Numb to the winter
Numb to the sun
Numb to the pain of a lost loved one

Numb to the laughter
Numb to the cheer
Numb to all the happiness i hear

But perhaps not numb;
Just simply cold
Please oh please warm up my soul

I need to do
So many things

But all I can bring myself to complete
Is this poem

So maybe
I should.

Little girl
Why do you sit so?
Wires spread across your lap
Connecting your head to something not there.
Do you not go outside?
Pale is your skin and so fast your fingers fly
Switching seamlessly to different devices
Wires stitching your reality together.

Old woman
Why do you stare so?
Clutching your purse
As if it was a link to sanity.
Do you not know how this works?
Wrinkled is your skin and in your eyes hardened judgement speaks
Blue veins showing in your mottled hands
Thin as the wires in my lap.

Little girl
Have you ever seen the face of the sun?
In my day the children were active.

Old woman
Have you not seen how the world has changed?
We are no longer allowed outside.

To be diligent students, we use technology
To connect with friends, we use technology
To be active in our society, we use technology

Do not take out your phone and tweet a picture of me
Comments disparaging of my generation's addiction to connection
And hold your head high that you have done right.

Do not shake your head at something you did not have access to
And deem it "useless" or "unneeded".

Do not scorn something you do not know.

But
If you would be willing to change with the world
I am a good source to learn from.
Just ask me.

Writing may be a talent
But it is not mine to claim

It is yours
To judge me worthy of.

Writer may be a title
But it is not mine to claim

It is yours
To bestow upon me.

However

My love for writing
Cannot be judged or bestowed upon
It simply is.

And in that way,
We’re all poets.

Sheet music
Nothing more
than black dots on black lines on a white page.

Then why is it
that when I play those notes
I see color?

Maybe sheet music
is a coloring book.

Sometimes I feel like I'm a chore
That everyone forgot they had to take care of
Until the last moment

A glorious midday is upon us
The sun dripping in our palms
Like water scooped from a crystal clear lake

Watch me fling it out, watch the ripples on the surface

Ripples like rocks that you skip into the ocean
Flying from your hands, gracefully leaving a pattern until it sinks
Washed away by the constant motion

Back away from the waves that you created
Right into my waiting arms

And as the sun melts into the horizon
A memory washes over me, quick as a wave
Of our hands, desperately scrambling to catch mere drippings of sunlight
While the stars' light washes over us.