"Go to the pool."
"Ride your bike for once."
"Go to the gym with your friends."
"Play in the park."
"You can't eat **** like that and expect to not gain any weight."
"Get off your **** and stop being lazy."
"Why can't you be more active?"
"You're such a ******."

Why do you always pick on me? I try to do those things but when you leave a list of chores that take 6 hours, its not like I can do much. All while I'm babysitting your children. I just wish I could be the "skinny" daughter that you want. I'm comfortable in my body until you say these things. Then when I start to feel better, you knock me down again.

Should I stop eating all together and finally give you,

**Skinny?

Don't be fooled by my ability to resist,
I might have never gave into the monster,
but I always gave it a dance.

... a lamentable natural disaster ―
no one really ever understood
the uncomfortable loneliness they read,
left unsaid,  in the silence between the lines

Gathered words often revealed
an awkward vulnerability
a life tethering by a frayed thread
unable to shed the skin that enfolds
the dauntingly misunderstood laments

Suspended at friendless crossroads
melancholy days of malignant indifference
stifle the whispered thoughts,
"accepting an unfinished life"
evanescent as the faltering light,
musing many a sleepless night

It’s as if there was always some wordless reason
to never feel "good enough" to just be,
unworthy to discover elusive love,
cleave a labyrinth out of the darkness,
okay to just let go

It’s not a weakness to be human
"Tears are the heart’s traces" … he once wrote
"only eyes cleansed by teardrops see clearly"
heaven's rain unconditionally enlightened
by love and light.

Someone said a poet died
trying to make sense
out of all he thought he'd given
a word at a time was left behind
only abandoned words remain
                             orphaned in the drowning silence


                                      harlon rivers ©

I still remember that night when we first met
You were celebrating your friend's birthday
and within a blink of an eye, our group clicked right away
That night, that moment, feels just like yesterday

I still remember that night when we first kissed
That night which I truly miss
You even asked for one more kiss
then your hands perfectly traced my cheeks

The best things in life really do happen unexpectedly,
Our story may not began beautifully
but everything happened so smoothly
A story in a short period of time, made both of us happy

I will never forget every single night that we're together,
That night where it all started,
that night where you confessed,
and lastly, the night where our story ended.

And amid
All the darkness

Her smile,
Was a constant reminder

Of the existence of joy and beauty
In his life.