let me paint you a picture
in shades of black and white
in shades of those who ****
and those who fight
this is what racism looks like
black men with paper hearts
armed with cardboard swords
white men dipped in ivory steel
white men born armed with skin
it's a black man with hands
raised to the heavens
and seeing hell as his last sight
this is what racism feels like
it's your black breath
being ****** out of your lungs
by white hands of white men
dressed in blue gilded in gold
this is what racism sounds like
it's an 18-year old's last words
it's a mother's cry at a police station
it's a bullet racing through the air
this is what racism is
it is not poetry
it's a black man wearing a red shirt
and getting shot six times
this is no crusade
there is no holy purpose
this is the star-spangled truth
a flag drenched in black blood
this is the truth bared in ink
and no poetry can save it

Our observant minds will be the best and worst aspects of any relationship. I don't know if you notice how your fingertips curl at my waistline, but I do. Don't stop that heaven even if the devil is in the details.

8:21am turns to magic when you put the sun in our eyes via white screens with bouncing letters. "Good morning, babe" was all I ever needed to transform me into a morning person on the weekends.

Never underestimate the Power of the Pen. You told me the stars on the island reminded you of my beauty; worthy of a dedication page. You didn't find the time to say goodbye; worthy of being written off.

Inspiration comes in the darkest hours. Give me something other than desperation to grace my pages with at 4am.

You will never disappear, even when you do. Forever engrained in journals and failed publications, as we all wish your memories could smear as easily as pen ink

we're just not that simple.

i love you, i do
but i am just too broken
for someone like you

Tell me you love me
With unending measure
My heart will bleed gold
Like a chest full of treasure

Beating and breathing
My thorax expands
With pumps of gold blood
From this heart to your hands

You make my heart whole
Once you draw near
So tell me you love me
For I need to hear.