Let me tell you about a girl I know

She lives in a brick house,
But her mind's encased in one-way glass
She can see through others,
But she rarely says what she's thinking

She drinks to feel free
But finishing the bottle doesn't make the boys love her
It just breaks the rules,
Something that is all too ordinary,
all too easy for her

You want to believe that she's dependable, she's responsible,
But her only certainty is her constant lies

As smart as she is,
She finds herself in the middle--
Caught in someone else's game-- all too often

She's never without a joke or prank,
Wears them like sunglasses
So that no one can see the emotions behind her eyes

She's begging for security
She's a liar, a manipulator,
A girl starved for something real

And she won't let herself have it

Every now and then remember to breathe.
Close your eyes and let the crowd carry you along.
The haze of heat disorients you but you welcome this new feeling, so new it defies description
as words to describe it have withered from your vocabulary these last years.
Excitement, apprehension, a billowing breeze of freedom perhaps.
Out of habit in recognizing how to feel, let alone attempting to transpose it to paper once again
after such a long absence from yourself and this world and caring to remember this day.
It is standing tip toe on top of a bridge over the clear diamond façade, a pristine ocean.
Opening your arms out wide; the whipping wind creates waves equal in your hair,
brings tears to your eyes and captures your breath.
You can’t wait to fall.
Not to end it all, but to begin what’s next, because you know that there is more.
You know that what lies ahead is better, better than this…
You welcome this and all feelings as they’ve been missed for this long time.
You wonder where they’ve gone, the feelings unremembered, some purposefully forgotten.
For surely they had to have existed, and are therefore somewhere.
Some dimension must still hold them; perhaps they are not the only thing missing.
The need to find who you were all that time so that you can continue…
But for now, for now the horizon is beautiful.
Driving home through the next sunrise won’t make you cry, for there is freedom just beyond.
That is what this feeling is…