Pelvic stars glow across my being,
But just because this light allures you does not mean you are welcome to take what lays in between the infinite universe of those stars

As new shades of green
Wash over me
I realize
That I've grown so far
From the boy
I used to be,
The black butterfly
With rainbow wings
And a essence of beauty
That goes farther
Than what
The eyes can see,
And these days
I like to collect
All my sleep..
I don't toss and turn
Cause your
In my dreams
I guess you can say
My heart
Is done with thē
Nostalgic pain
That the memories
Used to bring,
So as I grow
And let these
New shades of green
Wash over me
I can only look
To fall more in love
With these new levels
Of growth
That represent me

Mother and daughter moments

The passing on of strength,
The power of protection, love in action;
Mother to daughter who becomes mother.
In the mirror, together, their smiles-
Millions and millions of miles;
So on they go.

In the heart of the forest,
In the still of the night, a baby cries;
Father stirs, universal mother cares.
In her sounds soothing we know peace.
At our death’s terror we call her;
Her light spares no shadow.

Mums conceive the cosmos;
Their children rise to fall, but rise again.
An unassuming strident song lies
Underneath the fleeting, unending repeating:
Sowing the color into connecting lives;
Creating with Love.

This is where the heart lies:
softly in the hands of rhyme
and meter; we've made a shrine
out of syntax and code.
We tell stories and we sing songs
about life and love, and this
is where some of us grow up,
this is where some of us die a little
each day.

This is our home, not your playground,
so keep your fights
out of here.

They shot a lot of black men,
this year.

Men with power and uniforms.
They were shot, too.

Schools were bombed
bullets scattered
& teachers, like me, had panic attacks practicing
drills, imagining their students’ bodies
riddled with shrapnel.

& we argued about gun control,
racism,
immigrants,
walls.

Injustice permeated the coffee I drank to calm myself.
Sorrow waltzed along the edges of cheerful conversations
in the grocery store.


White men and women took to platforms,
insisting their version of justice could correct
the suffering.

No one really believed them.
Presidency became a mockery
Division made more clear.


Over three hundred died in Baghdad,

no one flew their flag.

Maybe we were tired of avatars with flags of nations other than our own.
all suffering.
Perhaps so much compassion was overwhelming.
It could be that skin color meant more than I thought.


The skin color I wore,
Light, spattered with freckles,
made my compassion a condescension.
--how could I understand?

Mum
why won't you listen?
when I say I had a panic attack
you say 'don't be stupid, just because your friend gets them doesn't mean you do'
I can't help it, I close my mind off and denied the fact this happens because you think it's a choice
but I have one question why the **** would you want to feel like you're going to pass out or not be able to breathe? And what person would pretend this happened?
So I had a panic attack
you say 'stop being stupid'
I can't talk to you without you thinking I'm acting or you being ignorant to the point where I feel like I'm worthless and you don't care.

I have given you
so many things.
With a child's light innocence,
I've handed you my creations,
my emotions, my affection
(everything
I value most).

You took them,
excitedly at first, hung them up,
saved them in a box.
But as time wore on
and the novelty wore out,
you took it all
with a thin smile
and threw it in the trash.

Whether it will happen or not,
Choose your attitude wisely.
Like the flower that saw grey clouds
Hovering above, swept in by thirst.
Yet went through the day without a drop.
An inch she grew, without a slant.
Her petals glistening with glee.
Sparing her last for the company of bees.
That night she payed homage
To the soil that fed her roots,
The trees that broke the wind
And the hills that braved the storm.
"Best you play your part," said the moon to the flower,
"And leave the rest to the circle of life."