They say

you only regret the things you didn't do

but where you regret not staying

I regret leaving

You said

I love you

You said

I'll stay by your side

You said

Goodbye

In my world

when a tree falls in the forest

it is only laying down to sleep

and of course it makes a sound

because its limbs creak with dreams

These are words that I would write on the moon.

I’d trace them into the dust where no wind could ever blow them away,

then I’d leave a trail of footprints so you could always find me,

because sometimes I lose myself in the night sky.

I used to think that what never goes up never has to come down,
that if I kept my head out of the clouds I would never have to hit the ground,
but I must have made one too many dandelion wishes,
because suddenly I’m so high in the atmosphere that I can barely breathe.

Now I can see that my dreams built me a staircase,
I’m just too scared to keep following them because what if it breaks?
I can’t fly, I lost my super hero cape,
It got ripped apart when I had to start saving my everyday

Still I can’t just stay here in this in-between
Maybe I can’t fly, but I can still fall, like everyone does,
and there isn’t any point trying to save me,
Just listen to the screams of my heartbeat

It says that I want to be free
and I will hit the ground running even if it breaks my knees
because being grounded doesn’t mean giving up
It just means I want to walk on something that I can trust

They say that words can never hurt me,
But its the stab of a scrawling pen that stings the most
Because they aren't just sticks and stones.

They’re a sharp knife between my ribs
That my heart tries to escape,
But it can’t get out of its cage.

Words slice us open until dark ink
Gushes from our wounds and pools over the paper,
Where those who can’t read hop through the puddles of our misery.

And words may not break my bones,
But they propel every speeding bullet that crashes through my skull.
They fuel ever ticking bomb of age old scripts that condemn my home.

Words are the push from the ledge in every excess suicide
They form the noose that strangles your neck before you even touch a rope.
They label every empty pill bottle and they write the note.

I want to scream at the top of my lungs
But sadness is a quiet song
And my lungs are weak from shallow breaths
And my racing heart gets no rest

Silence can be just as profound
But not when your veins course with sound
And voices whisper in your ear
Sometimes you need to hear more than an echo

The world needs to hear what I feel
So I can be sure that's it's real
Because even the words I put down in ink
Don't hold the power of what I speak