I bid you all a fond farewell
As these bones turn to dust in capitalist shackles.
No more will my voice be silenced
By gender roles and repression.
My foremothers gave me my rights nearly a century ago
And you still act like it’s pocket change.
No more.

I will rise above this consumerist nation
And be heard.
Feminism means equality, not women over men.
Don’t take offense when I lock my car doors.
You’ve proven yourselves untrustworthy.
“Not all men.”
But enough men.

I am not backing down; I am not giving in.
I am breaking free of conformity,
Barely comfortable in the skin you told me was imperfect.
Flip-flopping your beliefs; I am never good enough for you.
But I will always be good enough for myself.

Stop.
Don’t speak.
Just listen.

The galaxies are in your eyes,
And they’re making me question everything.
I’m so small compared to the cosmos that is you.

Do you see me,
Tinier than a speck of dust in your beautiful, terrifying world?
Am I anything?

Many have sent their prying spaceships and caressing fingers,
Searching for the Fountain from which your beauty emits.
I don’t want to touch,
I just want to look.

I don’t believe in God,
But nothing else could create something so marvelous.

He told me I was beautiful.
Now I am nothing more than a faded picture in a dusty picture frame,
Forgotten in his bedside drawer.
Flittering like flames past, I wait,
Lipstick on his cheek and collar,
Winter river air blushing my cheeks.
We rowed across the river that day in his grandfather’s rickety dory,
The tranquility of squawking birds and gentle breezes
Numbing to his lips upon my neck.
He told me I deserved better,
But I deserved him.

These times are changing,
And yet I feel the same.
Sickness wracks my body,
Drugs run through my veins.
I drink coffee at three in the morning
Because I can’t tell the sunlight from the dark.
I guess I should be getting home now,
But it seems I’ve forgotten where I parked.

I loved and was in love,
Heartaches and stomach turns.
I was hurt and I hurt back,
Words like daggers and freezer burn.
You know, if you’ve ever felt
The dark caress of careful hands.
You know, if you’ve ever made
Stupid excuses and cancelled plans.
That love isn’t as easy
As romance films once claimed.
Loneliness is kinder;
Betrayal remains unnamed.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
Has nobody realised that it can drive a man insane?
Wasting your life away watching the rotating hands.
Daylight Savings just seems like a cruel joke.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
For Christ’s sake, make it stop.
A constant reminder that we’re dying.
Drinking too much alcohol and writing lazy poems.
We’re young now but it will watch us grow old.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
No more.

Rip it from the wall,
Torture a confession out of it,
Leave it broken on the floor,
Shattered like the hearts of feeble lovers who let it **** them.

We shall overcome.

I found love where it wasn’t supposed to be,
In the absinthe eyes of a perfect stranger.
Beautiful people in beautiful cities;
Where do I fit in?
I want to fix his coffee each morning,
Fix his tea each night.
I want to bake him pastries that he will crave when I’m not around,
Because the bakery down the street isn’t me.
I want to be the one to caress his back,
Run my fingers through his hair
When he wakes up afraid in the middle of the night.
I’ll give anything to be his safe haven.
The things we do for love, eh?
If only he would look at me
As I pass him on the crowded sidewalk.