Kiss me
And take my mind away from here
Each kiss was an escape
A break from reality

Kiss me
And take my heart on vacation
Teach me how to forget
There has ever been pain

Kiss me
And tell me with your lips
What it means to touch
A wish on a star's tips

A kiss from you
Was nothing short of a rescue
The light they shown upon my path
Delivered me home

© Nathan Pival 2016

The walls we build up around ourselves
With intentions of protecting us
Inadvertently imprison us
Made wary by our own cautions
Afraid to take chances
Never letting anyone in
And never getting out
We have locked ourselves in and away
Our own fears have swallowed the key
With this type of thinking
We will never be free

Karma isn't always quick to act
Sometimes it takes months, even years
To fully come into effect
Sometimes, it waits until you're on your deathbed
And it will come in the form of regret
Reminding you of all of the hurt and pain you've caused

So think twice before you burn bridges
And bite your tongue before you say mean things
Be nice and good and fair
And that comes around full circle as well
Sometimes, it takes a while
But good things do come to those who wait

If you want my heart
You will have to take my hand
And show me how to love again

The responsibility is both of ours, most definitely
But you should know
This will come with rough edges for me
After being cut so many times
I learned to quit giving people the knife
But I do want to love again

I just need to know that it will be okay
And that you won't take advantage
Of my opened heart
Of my desire to please
That you will really love me for me

Nothing should ever be rushed
But no one is getting younger

Asking you to hold my hand and be gentle
Isn't too much, is it?
But I will be as kind to you
It can be a journey together
You and I

I won't forget
The world is unfair, equally

Her state of being had reached into the depths
Back and forth between happiness and sadness
She had arrived at a state of melancholy

On the edge of her smiles
Always lingered a twist of melancholy
She was nervous about going all in
Because that was too much to lose

Her perpetual sadness gave her a beauty
Not to be appreciated by most
Yet the look she portrayed gave her a pureness
Unlike no other

Not deeply sad, but down
And any happiness was always shortly lived
Too much loss
Too many goodbyes
She was built upon broken things

Her melancholy smile and disposition
Was something only the real sweethearts and lovers could love
Because getting a smile from her was like gold

Hers was the attention worth fighting for

There was one
And that was all one ever knew
One got through this life on his own

One was alone until he met her
She had been one before as well
Together, they became two

Things changed from being about me
And everything became about us
Together, no longer alone
One and one became two

Two were together for a long time
And they did everything with each other
After a while, they created another one
And two plus one became three

These three became a unit, a family
The bigger two looked out for the smaller one
And that is how they got along

After some time
Life crept in and began to divide the three apart
Try as they might
Fight as they fight
They couldn't stay as three any longer

As everything fell apart
Three became two
And then two became one
Everyone was alone again
Just like the beginning, *the start

What does it take
For a man to bury his dreams
Behind the garage with his gone pets?

Was it responsibility and maturity
To know that the dreams of a child
Weren't obtainable for a man anymore?

Was it because too many people
Said it couldn't be done
The doubt that seeded in
Just added up to lost time
And now there just wasn't enough time?

What does it take
For a man to finally bury his dreams?
Shovel in hand, a cigarette rests in his lips
As he says goodbye
To the dreams he had as a child

Every now and then
It can feel good to be alive
To be happy to be yourself
To feel thankful
To be the one that walks in your shoes

These days only come every now and then
So we have to make the most of them
They give us strength for when the days aren't so kind
When the tears well up in our eyes
And everything has us feeling overwhelmed
Maybe not that loved or appreciated
Or just downright defeated

It's the memories of those days
That only come every now and then
Where it feels special to be alive
To keep us in our place
To keep our feet on the ground

To just know that it's not so bad
Every now and then

A series of die rolls
And you still ended up being you
What's the chance of that?

When I was a child
I can remember being excited
When I could finally color
Inside of the lines

It was such an achievement to be able to do
What the adults had deemed
The way it was done
Color inside the lines
Think inside the box
Follow the rules
Do as you're told
But those are just surefire ways
To keep you from writing your own story

To live you must let creativity take hold
To untie your tethers
To guide your hand outside the lines
To show you how to think outside of the box
To remind you, it's not always about doing as you're told

To write your own story
You sometimes must color outside of the lines
Don't be afraid to have an original thought or dream

The other day
A friend asked me why life had to be so difficult
My response was that it was never meant to be simple
Life is just a lesson we may never fully learn

A constant struggle
Caught between heartbreak and love
Not only surviving, but living
Being kind and forgiving

Life is difficult because that is what makes us wiser
It teaches us to appreciate
The small things
The beautiful things
The overlooked things

The sound of the wind through the trees
Or crickets on a summer's night
Training pedals removed, skinned knees
Learning to get back up again
After being knocked down

Life is difficult because nothing worth having is ever easy
It's the fight that makes the time to smile that much more beautiful
It's the crying that makes us grow inside and even out
Taking life for what it's worth

A smile holds as much value as a frown
As up is to down
Life is sometimes hard
And sometimes it's easy
But it's always what you make it