When you get too quiet
I worry
my friend

Did I say something
to offend?

If I did
I surely didn't mean to

But I'm left here
wondering

wishing I could ask you

Be gentle with one another
the world is harsh enough
Be gentle with one another
think the best without judgment
pass on praise and caring
softer words chosen carefully
Be gentle with one another

Be gentle with yourself
accept your faults and imperfections
Be gentle with yourself
think the best without judgment
Let your spirit be free, your heart peaceful
Be gentle with yourself
listen to the voice inside...
but...

   only when it lifts you.

She would drain the stars dry,
        corpses of lifeless mounds
hollow and drifting.

Hunger is a ravenousness
              unfulfilled desire.
Never attained but still stars scream.

Expired in the darkness,
               cadavers hang silently.
The stars are glistening,
         A sky of fireflies dying.

She wore a black dress made of the fire
and art of poetry
and she glided gracefully as she tip-toed
from star to star
with her soft hair spilling out and over the sky
painting the night the color of dreams
she danced within the gleaming
silk indigo flames of eternity
out in the dark where
no one could watch her move
and even though she
was far out in the darkness
way up high where no one could see her
and my eyes could not trace
the outline of her form
or make out the shape of her smile
I knew she was beautiful
I could feel it in the space beneath my ribs
and in the sound of my heart beat