I always swam
In the Atlantic
As a kid
But never crossed it
Until now
And now that I am
How I long
To have only
Touched the surface
Instead of cross it
Because you are not
Waiting for me
On the other side

Friends dip off
Guess they wasn't homies
dont be comin back and actin cool as if you know me
Unholy
I swear to god y'all ****** make it hard
fearing letting others slip up underneath my guard
God;
i pray that you would give me all the strength
I pray that you would work me through my troubles like a shrink
to think;
I valued your existence as a gem
To think that you would label me another one of them
Its cool;
As if i could play karma for a fool
i did the same to others used my brother as a tool...

Used to think that i would know y'all forever
used to bank on y'all whenever my depression would sever
Used to be my crutches when i lacked the muscle to walk
back when devils stalked my being mind outlined in chalk...

I wish y'all the best
i still harbor all the love that i once held in my chest
i revoke you from that special place inside of my mind
the area my most ambitious demons struggle to find..

Does the anger ever consume you?
Do you ever feel the fire
build in your heart
pumping through your veins
to balled fists and a screaming head
making deals with the devil
to let the dam break

The routines come.

But they come silently,
and they slither,
and they crawl,
and they sneak into our lives
one inch at a time,
hiding in those missing minutes and seconds,
hidden in hours and days lost to the hubris
of our own sense of youth and permanence.

And all the time we've wasted is held so high,
high up above our heads,
just out of our reach,
just a whisper of familiar texture on our fingertips,
as we dance upon our tippy toes,
as our arms slowly tire
of trying to reach what we once held so easily,
as we look back on the shadows
stretched out behind us
overtop of our ever-lengthening timelines,
and we realize that time is indeed passing
and that the golden memories are just that,
memories,
and these stolid routines that we never noticed
aren't making any new ones.

The routines will come,
but ****** be if I'm going to sit idly by
and let them willingly take me.

i stand with my sisters --
hijab-wearing, undocumented
black, brown, beautiful, brilliant;
women who love women;
women who have the right
to answer to their names,
instead of a “sugar” or “honey” or “baby”
yelled by a stranger on a street corner;
terrific trans women;
women, who must have the right
to decide what should happen
to their own
bodies

i stand with my brothers --
men who love men
and men who are afraid to say that they do;
Muslim men, Latino men,
feminist men, trans men;
and those who are neither men or women,
non-binary friends of all shapes and sizes
and colors and creeds;
every person who has never felt
like they belonged

and i stand with my people --
the people of America.
we know deep in our hearts
that hate is not the answer;
and so we march on
and fight on
and force our voices out into the universe
and it is not futile,
it is not for nothing,
it will never be for nothing.

for those who believe
to love is the most important thing we'll ever do:
i stand with you.