I brush my hair every morning and night
You'd think, with this bob, it would stay tame
But if I take off a hat or run under a breeze so light
The cute bob turns into a matted lion's mane

I have always been quite fond of the rose
That flower sweet by any other name
That one sweet to both the eyes and the nose
That can grow to be so wild or tame
Maybe I am a bit biased in this
For my middle name is shared with the bloom
If it went, in romance it would be missed
It adds beauty to gardens and all rooms
And like my namesake, I have pastel lips
Thorns to fight with, and nice little round hips

I may act a bit odd every now and then
You call me a puppy, but I'm fully human
Sure, in good weather, I roll down a window
And stick my head out as far as I dare go
Yes, I also stick my nose in the air and sniff
If I smell food, perfume, or anything amiss
And I might snuggle up to you at random times
When I feel lonely or can't keep open my eyes
Though I'm an introvert, I'm good with a pack
But with those unfamiliars, my social skills lack
I'm often quiet, but I can raise my voice
I bark loudly and howl with joy if given the choice
I can be a bit akward, pushy, or clumsy
But despite stupid mistakes and curiosity, I'm no dummy
Okay, you may have been right all along
That some part of me is that of a dog

we hate
we love
we wage war
we make peace
we commit ******
we save lives
we ignore issues
we find answers to our problems
we commit genocide
we save nations
we feel
we go numb
we enslave others
we free each other
we lie blatantly
we reveal the truth
we sneak around
we march right in
we run in fear
we stand up and fight
we are thoughtless
we're analytical
we are intelligent
we're emotional
we can all hurt
and we can all heal.
we are humanity.

At ease, I sink down
Into warm lime and salt waves
Forgetting the world

They started off
As nothing more
Than interstellar dust

And then they pulled together
And shone bright in the void

Then they burst
Into a fiery nebula
Of multielemental radiation and dust

And over and over again
They were made and unmade
Beautiful galaxies shining endlessly
In that silent vacuum

And they formed solarities
And became little blobs of magma and gas
And they spun around
Crashing and breaking
Merging and making

Until one day they cooled
And all was calm over the muddy, uniform
Three foot deep sulfuric waves

And one day
They became a red film
But this time
Instead of being made or unmade
They made and unmade themselves

And as they made themselves again
They missed a thread in the genes
And they changed

And over and over
They made these mistakes
But each error they learned from
Each wrong step made them stronger
Each bad guess made them smarter
Each wrong look made them more beautiful

And so they grew
From a film to a blob
From green string to trunks
From swimming rays to Jurassic terrors
From frightened mice
To graceful, awkward, weird-looking, insane, and genius apes

And the time between changes
Kept getting shorter
First coordinated sounds
Then scratched in clay
Then limestone mountains
And one day
They looked around
And realized they had the planet

And as the billenia of the galaxies
Lapsed into the millions of life
Lapsed into the millennia of the young apes
Lapsed into the centuries of the modern species
Will lapse even further

And they looked all around
And they saw this change

And they imagine
And discover
And create
And live

And one day
They will make for themselves
A pair of metal wings
And a tail of pure energy

And they will fly up
And dance amongst the stars

So Hesiod looked around on an ancient Grecian day
He looked at all the rowdy youth doing things their way
With their sundials and writing
And their chariots like lightning
He concluded that youth were going the wrong way

Some people march in a band
For sports fans in the grandstands

Some march in the military
On bases from Hawaii to Italy

Some people march to be heard
Over all the events that occured

And on Saturday, amongst the crowd's clatter
I'm joining those who are doing the latter

Well, this year was far crazier than the last
That's okay 'cause I brought my fight in full blast
After twelve months, the problems are yet to go
But in the face of it all, the strength and support did grow
And it was rough, some months it was hell
But I made it through like a wint'ry cold spell
I came, I saw, I did become
Save the vici for later; I'm nowhere near done

I want to sit with you by the Arby's
And watch the future's lights pass overhead
I want to run together in the breeze
Through the desert with the glow cloud ahead
I want to eat at Big Rico's with you
Maybe we could sneak in some wheat products
I want to find out if we could get through
This town without joining that calm forest
I want to visit the science district
And we can go watch an experiment
We can go to see something artistic
For the stray dog's graffiti is apparent
I want to listen to the radio
And, with you, wonder where else we can go

We are the ones who
Engineered golden rice for
Those who needed food

We are the ones who
Are starting to plan trips to
The iron planet

We are the ones who
Make earthquake proof matresses,
Buildings, and cities

We are the ones who
Are stopping malaria
With DNA's help

We are the ones who
Are actually learning
About mental health

We are the ones who
Saw racism and started
Black lives matter groups

We are the ones who
Push for equal treatments of
All ****** types

We are the ones who
Spread news from the source with just
A phone and a cause

We are the ones who
Are making changes, my friends
We are the future

Debate isn't about scoring a win
Or coercing an enemy into giving in
But getting fellow humans to find what we hold in common

What is it called
When you look at someone
Who've you've been told
Is the enemy
And you see your mirror image?

What is it called
When you finally read about a man
Who your mother calls a traitor
And your father doesn't speak about
And you realize:
"He's exactly like me"?

What is it called
When you want to say it aloud
You want to join the fight
And discover and shout and protest and create
But you can't
Because your father would be fired
And your mother would disown you?

What is that called?

My poet, I'm flattered by your attention
But your comments are rather misguided
You are mistaken about my condition
I truly wish your words could be abided
I'm not always quite this fair and gentle
And I'm not, by any means, eternal
Truthfully, sometimes I think I'm mental
Viewed closely, most previous notions fall
I'm not a fair day, I'm a hurricane
Inside my mind, flowers don't stand a chance
I'm sorry if my response gives you pain
But if you find that you still want to dance
I, too, would like to turn another page
And see if we share scenes in this world's stage

Brethren, now's the time of truth:
Good luck on finals

Some people say that mass shootings
Wouldn't happen if both sides had guns
They say that a vigilante crossfire
Can protect our nation's daughters and sons

To those people I will tell
A story told to me by my family
About a situation exactly like that
And what the true outcome would be

There was a woman, one of my cousins
From somewhere on my family tree
I've never met her, but my parents know her
And she is related to me

This young woman met a man
And eventually they were engaged
But what happened next definately was
Where things took a turn for the strange

See, my cousin decided to move four hours away
With her fiance once they were married
This would require her to change her job
And the responses to this were varied

In particular my cousin's boss
Had a rather bizarre objection
When she told him of this, he confessed
That, for her, he harbored an affection

My cousin, of course, moved anyways
Though she and her husband were very concerned
And they were shocked to find her boss stalking her
As into their lives he returned

So her husband went to the local sheriff
And told him what was happening
About how his wife's old boss followed them
To the point where it became maddening

The sheriff told him he would help
That he would look into what could be done
And he also said they'd be safer
If the man got himself a gun

So my cousin's husband did that
Learned how to fire a shot
Then one day the old boss met them
In an empty parking lot

The fighting escalated quickly
To tensions it had never reached before
The man pulled out his gun, and told his wife to run
Into the nearby Wal-Mart store

The boss had brought a gun as well
And this is the ending that I shall tell
A shot to the stomach and a shot to the head
By the end of the night, both men were dead

The winter may soon be gone
Some ecosystems have started to go
Who knows what'll happen to crops and lawns
But at least we'll have sun glinting off snow

There once we're two princess
Fire and Ice
And in one another
They found their vice
And they decided
As goes the lore
To see which side
Would win a two-person war
So they met in the city
Right on the bay
And with a bow, crouch, and lunge
They started the day
They began in the capital
A grand skyscraper
By the end of the fight
There was only a crater
The ground quakes and split
So Fire jumped in
With her use of the magma
She was sure she would win
Then Ice jumped back
And in her dismay
Slipped into the waters
Of the capitol bay
She had an idea
Right then, very quick
She cooled down the bay
Into ice thirteen feet thick
And as the magma-ice storm
Raged on on that beach
The city and earth
Started to breach
By the end of the fight
Neither princess prevailed
No victory was won
No winner was hailed
The city was destroyed
And the bay, too
The fire, ice, and rubble
Left only a gravelly slough
The princesses both died
Of exaustion that night
For they thought the other's end
Proved their might
But when white meets black
It mixes in grey
Much like the fire and ice
And the water that day
For when two equal forces
Opposing collide
No one prevails
There are left no sides
Yin-yang turns to grey
When the world collides

Running down these vacant halls
Behind the stage before curtain call
In these moments, I'm taken back
Three years before the beatten track

And somewhere 'neath that cutrained hide
Comes a feeling from deep inside
Not quite joy, not yet grief
A fleeting moment, yet never brief
And with a gasp in the dark unseen
Comes my gasp, a silent scream

Not even audible, yet still a song
Brand new, but I grew it all along
A wish for a past away from this pain
A wish for future, never to come again
And as breathless words rise up again
I silently mouth my memoriam

For gone is the girl I once was
Yet still she's here, in every cause
Then I didn't know half of what I do now
Never had a clue as to what was about
To happen to me, to my loves and my mind
I want it so bad, like a fool to rewind
But I know to get better, I have to go on
Even if I miss those old patterned songs

So in an attempt to take a stand
Here I type a feeble memoriam
For I can't even start to change it all
My past will always have its power and call
But I must leave and I must grow
So wish me luck and here I go
For though I will fail again and again
Falling back on way back when
I will get up, and then will stand
Shouting in memoriam

Stardust and lust
Lie behind her blue eyes
Her lips moist raise a voice
Like songbirds in morn skies
With her grace and her face
She enchants all in her way
She needs no weapon when she's gettin'
All the wishes she'll say

As yesterday came to an end
I thought I had some time to spend
Then i opened my plans
To see where I stand
I'm booked until April's month ends

If you think  dropping things in the toilet is icky
Never ever drop something in a camp's biffy

Standing at the water's edge
A little girl peers over the ledge
Looking deep into the water's night
Without the slightest hint of fright
Gazing at the waves alien world
With her eyes shining meekly bold
She smiles pondering her soon to be realm
An alien earth with her mind at the helm

Imagine that it's 2008
And a third grader
Walks to catch a bus

She's small (only three feet tall)
But walks quickly and quietly
As her sister says "wait for us!"

Imagine that, as she nears
The top of the hill
On a drizzly, chilly morning

She looks ahead
And sees a coyote
And remembers the grown-ups warnings

Everyone else
Is too far behind
To see what she can

The coyote and I
Looked at each other
And after a few seconds, he ran

When it comes to my family and friends
I freak out when they get near my violin
But if it were a conductor or music student
Or a music professor most prudent
I'd let them throw it halfway across Washington

Crickets chirp
Birds call
Wolves howl
Monkeys shreik
Dolphins whistle
Men speak
Singers sing

*And we write

Sometimes it was a palace
Of gossiping cortesians
Ruled by a queen
With an army of rough men at her influence
A palace from which I, the demon,
Was forbidden to enter
A place of shared lunchables and rubber bangles
While I was relegated to chasing bugs
And swinging through branches

At other times, it was a prison
Guarded by four of the new queen's men
While they sat counting poker chips of bark
I sat plotting an escape
I could dash out and outlast any man
But in a confined land
They'd intersect my path, given long enough
And every time
They'd drag me back under by my coat sleeves
Kicking and shouting

And other times
When no one else was out
And the grounds were as silent as a winter's night
And the queen and her men were in the city
Arguing ranking amongst lords and ladies
I would be out on the parapets
Turning the fortress
Into my domain
A perch with a view of the whole kingdom
A castle owned by the wild dragon

Now I walk up to it
And watch the children upon it
And I remember my time
As a demon
A prisoner
And a fierce, unbridled dragon

You probably think
That I have it made
But what you see as a palace
I see as a cage

These bangles you see
Of silver and gold
Are my handcuffs
To the traditions of old

I'm expected to walk
With beauty and grace
And to hide my true feelings:
My mask is my face

I have to be perfect
A model for the crowd
I'm a regular girl
But I can't say that aloud

I might be famous
But I'll never be free
Not with the rules
That dictate what I'll be

So next time you wish
That you were in my place
Remember that I
Hide much behind my face

Is
It wrong
That the thing
I miss when you're gone
Is the television's dull hum
The silence is lonely, but the absence is relief
That I can walk down into the kitchen without akward words or my *** getting grabbed

I
Turned on
NPR
And I felt at ease
More at home at night on my own
Than I've felt in a long time, am I so wrong if I

Can't
Say that
I'm upset
Somehow lost when you
Aren't at home in the evening hours?

And
That I'm
Not upset
That I don't have to
Justify every move and twitch
That I prefer to talk to the man who I can't judge?

If
It is
Wrong for me
To think like I do
(Though you do claim to read my mind)

I'm
Not sure
I can show
You who I am now

Leaves of palm fall to the ground
As fish and coconuts abound
Children swim under the sun
Searching for some summer fun
Grownups head on to the bar
Or to gatherings where their colleagues are
Winter's left, snowbirds are gone
Some tourists are here, but most moved on
Sun climbs over the naval bases
Shining upon uniformed faces
Sailors clip along bays and coasts
Besides mangroves and shipwrecked ghosts
Plantains and barbacue, fish and rice
Lemonade for kids, and beers in ice
Corals are shining, and so are the jellies
While artists sunset performances spark passion in bellies
This is the hot passion of summer in Key West
Where oceans meet and birds come to rest

I remember that maroon shirt
A size too large so it hung like a sack
Over my twiggy, seven year old limbs
It was rough and scratchy against my belly
I absolutely hated the color
I was one for turquoise and scarlet and sparkles
This was a cloth of rusty mud, it was purple gone terribly wrong

Of course I protested
Whining at my mother like a cub at her lioness
Why should I have to wear this ugly thing
That you brought yesterday for no reason at all

And then you said there was a reason
In that quiet, somber way you get when you homilize to me
That tone that makes me scared enough to flatten my unruly hair

It was the first time I heard the words
Mass Shooting
But it was far from the last

I went to school that day
I tried to tell the others
Some had heard a snippet or two from mom and dad
Before being sent out of the room
But most just looked at me like I had a third eyeball in my head
They shrugged it off and went back to foursquare
They never gave a **** about the news if it wasn't Charlie Brown
And they never really talked to me more than they needed to

The grownups hurried us all along
Avoiding all mention
Of Virginia Tech
And they would nod and turn away when I told them
How was I to know that they didn't have any answers either

I sat on the swingset
The cyan dome that seemed so familiar in its vast vacancy
Was now so empty and abandoning
The bark chips were suddenly silent
In juxtaposition to my mind

I mouthed out the words
A feeling in my mouth like a jawbreaker too large to fit it but crammed in anyways
I didn't have the words for it then

How could someone do that?
How could someone just walk up
With a special stick and some bullets
And end twenty six lives
Like they were swatting at flies
And how could everyone
Be so calm and carefree
When so much harm had come
When so much blood ran
Turning to a rust color in my mind
Like that god-awful shirt

The day was done
I threw the shirt in a bottom drawer
I never wore a maroon thing again until I was thirteen
I felt glad to be rid of that jawbreaker
And the strange feelings in my gut and neck

But it was not over
None of us were rid of it

Aurora
Sandy Hook
Breaking News: Mass Shooting
San Bernardino
Pulse
Breaking News: Mass Shooting

Guys, one of our competitor's teamates was killed
It was a ******-suicide by his father on him and his mother
So please be considerate

Good God, how many has it been
When did it begin
What should we do
And how did I get so numb
To my semiannual jawbreaker moments

But all I hear is
Who do we blame?

The foreign ones?
Let's blockade them
Because it's not like we were ever that way

Maybe the ones with ****** up minds?
Yeah, they're the violent ones
It cuts me deeper than any work of my own blades

But god and the NRA forbid
That we have shootings
Because we have the means to
That we have a radicals in the U.S.
And they only came from us
But when has policy ever made sense?

All I know is
That we can't keep going numb
To the jawbreakers in our mouths

Ten seconds
Everything's normal

Thirty seconds
It's a little better

Fifty seconds
The headiness sets in

Sixty seconds
My chest is on fire

Eighty seconds
I contemplate life and what's after

Ninety seconds
My hand, tingling
Falls from my face
And I gasp in
Relieved
And dissapointed

For the love of God
Or karma
The force
Whatever it is that exists out there
Wash this away

Wash away
The melancholic numbness
The sadness that I can't express
Even if I try
To force myself to cry

Wash that feeling
Into the concrete
And leave in my place
A girl
Emptied and free
One who has no knowledge
And no fear
Of this life
Or the next

words
are something
we learn
at a young age
what those around us say
                becomes what we say
but words
are so much more
than our bodies
vibrating air
words tell the world
what our brain is thinking
the words we hear
              become parts of our thoughts
the words that we use
              show the world who we are
where we're from
               and what we want to show others
words written down
carry our thoughts across and through
space and time
a pen and ink
can and have
saved lives
started wars
broken hearts
and blown minds

A word of encouragement
Can nourish a man more
Than any supplement
                              A word of abuse
                              Can wound a man
           To where medicine is of no use
A word of simple compliance
Blinds the mind
                And a few of fierce rebellion
                              Become a battle cry
Maybe a few bad poems
Are less than art
But a brain releasing a cyclone into paper
Had to be a start
Maybe one day
I can find my part (s)
Until then, my mind
Wanders alongside my heart (s)
But these words
Though so little
Are only my start

Come close, friends, and huddle near
As I retell the story of the Children of Lir
Come close, ye travelers, I'll try to be breif
I can tell of the messy teenager, Blackfooted Gulleesh
Come close, little children, and listen all
To what happens when leprechauns venture into kings halls
Come close by the light in this untimely snow
I'll tell of Balar and Lugh's mighty throw
And as we fall asleep and turn off the  lights
I'll tell of how cunning beats giants in a fight

Whatever it is that you choose
The only one who can is you

Whatever that something might be
Just make sure to think it through

And no mater what the outcome is
Don't let others tell you what to do

"See, I've found that not a lot rattles you"*
I can't let it in my surrounding world
From populist risings gaining their roots
To drugs in the school (such as the bus girl)
I've seen school street plays, and blood on hall floors
And news that doesn't care about the truth
I've heard your fights with mom, in and out doors
I've seen infection spread amongst the youth
So call me jaded or darkly funny
But the way I am, you just have to be

They say that if you lie with dogs
You'll rise with fleas
If that's the case, I'll scratch
As much as I please

Tomorrow my classmates
Might question what they've seen
When I come in, with no explanation
And my hair deep green

"One day, you'll grow up
And you'll make a lot of friends
Or maybe you won't
Maybe you'll just have a few tight buddies
But if anyone tries to change you
you don't need them
You're amazing the way you are"
I told her

She looked up at me
With large, doeful eyes
Nuzzled me and mooed as if to say
"I'm not sure what you just said
But I think I understood it"
As I rubbed her head and ears

At least I can give life advice to a Jersey heifer
Before my program ends and I go back home

Don't Tell me I'm too young
That I'm just a hormonal teen
Who will look back on this moment
And admit I was being ridiculous
Maybe, twenty years from now
I will look back and laugh

But right now
Regardless of my lack of adult memories
Or the biological chemicals pumping through my veins
What I feel now
Is very real to me

When you say I'm too young
You treat me like a pet
Incapable of understanding human things
Maybe I do think very differently
Than an adult
But regardless
I'm still a person
Just like you

Please try and remember
How you felt
When you were my age
Without filtering your memories

You were once my age
And, in turn
Someday I will be your age
The teenagers of today
Are the actors
Scientists
musicians
Singers
Authors
Presidents
Farmers
Bankers
­Teachers
And parents
Of the future
The future that you fantasize about
And say will be amazing and advanced
With bizzare, yet wonderful, futuristic languages, fashions, and ideas

Yet when you see the people
Who will, in the next few years,
Being about the sci-fi era
You call our fashions ridiculous
You call our slang sloppy
And when we try to share our new ideas
You call us crazy
You tell us we're too young to know enough
To have valid ideas

But maybe, this world needs a generation
With a fresh mind and view
people who have
Less preconceived notions
To overcome

So please,
Spare me the talk
That reveals only how little you know about us

Don't tell me I'm too young
To know who I am
And what I want
Just try and remember
That your generation
The one who currently runs the world
That you were once my age, too

Here's to all the concerned gaurdians
Who enact an internet firewall
And here's to all the witty subjects
Who find ways around it all

One had months of surgery on her knees
But she still stays active anyways

Another is in a hospital for anorexia
But she cooks like a TV chef anyways

One goes to therapy for her anxiety
But she runs for class president anyways

She has overwhelming depression
But she jokes around and parties anyways

She has all of the problems that being bisexual brings
But she makes friends and loves anyways

These are just some of the girls in my scout troop
And I'll remember them, always

Little white clouds are
The young pups, bouncing along
Tripping on their paws

The stronger, large ones
Grey, matte fur tails brushing
Through the hunter's sky

The darkest elders
Follow, howling quiet when
They return to earth

While some are alone
True to their nature, the clouds
Run their packs through skies