Laughter laced with fear
Captured among final goodbyes
Cracked and broken fingernails; all that remains

Claw marks on walls
Bodies abandoned for years
Sinking into the deepness of the water

Families without closure
Dreams trapped within an ocean prison
Forever buried in a cold embrace

475 Bodies
171 left with a pulse
The rest consumed in an ocean grave

Students of Danwon High School
Left for a school trip
250 students were left to drown

They could have been saved
They could have escaped
They were told to stay; obeyed

Parents buried children, some with no body
Stood in empty bedrooms
And waited for a miracle that never came

Making empty beds
Trying to undo what’s been done
Losing faith in their nation

One man's selfishness
Took hundreds of dreams
And turned them into debris

As cherry blossoms bloom
Families grieve
Still waiting for a miracle

As cherry blossoms fall
Families fight
For the ones who no longer can

You saw them suffering everyday as you passed by
So somedays you threw money in their little tin can
But their pain lies far beneath the surface
Homelessness is an illness that costs more than pocket change to cure
Starvation and injustice can't be paid with a full tin can
Their lifestyles cant be changed with ten thousand cans of change

I sometimes wonder when I leave this house
Will there really be a hole that can't be filled
An absence of this mess I've left
Will I miss the taunting?

When im flying above this state, above this country,
I live for the moment I see how small my problems are
And watch as they fade away and disappear under the clouds

Will I feel fear or relief?

You and I were never real
We were just kids who played pretend

Mental and emotional wounds are invisible, but a wound is still felt by those they inflict
Just like a tiny cut, you still feel the pain even if you can't see it
Just like the cancer beneath your flesh and in your brain, it still eats away at you

These are wounds that don't heal or go away if you apply pressure or put a bandaid over
There is no stitch that can put your broken heart and wounded mind back together
You walk with this pain
Feel it in every step and passing look

The goosebumps on your arms
The trembling of your hands
The darkness behind your eyes
The apathy in your voice
You can't see the wound, but sometimes you can see the symtoms

You can't feel the pain another feels
You can't see it but that doesn't mean it isn't there
You can't see a cough or a virus as it courses its way through your body
But that doesn't mean they aren't real

We carry these invisible scars with us
And they never truly go away or fade

She was like a loaf of bread
Unexpecting and unafraid
She didn't expect him to cut into her
Severing her from the feeling of being whole

She also didn't expect for him
To plaster her with sweet honey and jam
He filled her with so much sugar,
But his sweetness was a simple distraction

How could she have known he would consume
The delicious treat he made of her
Only to tire of the taste
And allow the rest to go to waste ?

Though there is such tragedy do not fret,
There is still beauty there in every crumb
He may have taken her apart
But now her next love will have room to overflow

She is the most desired pastry of all
She turns her crumbs into cake
The delicious treat she makes of herself
Will never go to waste

Someone once asked me why I like poetry so much
If its sometimes hard to understand
And its sometimes confusing to read

In return I asked them why they like to feel
If the feelings are sometimes hard to understand
And sometimes confusing to read

They cocked their to the side and asked what my words meant
They simply didn't understand
That the words from a poet are are tangled by the beat of their heart

Sometimes we can't help but to speak figuratively
Because we like to hide our thoughts and feelings in plain sight
Finding out what weight the words carry is half of the excitement

Just like wearing our feelings for our crush on our sleeve
Or ignoring someone when we're angry
You don't make it obvious, but you leave all the clues in the open
Because just like a poet, you want to be found

You are a work of art made in black and white
You think life is colorless and bland
Alas, I don't like to leave white spaces
You are my canvas now and I promise
To put the color back into your world of monochrome

I will turn your life into a whole *** spectrum

I'm like the root of a tree,
all my strength hides beneath the surface
while all my weaknesses are exposed to every season
trembling in winter, blooming in spring
burning in summer, changing in autumn
but my roots stay strong and grounded
they hold all my passion, all my determination

So long as my roots stay strong, all my leaves can burn
I'll allow my bark to be torn apart, carved into
If it makes you happy
but I will continue to grow, to change
because my roots stretch far and deep
I will bend and break, but I will grow back
much greener and with more passion than before

You can destroy me on the surface,
but deep inside the earth's protective embrace
you can't harm me

Your lips tasted like sweet nothings
They'd slip from my lips
and you'd consume that sweetness
Leaving me with the taste
of bitter Nothing

as the stars trickle down from the sky
they take the form of raindrops
every time they splatter down on me
i feel every shattered aspiration
in those little splashes of starbursts
i feel them stab into me demanding to be set free

crushing a dream
is like ripping the wings from a butterfly
and then asking it why it can not fly

Inside of this lovely white envelope
There is a sweet little secret love note
It's in delicate lace, covered in hope
But two hearts are not to touch, asymptote

Sealed with glitter so love is not bitter
Perfumed with strawberry to stay merry
Words dressed to look pretty, all hearts jitter
Many burdens to carry, stay wary

Yet who gave this letter such powers?
Building love with beauty and elegance
Love's not a tower to fill with flowers
Love is a humble shrine filled with romance

I will show you what love is meant to be
If you would close your eyes and trust in me

Lying in the pit of my stomach
Is a furious fire breathing dragon
I'll never admit it
But that dragon is tearing at my insides
Trying to desperately claw its way out
And devour every flaw, every mistake
It longs to burn the flesh of whom I despise
Claiming me as it's final prize

I look at you and I know that nothing will ever happen
Yet my eyes still linger on you as you pass
They are still waiting for your eyes to answer
They search, they stay, they follow
Never getting their reply

Sometimes I remember that your heart does not beat for me
That I am not what makes your smile form
I'm not the one your eyes search for
And for just a moment it bothers me
I don't understand why I feel this jealousy

I've never known the way your arms feel wrapped around me
I've never known how your laugh feels when it's caused by me
And I've certainly never known the feeling of your lips on mine
Yet I find myself missing these things I've never known

Sometimes I toss and turn at night
I can feel a thousand others do the same
We all lie awake with these thoughts dripping from the faucet of our brain

We always try
To turn the handle
Make them stop
Yet every attempt is in vain
There is nothing we could do to keep these thoughts contained

There is no drain for them to slip away
Instead they cause a flood in our minds
They make you realize there is no way to rewind
Trapped once again by the bars hidden behind our eyes

We continue to toss and turn
Attempting to shake away the truth of our mortality and find a way to dream of a place where happiness is not bought

These thoughts at night are louder than in the day
They scream like sirens
And you can't turn them off

I cannot lose what fills
   my heart more than blood
   my lungs more than air
   myself more than me

You are the poetry I wish I could write
Every feeling I get around you
Every word of yours I absorb
Every stare I wish I could immortalize
You are the poem I read over and over in my head
The one I wish was mine

Your words are like luscious braeburn apples
Sweet and transcendent
You are the very definition of oenomel
Combining strength with sweetness

Even when you are far away I feel your presence near me
I feel your gaze, your love, your heart
I can hear the beat as if you were right next to me
Like the heavy bass of a metal song it hits every note
Lulls me into tranquility

You are the reason I love to write
You challenge me to describe how I feel
Even when none of these words feel just right

How can I explain the feeling of your eyes, your smile
How can I define the connection I feel
With such a limited word bank
How could I possibly explain why you feel like poetry to me
Why your words are like a braeburn apple
And why your heartbeat is like the bass of a metal song?

If I could I would illuminate you with more light than this world could possibly contain
You'd be brighter than the sun and all the other stars
Perhaps that would help you understand
Just one drop from my sea of love for you

I know too well that
Breaking some promises is
Like forbidden fruit

More enticing than
Anything certain or safe
I understand that

And you should know that
Promises are made of glass
But not to shatter

They are made of glass
Pellucid so you can see
The reality

Words that hang in a
Still, suffocating, silence
Squeeze your lying lungs

A small punishment
For those who will treat themselves
To forbidden fruit

You aren't just gold and starlight
you are my every word
my dialect, my stanza, my every thought
you leave me tongue tied

You are my entire language,
you make my speech so clumsy
all my words are tripping over themselves
just to please you and only you

You are my linguist dream,
I love to study the poetry in your veins
the sonnets in your eyes,
the limericks in your lips

You are literature incarnate,
and I worship you

Although I can't change the words you said
I can change their position in my head

What once was
'Your sparkle becomes a shadow in her brilliant light'
Will become
'Her sparkle becomes a shadow in your brilliant light'

If soothing the pain of his dull blades takes believing in those lies that shift the truth
Then so be it

Do you ever feel tied to a string drifting aimlessly through the world?
Forcibly being pulled in random directions and never the way you want?
Then why do you shy away from the one who holds you tight,
The one who tells you to ignore the habitual ways of the world and go where you want?

When they hold onto the string which sways you, dont you feel as if you have been stabilized?
As if the world is no longer just a blur, but a vision of clarity around those gentle hands which hold you in their grasp?
As if they are all of the answers to the questions life relentlessly asks you?

When they stop you from swaying out of control the dizziness doesn't stop
It leaves from your head and rushes to your heart sending butterflies to your stomach
Leaving you in a foreign position with thoughts you can't believe you hold behind your fragile mind

Before you have time to hold your hands out to catch yourself you begin to fall heart first for the one nobly clutching onto your wavering string
All the doubt and panic of the world seems irrelevant

As time passes the worries of yesterday fade away as you gaze into the eyes of the one gallantly at your side
As the distance between you fade your heart lightens as the strings connecting you disappear to be replaced by warmth of those stabilizing hands

No longer separated by the strings of fate your thoughts are clear
The one who's been there through all of the calamity
The one who held you when you were lost and insecure
Who brought you out of the veils of darkness and into the light
A friend, a lover, a soulmate
The person just for you who built their home inside your heart

Your actions and words can be manipulated by others
Your body can be told to do things you'd never wish it to
Souls can be corrupted and minds can be harshly invaded
Memories can be twisted and forgotten, faded and changed
Even our emotions can be controlled by another living being

The only thing in the world you truly own is the truth

My life feels like it's hanging by a thread
I've pushed away all my stress and worry
And now it surrounds me everywhere I look
It's like I'm tight-roping over the river of Styx
And all my fears, concerns and doubts
Are reaching for me
Like desperate hungry hands
Searching for their relief
Like the hands of those souls
Begging for a release

But where exactly is my relief?
Where does the end of this rope land?
Tartarus or the Elysian Fields?
Will I make it to my Elysium
Or will I bathe in the sea of souls?
Will I bear the Curse of Achilles
Or will I be trapped there myself?
All the worries that surround me
Make me feel like diving in
Isn't so bad

The way we danced around the words
Talking about how good things were
The good old days and all the things
That we used to laugh about

But things were good when we were in love
But we learned quick that sometimes
Love is just not enough
But when we look back now

There's only before and after
We dance around the times we were together
There's an unspoken pain we share
All the what if's and "why didn't we's"

Nostalgia breaks my heart
Thinking about our love that was art
And how it all just fell apart
But we just twirl, we just spin

We dance around those words

I've wasted so much time on being told who I am
That I no longer have any time to discover myself
I feel like I have amnesia
And no one is being honest
They tell me one thing but it feels like another
I can't think for myself because "I don't know"
Is it 'I don't know', or 'I'm not allowed to find out'?

It's like amnesia, but with the memories

I have gold coursing through my veins and silver flooding in my lungs that turn into richened glitter with every exhale
My mind is a garden with exotic fauna to leave all who enter in awe
My words are like the sharpest blades that pierce into a battlefeild of whirling lies
My heart is a chasmic void to trap you in my sweetest lullaby
For my poetry is the wing of a butterfly and a drop of poison all in one

One day these grey clouds that linger above
Will give up and allow their rain to fall
The droplets like an echo of my love
A shadow of the leaves that fell in fall

I long to reach up with my hands and grab
Those hideous clouds I wish would crash
Your sign is cancer, the sign of the crab
It seems we are not meant to be, we clash

But I know your eyes, eyes I can't evade
For that I become a slave to that grey
They bear into me as if to invade
I have no complaint, I only say stay

My hearts the flame that you always enrage
Trapping me in passions bottomless cage

The bravest boy I know
Sits in the eye of the hurricane
All alone

Surrounded by so much fear
Hatred, loathing, and pain
He doesn't run away

He faces the storm
Even if he has to do it
All alone

On days like these it seems like writing keeps the punishing thoughts away
All of the dark and depressing fears are kept at bay
So long as though my fingertips they go on display

Yes, I am terrified of death
Because I know it is inevitable
There is no life after death
When I think about it I feel a sharp pang of nothing
There is no envisionment of an afterlife
Of a paradise
Because there is none, not for me

Even if I believe in reincarnation
It doesn't stop the fear
Because all of my memories in this life
Will disappear
And if I stop writing now
These thoughts will invade and my conscience will cave

My passions are overwhelmed by my fears
Luckily they are just scattered days on my calendar
If I can make it through this one
I will make it through the next

Her eyes are full of poison
I take them in large thick doses
I can't seem to tear away from her stare
She hypnotizes me with every glare
I long to linger in her gaze
But the poison seeps into my veins
Straight to my heart I feel the lasting effect
Of her lovely venom flowing deep within
I trust her not to strike me with more than I can bare
And I let her poison me while I’m well aware
I’ve become like a snake charmer, I've tamed her stare

I try to say
Walking a thousand painful steps forward
Is better than a stagnant suffering
But really what I'm saying is
If it will hurt anyway
It's best to forget yesterday
And hurry to tomorrow
Where someday will come
And a tomorrow will wipe away the sins
That yesterday left on your soul

I've been played in love
Life makes it seem like a game
Where love is just playing pretend
I won't act like I don't know
All of the things he says about me

He took my heart in his hands
He looked at me like I was a new toy on Christmas morning
Like a child he played with me until a newer version came along
Now I'm no longer his favorite toy, just another lost thing
Thrown to the bottom of a drawer or into the back of his closet

Maybe one day someone will find me
Remind me
Why I was so much fun to play with in the first place
Even if it's just to play pretend
I hope he'll think of me in the end

my whole heart was not enough
for when he spoke to me
it wasn't a language that I could comprehend
he spoke to me like he spoke to a wall
a ghost, a doll, something that was not real
that was not alive
gibberish
nonsense
if he loved me then I would understand
any language, any dialect, any tone
because words of love can and will
bypass any barrier

Maybe I can't wither or wilt
because I'm not a flower
maybe I'm still just a seed
waiting to sprout into something beautiful,
something powerful enough to take over you
or perhaps I'm already
a garden in full bloom
a gem hidden in a perpetual spring
maybe I've already enraptured you

Tell me world, do I already have you
wrapped around my finger?

I don't know you
But you make me curious
I want under your skin
I want to get trapped inside your eyes

I don't know you
But I wish I could list off
All of your favorites
All of your dreams
All of your fears

One single glimpse
And a story of us unfolds
Inside my mind a playback of a possible life
But, I don't know you
I'm only curious

I know that I’ve no right to feel
These feelings weighing down on me
But every time we have these talks
The feelings come crashing back to me

Being kind is the cruelest thing you do to me

My mind is a black hole
It consumes every bit of information that comes my way
Relentlessly absorbing every new anything
To the point that I am nothing
Nothing but this black hole
That is filled with everything
Because even though I hold it all within my grasp
I can not stop consuming long enough
To use up what I already have

They were innocent
The ones who walked this path before me
The ones who never did any wrong
Who committed no sin
'Do what ye will but harm none'

They were the ones who loved the earth
Listened to the cries of the wind and the heartbeat of the sky
Saw the dawn kiss the night sky goodbye
And how the moon would watch over them all
The ones who fell in love with all of Earth's mysteries

The ones who loved to heal
Who cherished all life, and wasted none
The ones who saw everything and nothing
Who ran with the rain
And sang to the storms
Who thanked the crops and respected the Earth
The ones who wrote in runes
And spoke in code
To save our craft and protect our herbs

They were stripped of dignity, but not of pride
Dropped into the water but embraced by the gaurdians of the West, resting in defiance on the surface of the sea
They burned their bodies, but not their souls
They wounded their flesh, but not their will
And like a Phoenix, they rose again
Reborn more powerful, more proud

If again we must, again we shall
No longer will we hide our pride
Our symbols, our spells, our rituals, our magic
No longer shall we fear the ones who do not love the earth we live upon
The ones who burned our brothers and sisters out of hate and refused to understand
The ones who slaughter the land and do not value
all the life that exists together
For we are witches who honor our past and rise together as a Phoenix, rising from the ashes of the ones who crumbled so we could soar

I say that being your friend
Is my favorite sacrifice
But the torch I carry
Is a flame that burns like no other
Maybe if I stay close to this fire
One day I'll no longer be able to blister

You are too young for it all
Too young for this much pain
Too young for this much heartbreak
Too young to be chasing halos

The last time we spoke, you hugged me tight
And I felt it then, that hope still in you
That possibility, the light that hadn't gone out
You hugged me tight and I knew
There is still more for you to do

And so I'm begging you to open up your eyes,
Open them and keep them wide

You aren't tired so there's no need for you to sleep
It isn't time to throw in your towel
It isn't time for you to go
It isn't time for you to be chasing halos

When you were smaller I held you in my arms
So sweet, so small, so innocent
You would always smile like you looked up to me
And I knew I had to be good so that you would too
There is still time for you to be anything you dream

So I'm begging you, don't trade your youth for wings

You know how when you break open
some rocks you find crystal?
My heart is like that
break it open and you will find
all my love for you

I'm like a geode
I seem ugly and hollow at first
but after you break me apart
you will see all the treasure in me
that was hidden on the surface

Only now it is no longer yours
every touch from then on
turns my crystals to rust
one shard at a time

A geode turned to coal
for the next heartbreak
to reveal my hidden gold

I'm insecure, but I'm trying
I'm confident, yet I'm hiding
I promise myself I will change
I will improve and be someone
That I can be proud of , someone
That my parents and my friends
can be proud of
I do my best, and for me
That's enough

Every time she closes her eyes she conjures him up in her mind
They open only to become clouded by the tears he causes to erupt
From behind those slender doors she thought had long since shut
As he turns the lock and all her walls come tumbling once again
She’s exposed to the vicious beast that love has taken the form of

What can she do to pry her mind away from he whom she longs for?
Where can she store her thoughts so they won’t taunt her relentlessly?
How can she deny what is right before her and singing in her heart?
Out of fear she shuts her eyes to make him disappear forgetting
He is not simply some material being to wish away, he is in everything

He is the beating in her head and the throbbing in her heart
He is in every breath she holds, every sigh she releases
He is in every sunset, smile, and feeling of warmth
He’s torture upon her everyday life as he stabs her day and night
As if he has no choice but to jab her with every what if and if only

It is a violent sort of passion, one that can only be seen briefly
Through the eyes of a passerby it tricks them like a glimmer of innocence
Yet behind that innocence is a fiery sin coated in lust and longing
How much of that sin can she hold before it tears a hole into her soul
One that can no longer be repaired by the illusion of  redamancy?

In a world where gravity is a constant
it's so strange that I always seem
to find myself floating back to you
and yet you are still falling

just barely out of my
                                         reach

You've ruined the beauty of eyes for me
I decided yours were unrivaled to any other
That there could never be a sight so pure
Even as you walked away that icy hue stayed in my mind
Perhaps that is why I do not like the color blue
It sends shivers down my spine and makes me think of you

you want to be in my life
you want to make me smile
you want to cherish me
then go ahead
nothing is stopping you
my door is wide open
the windows are all unlocked
i am fully exposed and vulnerable

you want to hold my hand
you want to call me pretty, buy me flowers
you want to say i'm yours, talk for hours
don't hesitate
i long to feel whole just as much as you
my doors are wide open
my barricades are down

please, join me in my hearts humble home

They get the holidays they stole from us
They get Ostara, Yule and Samhain
Easter, Christmas and Halloween
They get the crosses on greeting cards
Their bibles in store aisles
They are praised for those crimes against us
How they hung and hunted us
Drowned and undressed us

They get to stand on their pedestals with megaphones
Outside of schools and businesses
Door to door through neighborhoods
And preach about their hate
Tell us no matter what we believe
If it is not God then it must be sin
That if they do not stop us
Then Lucifer will win

Warts on noses, green skin and greasy hair
That is how a witch is pictured everywhere
Cackling and cursing, evil, wicked and vile
That is the image that they gave to us after they robbed and ***** us
They mock us in their media and treat us like comedies
Turn our magic into fiction and throw out the science
They make a mockery of our practice, spread all these lies of what it is not
Take the death card in tarot, the Tv says it means you’ll die
But a witch will tell you it means a new chapter of your life

Double double toil and trouble
Just once I’d like to see their plans foiled
Fire burn and cauldron bubble
Watch as we rebuild from the rubble

Never ask us why we have such anger
Why we don’t want to stand around your manger
Because when people say the word witch
They say it like they call a woman *****

He chased love like a child chases dreams
Like a dog chases its tail
Excited, carefree and hopeful
Like second nature

Daphne was his temple of worship
He turned the ground she walked on
Into precious gold embroidered with jewels
He played songs of love on his golden Lyre
Lovely melodies for her and her alone
But she would never look at him the same
She only saw the caterpillar, never the butterfly

She decided rather than to love him
She would prefer to be wiped from existence
But Apollo never hated her for it
When she was turned into a Laurel tree
He made a crown from her leaves
Wore it with pride around his head
And wept for love that taught him
Even the Gods hearts can bleed for love

He took his ****** heart and let it heal in Troy
He placed it in the hands of the beautiful Cassandra
Who took his love and abused it with insecurity
She pretended to be sincere as she took his gifts
Strung him along with hope trailed behind her
Like cheese in a mouse trap

He gave her the gift of prophecies
And she left him with the agony of abandonment
Thought she was cunning, tricking a god

Do you think she ever thought
about the ways his heart must have sunk when she used him?
Could she see far enough into the future and predict
all of the ways he would reflect
on why he wasn't good enough for her
for all of eternity?
And did she feel remorse?

He gathered his tears and left with his sunken heart once more

Perhaps the only one who truly loved Apollo
Was his dear Hyacinthus, the alluring Spartan Prince
The short time they had together gave Apollo back his hope
His heart had finally healed, mended and repaired once more
But even the mighty god of healing could not save the one he loved

Zephyrus' jealousy and envy stole from him as if the other Gods weren't satisfied with his happiness and cursed him to never find true love
He held Hyacinthus in his arms as he died, trying to heal to no avail
He cursed his weakness as love once more slipped away from his open arms
To commemorate his lover, he sprung a flower from the blood
A hyacinth, a permanent reminder of his grief

He gathered his heavy, grieving heart as he tried to move on, but fate wasn't done with him quite yet

The Princess Coronis had everything she could ever want
But she was selfish and took a piece of Apollo's grieving heart
A piece she never intended to hold in a gentle grasp
A piece she didn't want to cherish or to return
But Apollo was blind to her cruel motives behind her lovely words

He had fallen for her, loved and treasured her so much
He truly believed he had found redamancy at last
And wanted to keep her safe from all harm or sorrow
Keep her away from the wicked hands of the Gods
Like Eros who shot his Daphne with a lead arrow
So that she may never find love in her heart
Like Zephyrus who stole the life of his Hyacinthus
In order to protect his treasured love
A white crow was sent to watch over her

Yet no matter what Apollo did,
Love was not meant for him
It fell through his hands like
Life falls through time
Endlessly and hopelessly

Coronis's affair with Ischys was revealed
And Apollo learned the heartbreak of betrayal
Unlike Cassandra, she didn't return with her life
Apollo shed no tears as he loved for the last time
And left that piece of his heart behind

The innocent white crow
He made to represent his healing heart
Turned black to serve as a reminder
Of the true deception and torture that love can leave behind

Don't look at a God as something to use
As someone who is cruel for no reason
Look into their abuse
Marvel at how they managed to survive even just one more season
And ask yourself if you could do the same