
You are only my best friend and I fear that's all you will ever be.
You are my angel that will shine a righteous light and awaken my cold vessel to traquil affection.
Haha, I can only dream..
I stopped believing in fairy tales long ago,
but I will never stop believing in you,
I will never stop listening to you,
I will never stop trusting you,
I will never stop being the rock
you need when the earth beneath you becomes quicksand.
When the world tries to drown you in dispare I will be there to give you life.
I will care for you, feel what you feel because we are one.
You are my better half and
I can't  survive withut you.
I wish I could tell you how I feel.
To tell you I love you more
than life itself and I will profess that everywhere anywhere no matter what.
I am proud an grateful for you and all that you have taught me.
Thank you for being my outlet from the hell I suffered through and in
return I was there for you.
I was there to wipe your tears away.
I was there when you thought of taking your life.
I was there when you wanted to go: leave America, marry in Africa, honeymoon in Paris, and grow old in India.
I have been there and I always will.
I am yours..
I wish I didn't neglect you when I did.
I wish I didn't deny my feelings for you, but I am afraid.
It scares me how serious I am about you.
I have cried and ached in your absence.
It hurts, but what's worse is that you don't know.
You may never know.
I never thought that I would be in love with my best friend.
I could only have dreamt it, but when I open my eyes, my feelings applify and I spend the rest of the day lying and repressing them until I slumber and my true reality is born, in which I am together forever with the girl of my dreams..

Hold me.
A lots going on so just hold me.
Open my eyes and show me
that I am not alone.

Love me.
When hell is in my heart
wont you, love me?
We'll begin a new start if you
Just love me for who I am.

Trust me.
I'll never decieve you, please truth me
my soul might be evil but still trust
and believe that I can change.

I will change for you.

Take a brush and paint that
child-like paradise.
You know, like the one
our elders grew up in.

Take me there and show
vibrant colors that swirl in
aerial winds before the
china blue and violets and rues

became fifty shades of gray.
Draw the trees as the giants they
were before they fell and nothing
became of them.

Paint the water before the rivers
ran dry and land was barren.
Splatter the blue to touch my feet
and cool my desert skin.

Paint this scene before me
and place a smile on my face,
then break the brush before
anyone can ruin that paradise

by making it like this one.
Then fold and burn it in your heart
and I will bury in my soul
this work of art so it is never forgotten.

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.

A hug's goodbye embraces my aching body
The squeeze breaks the coarse string
of hope I had left. Stay with me.
I hoped to embellish our love
but I lost that control long ago.
I lost you then and now I am lost..
My soil cries your name.
Nothing more will be done.
I can't breathe. Your final touch took
away the air I needed, though it
was much less than I needed you.
But we have said our goodbyes and
I am alone at last with no more than
my bleeding heart and your spirit.
This is it...

Conceived of liberty
But born in chains
With broken wings I soar to happiness
With bleeding feet I walk to freedom

Nothing more will be done.
Your final touch emptied
my lungs of I can’t live without you
and I took my first breath in this
world. I cried like most newborns
and pacified myself with poetry
I am thankful you let go
else I wouldn’t have learned
how to walk alone.

Even the brightest moon has a dark side.

Some are fortunate to only see the light

but they will never understand why it shines so bright..

it’s difficult to watch his steps in the dark.
and even harder to catch him when he
falls and you look into his clouded
eyes as see an empty room
forged by walls built with
regret. oh, how you
wish you were
enough to
tear them
down.

I have returned to darkness because
my eyes fell out of my head
My sockets are filled with maggots
that harvest deep secrets and
scream ridicule to my mind
Larva drill into my brain and eat the images of you and ***** ugly truths
that I am too blind to see
So they slide down my throat like
worms to my heart and wrap it in a cocoon to protect it from your sea on lies that I swallow as I search for the truth before me that I am too afraid to believe
because I hold you dearly
Truth cuts the thin rope that we dangled from together and makes me fall into a bottomless depression
So I will bandage myself with fallacies and blindly fly into the shadows holding
you because you are my light
even though you are not righteous.

A shelter for the insects to fester.
A refuge for rotting dreams.
A being with no identity.
A splint within reality
I want to harbor in.
A dying fire buried
under ash that can still burn.
I want to touch and know
what it means to feel.
I hope to reincarnate
the other piece of my soul
Before this body is dust.

Silent words spoken only
to those willing to listen..

You were not the
Monarchs fluttering
in my womb. Just a
consequence of drinking
too much. They drowned
in the regrets I swallowed.

But some nights
I ***** the memories
wrapped in cocoons
and place them in old
shoe boxes.

And someday when I am sober
I will untape the wound,
release the butterflies,
and set myself free.