Nails like strawberry syrup and words like drizzle
Sweet to the core with a hard candy cover
Trying too hard to be everyone's favorite
She tries on wrapper after wrapper to look the best
Taste the sweetest
And sometimes acts a little too sour
Some days her name melts on your tongue
Other days too much of her makes your stomache ache
But too less of her isn't good for your heart
You love her sugar for the rush her stare brings you
You love the feeling cracking her open then drawing her in and biting her lip
Shaking her out by her hips
Keeping her in your pockets
She blows up your self esteem then
You pop it between your teeth and wrap her around your finger
You can't  get enough of her
But once you've had your fix..what would you do with a girl like that?

(A poem over a few thousand miles)
by JAC and JAB

Distance and I can never agree.

We were together, but thousands of miles apart
It was a creation between the both of us
And somehow the words created this "we".

We who are strangers, sharing only words
We who are nervous, for words are our souls
Distance and I can never agree
But distance and words, maybe we'll see.

Bearing words across the world
Souls across the distance
Some stranger seeking peace?
Distance wouldn't know
It never agrees.

Distance is as short as words are instant
When one soul thinks, another waits
Strangers are strangers until they share souls
So is distance just a stranger's mind?

Questions that would linger in the depth of some unsure mind,
Once they were doubts, but now I’ve made them mine.
This stranger is no stranger, well before he met me
But then again, his time wasn't always free.

We all have strangers, that were and were not
always strangers to distance -
So this time, distance's differences aside
Stranger or not, I'll confide.

You came too late in life,
when I no longer needed
to be tucked in or treated
like a princess.

You came after I had
already saved myself;
where I captured the
Dragon and made him mine.

I no longer needed to be
told I was special, or beautiful.
I became the King, loved myself,
made the voyage, slayed the Dragon.

You came after I realized there
was no pieces missing,
you came after I had fully
respected myself.

I don't need you anymore,
I did it myself.

I didn't make
Plans for a future
Simply because there
Wasn't one here

What heals
The burn in the
Back of your
Throat?

Is alone like..
by yourself?
or with no thoughts..
or..talking with yourself?
Or not knowing what to say
at 3 in the morning
When you can't talk
yourself to sleep?

I know what
he likes to be called.
But instead I call him
by what he is and though
he doesn't know it,
it's the truth in
my words that he loves.

Life is a vine
that grows beneath
The window
Before weaving through
The shudders.
Life is the vine
That contradicts
Your insurance contract
Before being cut down.

The first time
You tasted like vanilla
And mint

The stars have been a little brighter,
The night doesn't look as dark as it does blue.
I stop sleeping with a light on,
In fact I sleep more often because I'd rather sleep than anything else, they aren't just naps anymore.
I stopped telling people I don't trust how I really feel and they begin to be answered in short.
Close doesn't seem enough to want to be close to anyone
He doesn't answer back as fast or want to confide
I don't want to push,
I want to breath.
Clothes are a little looser than before, and eating meat is eating too heavy.
They don't call much

The rain knocks
against your window
Hopeful to wake
the madness inside of your head
And it's funny,
at this point
you were  the greatest evolution

I wish I could
Be indifferent to you,

But my anger rises like smoke
And you are the center of what

Always drove me to the brink
Of leaving my home.

You laughed as I expressed my grief
In waves of things I'm sure you expected
And smiled as I frowned back
And I tilted my head back
And how carelessly..
Did I lose my crown...

I don't
remember
the last time
I wanted a girl
to notice me like
the last time that she
complimented my smirk.

I could never be friends with someone like them

Yes but-

**Why was I ever friends with her

When the beams underneath the bridges fall
and the dinosaurs that once towered
Are no longer
And the buildings that scraped the skies
are cowering against concrete

The day will come when Picasso
was mentioned as a  finger painter
And land mines were seen
as they trembled on his skin
His eyes were like grenades

And I look up to him
like he was the painting on the roof
of my church
I studied him so much
I could sculpt him
and Michelangelo would be proud

One day he will be old as the rubble in ancient Rome
and I will still sit in his colosseum
and I will still love the cracks in his face
like in the moments they broke stone for the
first time

We aren't
always
The problem

(A Thousand-Mile Poem)
by JAC and JAB

I went hunting for history
Between the walls of a house
Peeking through its windows
In case its eyes went without.
Collecting the shadows
From shelves under his eyes
The storage room was full,
His heart heavy with lies.


Archive mind afloat with mystery
Memories and history
Saving me a seat
At the back of the library.
Reading through aisles of empty thoughts
I've known him since that moment.
The memory he nearly forgot,
He still carries a rusting watch
*The watch and time, no longer friends
Rust and poison, a story again
The archive mind begins and ends
At the touch of the forgotten face.

I'll always be there..tighten the jacket.
Read our old texts..reread the letters I've sent.
You have half of me with you always
I would never leave you alone.

Take me to the library
And we can sit against the bookshelves
We can look between the pages of some old atlas
Read some book covered in dust
and let the pages crumble onto our laps

Let's rediscover  the places we've
Only been to in our heads
I'd like to travel with you
Take me to the places you've been

Let's go between the pages
and I'll let your words
Rub off on me like sugar
Between my thumb and fore-finger

I've got maps in my head
and I'll show you where they take me
I'll walk with you on some train tracks
And we won't have a purpose

Take me to some interstate
And let's get lost

Stop getting so
excited,
this is when
you let yourself
down

My body is
Finally getting me
Back for all the things
I have ever put it through

I could never forgive myself
If I hurt you

We're all idiot fish in a barrel
Jumping into the air to watch the bullets
**** by our fins and hoping the
Strike doesn't hit but misses

And kisses the outskirt of our barrel.

The water is draining fast
And we struggle in all the odds
Against each other and try to get to the
Bottom where there's more water

But we're all gonna die anyways.

So we push each type of fish at each other and smother the others in blood
Of their brothers and don't do anything
Until one of the fish jumps out of our home

And right at the man cleaning the barrel of the gun.

Was it fun watching us unfairly die
While you are doing nothing
With our dying folk
But watching us perish.

You're a real jittery man I bet.

But as bullets fly by the fish we
Demand to run arrogant politicians to
Calm our gills and ask into our feels


But it doesn't matter anyway.

We're all idiot fish in the barrel fighting each other while someone pops holes
In our walls and allows the oxygen in.

We'll all die anyways.

Anna,
Did you get your answers?
Did you find them
in the sand
that found its way between your toes
Have your answers
fallen to you
as the leaves did last winter
Anna I know you
I know you watched their
faces fall like you would watch
the sun at sunsets
Did you find your answers there?

A face
like rain
And falling fate
Her eyes
Chased leaves
And found
His gates
Came upon
His empty
Chest to
Kiss his
Cage and
Let love
Rest.

The moon
Fills the glass bowl
That is the sky
Empties my mind
I wonder where you are
If you were made for cities
Did you grow restless in high school too?
Were people like us made for planes?
The ceiling is lit
Do pillows miss us when we aren't there for them to hold us?
Did teachers dream of being teachers?
The world has weight but never falls
I went to tell you I love you
But instead I typed "I don't know "
And life is full of uncertain
And do I want to know?

Trying to find rare people in this world's generation is like trying to find a book in a library of blank pages

Poets are supposed to be deep
And I am stuck in a rut.

I hope this strikes a nerve in you
To tell you that yes
I have blood in me too.

Someone was shot today
Execution style on their knees
Weak and unable to live on their feet
For fighting for what they believe.

All anyone ever wanted in life was peace
If you close your eyes like Lennon said
You'd see more than you would with them open

Black
White
Asian
Hispanic
Russian
Cuban
I don't care what you are

We all bleed red.
If it's blood that is  needed to be spilled to show

Then take it from the history books.
War shouldn't be all we know.

One day I want my babies to feel safe
And have friends of every race
And love the color of their blood,
Not just the color of their skin.

I want them to love the person they love
Because their personality is colorful.

I don't want them to care about equality
Because we're all God's children
He put us all here.
Isn't that equal enough?

She's everything-
I used
To not be.

The house that I grew up in is growing old.
I can barely distinguish between the house and my grandfather, and both have given up. Tired..of people walking inside of them.
I used to fall in the house running around the hallway and through the kitchen and now I'm falling through the floor.
There is no one to say "Get out of my kitchen!"
I've never been in the attic and I've only seen my grandfather open the latch once; I'll never get to see what was stored.  I thought Katherine's ornaments could be up there, but neither knew what had been done with them.
It broke my heart to see what I had seen. I wanted to have those memories again but not all the money in the world could buy them back.
The magic I had grown up with is dying. There is no more children to fall on the cinder under the fur shed and burn her forehead, or see snow for the first time. And after making snow *****, running hands through water and letting Katherine rub them through her bony hands. It doesn't snow in Louisiana but for this house it did.
I loved being old at such a young age. Picking blackberries with him and learning to preserve them. Staining my mouth, cheeks, hair, hands, my shirt with Mulberry. Then rolling dough on the counter and staining it with little girl hands and thin fingers and bear paws.
And still the only jelly I'll eat is blackberry jelly.
Cards at the table with Katherine was the best. She had this laugh. More of a cough and she wouldnt stop coughing until she caught her breath and then I would laugh so hard and try to walk it off and trip over her oxygen tubes.  That machine  used to haunt me. It looks with green eyes at night and stood in the open doorway of the door that I never understood why it was there, it never closed anyway. The doorway I used to hide in that one nightmare  about the dinosaur that would chase me around the same hallways that my grandfather would. I've always loved dinosaurs after that.
And eating at the kitchen table where there was always honey because grandfather was also a beekeeper and loved honeycombs and fresh honey.  The one flaw in that table was the window where I always thought raptors or a bobcat would jump out of while I was eating and eat ME. Tough little five year old me would put up a fight and scream until Paw would save me.
  The dining room table where Granny Velgin always had pancakes. The BEST pancakes. Where I learned to make them years later along with paine perdu, or French toast.  Little Cajun french me with my French name and father who was Czech but I have a  Cajun French grandfather.

The magic that was the now 60 year old house is going. It was always "50 years old" every time I asked my grandfather how old it was. It was his childhood house too. He says he still remembers Granny chasing Ayo with a pan for staying out too late..and I still chase the Christmas lights we used to walk to see. I still chase my cousins around the backyard geese and chicken and duck pen. I'm still chasing the magic that sat in the attic of the house I never looked in.

The
clouds
must be moving
in their own sweet time.

*But who are we
To think that clouds
Have to follow our clocks?

This place for
me and you

Where who we
are is the truth

Ever wonder where
we've been?.

Or if our parents
Will forgive us

Thinking a lot of life
And if we're born

To leave our home
And find our own

I could
Easily be
Without you,
I just
Wouldn't be
As full.

Our first clue
That love will hurt,
Should have been
Cupid shoots arrows
At people.

"But is the pain worth it?"
For I wouldn't know,
I've only been grazed
A couple times.

I'd like to live
Between the blades
Of grass

To collect the dew
On my legs
In the mornings

For spiders to use me
To steady their webs with
Nimble limbs.

For young girls
to play with as they
Sit cross legged in their yard

To grow and be taken
For granted and to become
Aerial when she does cartwheels and gets me in her hair

To be green and sit under
The sun and withstand the rain

***** mouth gypsy

Nails filled with soil

Canvas and bootleg

Without the tortured turmoil

Edgy and real

Though sweet as a cherry

She's every bit as dangerous

And wild and growing weary.

She wonders if there's hope

If she lives on the road

If leaving herself behind

Would allow her to find who she is.

I've grown distant
And so have you
But we're both happy
That's something new.

I said I was sad..
So we both held on..
Now that we're happy
Our anchor is gone.

They didn't listen when I said I was tired
I said that being different was hard
Because my jeans  don't fit right
My actual genes weren't right

And so I came out in comparison to everything
Already didn't have a father to teach me
The skies will cry if he ever tries to reach me
Not knowing who to trust was something girls my age don't worry about

They're far too happy living oblivious
And I question myself off of this-
How do they possibly not know
That they are all the same person?


Same gloss on smooth Pink lips
Smiling a shark smile that they do like kindness
And they name the rainbow by shades of eyeshadow- as if there wasn't enough color

   Girls like that are happy with the same person for a week
And yet I cannot be happy with myself for a day
Then they switch partners because "Don't  worry he's sooo cute!"
  
  I wonder if they are happier naive
And how hard it will be for them when they realize how the skies are actually smokey black
And they've been looking up through perfect eyelashes- but beauty doesn't last

   It must be nice always being average
With a cover girl to cover you sitting next to you
And manicured nails to scratch your way through life

Doesn't my mind and soul
Deserve all the attention
That you give to my
Body?

Never forget to tell your children...that  it's okay to cry
Because it's that when words are forgotten,
They often feel like lies.

You only get one life
Unless you think there's an after
You're kept alive by your beliefs
And views you've shared may matter.

You get what you get
You can't change the time you were given
It's up to you to make that choice
Get up out of bed or stay hidden.
You've been given a script not yet written.

Talk to people you wouldn't dare to be
Who cares if you shouldn't
Atleast do it for me
Never let someone tell you
That just because it sounds fun
That it is fun
Wondering into adventure is different then walking into hell

Pick your battles
Build your worth
You live your whole life knowing you WILL DIE.
You don't get to know when.
Choose that coffee instead of water.
Drink that protein shake.
Can't sprint it?
Jog it. Walk it. Crawl it.
I don't care how
Just get there.

If you're sad or depressed...been there..
You'll wake up one day not thinking about
How?
Or
Where?
One day you'll wake up and feel the need to play in your storm
Don't sit in the rain
You'll drown yourself..
In the weather you make.

You're happy today? Good for you!
Just please make sure,others are too.

You get a future.
You get to breathe.
You get to choose
If you want to stay
Or the next day leave.

Stay fearful, it lets them know how much you care
Or if you care about losing something.

Remember that if one day
You forget your name
The people who truly love you
Will be surrounding you
So in life
Surround yourself with people
Who will every day remind you
Of who you are
Because they are as afraid of losing you
As you are of losing yourself.