It’s 3 in the morning. All I can hear is a loud buzzing
and everything around me is spinning. Some give me
an aspirin because my head is throbbing and about to explode.
I leave your house and the bottle still in my hand.

I stagger to my car and I turn the key. I looked over to the
house and drive away never thinking about the what ifs
and maybes. I drove down a dark and narrow road that leads to nowhere.
It feels like a snake because I kept on turning the wheel to stay straight.

I stomped on the brakes because I saw a deer walking in front of the car.
I stared at it and its big eyes returning the gaze. Still looking at it
I sped off as I have never seen a deer before. I entered a long and
dark tunnel that seemed to be endless. At the end of it I saw nothing

but an extremely blinding light. I remembered seeing my life flashing
before my eyes. I saw my birth and my first kiss and my high school prom.
I saw my high school graduation and my first day of college. I saw the first
and only girl I have fallen in love with. Then all I saw was the blinding light

in front of my eyes and I don’t know what to do. I swerve the car to the left
and then to the right but the light would not leave. I just closed my eyes as
tight as humanly possible and I screamed at the top of my lungs. I gripped
the wheel as tight as I can and I prayed the light would disappear. The next thing

I remembered I was at home getting ready to go to your house. I looked
in the mirror, stunned and sweating. I touched my face and looked around
to see if I was only dreaming. I looked in the mirror again and I told myself
I am never going to drink and drive because that was a crazy dream.

I wear wings on my back
Not the wings of birds
But the wings of angels
They offer me guidance
To wherever I want to go
To whatever I want to do
To whomever I want to be
These wings offer me
Support when I fall down
From all the pain
From all the suffering
From all the doubts
From my past that I want to forget
They catch me when I fall
And they lift me ever so higher
Until I can touch the sky
And until I can touch my goals and dreams
They carry me above all obstacles
They carry me higher
And I don’t ever want to come down
When they flap they break the big cloud
That blocks the sun from warming
The hearts and souls of everyone
These wings wipe the tears away
From crying mothers without support
From little children without food
From everyone who feels depressed
And like there is no worth in living anymore
These wings of angels bring bursts of fresh air
That cools down any anger that I feel
That cools me when I’m overwhelmed
The gust of wind from these wings
Pushes me past all of my enemies
And towards my safe haven
To where I can sit and relax
And gather my thoughts
These wings protect me
From the abuse that happens to me
From all the attacks that are directed at me
And directed at my friends
And directed at my family
These wings shield me
From whatever Mother Nature
Decides to throw at me
These wings are those of my Guardian Angels
And they’ll take wherever I wanna go

The world is too quiet.
There is no one here;
No animals or humans.
But I’m here!

I walk outside
And I see no one.
There is no sign of life.
But I’m here!

The world is like a ghost
Town minus the ghosts.
Why isn’t there anyone here?
But I’m here!

How can there be nobody
In the schools and stores?
How is this even possible?
But I’m here!

There is no point in searching
For anyone here at all.
It’s just a big waste of time.
But I’m here!

But I’m here!
Why can’t anyone see or hear me?
I scream at the top of my lungs
But there’s no point.

I’m just wasting my breath.
It’s just me and my thoughts
And they are blocking me from
The outside world that I love.

I’m all alone with my thoughts
And there is no one here.

*But I’m here!

Life is a trilogy with birth and death sandwiching
Our life stories into books and chapters are written
Every second with every action and inaction
That we take takes each chapter on a wild ride
Through defeat and triumph and love and hate

Chapters like first kiss and first love and first car
And all of our firsts are only minor chapters when
Compared to chapters like self realization
And self acceptance and self recognition
And other chapters about our internal struggles

Internal struggles like depression or anxiety
Or coping with the death of a close friend or
Family member create cliffhangers and drama
In our books and they make our stories different
From all of the other stories that we read

When we make new friends or unite with old ones
And these struggles can tear pages out of our books
That we don’t want people to read because they are
Too hurtful or too personal or they cut us too deep
That we don’t want other people to find out

The truth of what happened or what we have done
And these torn pages will be a reminder of our past
And it reminds everyone that life isn’t perfect
And that we are all flawed with some more than others
But we are all the same because we have gone through hardship

Our books have twists and turns that make us smile
And they make us cry but no matter what they make
Us think about our own lives and how we can write
The next chapter or rewrite the past or change a few words
But no matter what we change our books will never be complete

Life is a book and we all need to read each other’s book
By looking into our eyes or how we are dressed or how we act
Or through our conversations because our books are constantly
Changing with every second and with everything that we do or don’t do
With every feeling or thoughts we have or how we choose to live

Look into my eyes and you can see that my book
Is no different from yours and my chapters are the same
There is a chapter for depression and for anger and for shame
There is a chapter for all of the happiness in my life thus far
And a chapter for all of the things that I want to accomplish

No matter how our books start the ending will be
The most powerful because that will define our past
How we die and how our books are written will determine
If they will be bestsellers or on the self collecting dust
But no matter what life’s a book and we should all read each other’s

For as long as we can remember, man yearns to fall in love
With the woman of his dreams but all he can do is hate
Himself for doing what his heart tells him to do: just wait.
To him the word love is just black
And white.
For man, love is nothing; it’s just blind.

Here’s a story from a man who was colorblind
When he was in the South he had fallen in love
With a Southern belle of White
But all he could feel were the stares of hate.
Since she was White and he was Black
He decided to travel up North and wait

For the Southern belle to waltz into his life so he waited
And he waited to no avail. He though that love is so blind.
If you looked at him, you can tell he’s a man of Black,
But deep down he is no different because love
Does not discriminate; it does not hate
If you are Red, Yellow, Black, or White.

What’s wrong with Blacks dating Whites?
Patience is a virtue so just wait
And do not hate
Because even a man who is blind
Can see that when two people fall in love
Race shouldn’t matter because love is never in white or black.

Why not turn off the lights and make the room black
And we will see a bright light and a figure in white.
That is our conscious and it tells us to love who we love
And never to stand in line and wait
And to never close your eyes and be blind
Because our cultures always hate

That we are in love with a race or culture they disapprove
But we stand on a mountain and scream that love is not black
And white. The people can only turn and be blind
Because the man and woman are not Black or White
Or of the same race, but we tell them to wait.
Just wait and see what happens because after all, it is love.

Take off the masks that blind you and make you feel nothing but hate
Because we are all in love whether we are Black,
Red, Yellow, or White because this is love and we can only do one thing: wait.

You empty your pockets and remove anything metal.
Walk between the metal detectors and all
The lights and sounds go off. They pull you aside and
They frisk you for
Your cellphone, iPod, earings, rings, wallet, headphones, coins,
Privacy, and dignity.
They find nothing and let you walk to the terminal but
You remember that they forgot to take something. You spin
Around and give them the finger.

We’ve been through so much together
We’ve witnessed history together
We saw the first moon landing
We saw the Vietnam War on TV
We protested the war in Washington, DC

Our lives have been spent with each other
Our long walks on the beach
Our romantic candlelight dinner
Our cruise vacation together
Our romantic getaways to the Caribbean

I told you when I met you
That I love you will all m heart
I told you that I want to be with you
Forever and I want to grow old with you
I told you that you complete me

When I look into your eyes
I see a world of possibilities
And a world of happiness and love
When I hug you my worries go away
When I kiss you I share my love with you

I know what we’re not perfect
I know we had fights
I know we wanted to **** each other
But in the end we came back to each other
Because I love you and I know you do too

I want to grow old with you
As our children have children
And as the world changes for the better
I want to keep on looking in those eyes
And I want to love you long time

I want to love you long time

Out in a distant land
Church bells are ringing
Families and friends are laughing
Most of them are crying
Not from sadness
But from happiness

Church bells are ringing
Out in a distant land
In celebration of a joyous
Occasion between two people
Between a man and a woman
Between two men or two women

Church bells are ringing
In a far, far away land
Signaling the togetherness
On two communities
And the creation of one
One happy community

Somewhere over the rainbow
Church bells are ringing
Marking the end of a struggle
A struggle for freedom
A struggle for unity
A struggle for happiness

Somewhere, anywhere, everywhere
Church bells are ringing
As two people force everyone
To take off the mask call hate and discrimination
And ignorance and become a family together

Church bells are ringing across the world
From China to Greenland
From the United States to Malaysia
The bells have different sounds
But the message is the same
And is felt in the hearts of everyone

Church bells ring for everyone
And someday church bells
Will ring for you and me

Every day we live in fear.
We fear our past, present, and future.
We fear our families and friends.
We fear our actions
And the reactions of others
Towards our appearance, our actions,
And their reactions towards us.

We ask ourselves why.
Why are we even here?
Why are we still living if all we live in fear?
We look in the mirror
And we ask ourselves if it’s worth living.

We cannot live in fear
We cannot take this feeling
We cannot keep on hiding
From everything and everyone that we fear.
We have to stand up to our fears and say
No more.

Every day and night it rains
Wherever we are
But it’s not raining anywhere else.
We try to stop this rain
But it rains harder.
We become drenched in our emotions
And our hearts become flooded with our fears.

No matter how hard we try
To stop the rain and flood
We can only stop our tears
That we cry when we are alone
Thinking about our fears and our feelings.

We need a reason to stay here;
We need a reason to fight our fears.
We can’t take it anymore
And we can’t fight it anymore.
We look in the mirror
And we see our reason to stay and fight
Let’s do it for no one but ourselves.

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities!
Without a humble but reasonable confidence in
your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
– Norman Vincent Peale, author
__________________­
Go to sleep every night and start to believe
You can accomplish anything so believe.

Little children are running around in the park on a sunny day
They have so much potential in the world if they just believe.

Children asking their parents how they can be rich and happy
And all their parents can do is smile and say, Just believe.

People always doubt others and say “never”
All we can do is believe, believe, believe.

We all need confidence in ourselves
So close our eyes, inhale, and believe.

Never break, never fall, never fade
Pause the world around you and believe.

Newly hatched birds chirping as they try to fly
They jump off the branch afraid, but they believe.

College student sitting in the lobby waiting for his job interview
Nervous like every college student, sweating, stuttering, but he believes.

David tells King Saul he is ready to face Goliath, and armed
With a sling and a stone, he’s victorious because he believes.

The parents cry and scream at the news
and the nation creates a song of agony.
For the lives of thousands, two nations will become stronger –
but we forget why we are even there and for how long –
and as more people die, we come together
as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,
but we have doubts of our actions.
Ten years ago, we lost thousands of lives and we follow the Code of Hammurabi,
but we have to remember, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world goes blind.”

The days are hectic
The nights are long
Sleep is nonexistent
And the pain is strong
Every night I drink
I drink away my sorrow
I drown it in anything I can find
From soda to water
To my favorite choice of all
I drown my sorrow
Because it is taking over my life
With the pain that I feel
With the things that get in the way
I drown my sorrow
With the happiness
And with the laughter
Of my family and friends

One of my closest friends
Is an alcoholic
He drinks and drinks
Until he passes out
Or until he cannot remember
Anything that had happened
Jack and Coke
Jagerbombs
And bottles of beer
There is an imprint on the couch
Of his big, fat ***
The same couch he sits
Every day and night
Drinking away his life
His friends
His family
Himself
He has his personal bar stool
At all of the bars in town
And the bartenders know his name
And they know his favorite drinks
And his horrible jokes
And he sits there by himself
And drinks himself
Into a coma
Or until he passes out
My closest friend is an alcoholic
But he is also suicidal
Instead of hoping to get killed
He drinks by himself
And get drunk again
Because drinking is better than
Not drinking at all

Our hearts are bleeding
The hearts of people everywhere
All the wars
Are making our hearts bleed
Every death cuts deeper
With every home destroyed
With every life ruined
With every nation devastated
Our hearts bleed
We bleed the blood of everyone
With every name calling
Every act of discrimination
Every act of racism
Our hearts bleed the most
Because words hurt the most
Because words stay with us the longest
Our hearts bleed every single day
Because we go through so much
Pain and suffering and devastation
Our bleeding hearts
Bleed the same blood
As you and me
Because we are the same person
When we are attacked
By words
By weapons
By other people
Our hearts bleed
With the blood of comfort
Because we know everyone is united

We all judge everyone
Based on the cover
We never read the book
People always jump to the conclusion
That we are different on the outside
Don’t act like you never
Looked at the cover of a book
And never read the pages
And jumped to the conclusion
That the book is horrible
Or that the book is awesome
Don’t act like you were
Never in our situation
Don’t act like you
Never felt ashamed
Because you judged a book
Or a person by its appearance
Don’t act like you
Never felt hut or depressed
Because you were on
The receiving ends of those judgments
I don’t understand why
People live under a cloud
Of denial
Of misconception
Of misunderstanding
Read the first chapter of our books
And you will see that
We are sons and daughters
We are brothers and sisters
We are friends
Read the second chapter
And you will see that
We are students
We are of different ethnicity
We are of different religion
Read the rest of the book
And you will see that
We are no different
From everyone else
We are all humans
We are all God’s children
The covers of our books
May be different
But the chapters are the same
Conclusion: we ain’t that different

We are bigger than our surrounding
Or that is what we like to think
We tend to think that
Nothing can put us down
No matter how strong the wind may blow
We will not go down
We walk around everyday
With a gait that says, “Big man on campus”
Nothing can frazzle us
Nothing can confuse us
Nothing can get in our way
Or that’s what we like to think
That is our lives in our dreams
We are really elephants amongst mice
The little things rattle us
We freak out when the smallest thing
Gets in our way
And ruins our daily routines
We are elephants amongst mice
And we get shaken up
From the microscopic thing
We cannot continue living our lives
Because what if we see that mouse again?
We are elephants amongst mice
And these mice may look cute
They may look innocent
They may look like nothing
But up close they are life changing
And they are life threatening
We get so paranoid
When the littlest thing happen
To anyone around the world
We are elephants amongst mice
We want to live our lives
The way we want to live them
But thus far these mice are winning
And we sink deeper into paranoia
As we continue to be elephants amongst mice

With my two eyes
This world is very different
From every angle and from every side
With these two eyes
I see a world of chaos
Wars are “won”
Wars are “lost”
But both sides lose
Because lives will never be the same
Homes are destroyed
Lives are lost
Families destroyed
Nobody wins during the war
There are no two sides
There’s only one:
We’re all losers
People are suffering from pain
People are walking down roads
Roads without names
But feelings and emotions
Guys walk down the road call heartbreak
Girls walk down the road call confusion
They meet at the same road:
Self doubt and lack of confidence
They drink the same drink every night:
Tears from the past experiences
Experiences that cut the deepest in their hearts
Children are without food
Children are without shelter
Children are without parents
They cry on the side of roads
Because they have no one to take of them
Hurricanes ruin towns
Earthquakes destroy nations
Ashes rain from the sky
Like tears from Satan
Through my two eyes
The world is a disaster
But when I put on my glasses
The world looks peaceful
When I look around with my four eyes
Everyone holding hands
And spreading the love
Everyone lives by three cardinal principals:
Peace
Love
Happiness
Through these four eyes
Everyone and everything are at peace
There are no wars
There are no tears
And there is no destruction
There is nothing but Peace
Love is always in the air
People are spreading the love
People hug each other
People are holding hands
There is no hatred
But only Love
Little children are running around
Playing sports with other children
Everyone is laughing
Everyone is smiling
Everyone is happy
There are no guns
There is no displeasure
Through my four eyes
Peace
Love
And Happiness
Are in the air
And that’s the world that I see
And what I always want to see
I want to see this world through my four eyes
And I will pass my glasses around to everyone
So we can all see what I see
The world I see through my eyes

We are Actors and Actresses
In a play call Life
And we all wear masks to follow the scripts
That God has written for us.
Some of the Plays are Tragedies
And some are Comedies
But most are personal.
We wear masks in the scripts
To hide how we are feeling on the inside.
How we are feeling in our hearts
How we are feeling in our souls
And how we are feeling when with others.
The masks we wear are generic.
We put on a Happy mask when need be
We put on a Sad mask when need be
We put on an Angry mask when need be
And we put on a Confused mask when need be.
All of these masks cover up our true emotions
That we want to show them
But cannot because we are chained to the scripts
Known as Our Lives.
Our true emotions keep on knocking
From the inside but we were created to keep those within.
Showing our true emotions
Will set us free and open the world
To the true feelings of everyone.
The world will be a better place
If everyone shows their true colors
So that our problems will be solved
And our lives will be complete.
Actors and Actresses of God’s play,
Stand up and go to the front of the stage
And break the chains that hold us prisoners
To these masks that we wear.
Dig deep in our hearts,
Dig deep in our souls,
And dig deep in our minds
And find the treasures that are buried within
That we like to call the True Masks of Our Lives.
Break free from these chains
And exit
Stage Life.

We live in a world
Where people have doubts
About what their governments are doing
About what they will be doing
About their health and well-being
We live in a world
Where trust isn’t a right
It is something we all want
But we can never have
We live in a world
Where we fight in endless wars
To see which nation is the strongest
And which nation is the weakest
We live in a world
Where people are crying from pain
People are suffering from hunger
Little children are without parents
We live in a world
Where little children have no food
Where they have no toys
Where they have no hope
Of living the lives of normal children
We live in a world
Where discrimination
Where racism
Where hatred rule our lives
We live in a world
Full of what ifs and maybes
Full of doubts of what the future holds
Full of fear of we have done
To cause all these problems
We live in a world
Where we hide ourselves from ourselves
We hide our true identities as nations
We hide our true identities as people
We hide our true identities from the world
We live in a world
Where we fear for our lives
Because bombs are bursting everywhere
Because we live our lives in our shadows
This is the world that we live in
And it’s time to break free
Break free from the chains
That is holding us down
Break free from the world that we live in

Take off that silly mask that
You wear every day and night
Stop hiding who you really are
From your friends
From your family
From the world
From yourself
Stop pretending to be the person
You want to be around other people
Stop hiding your flaws
Your mistakes
Your problems
Your past
Stop hiding yourself
Behind that silly mask that
You wear every day and night
You are not the same person
Behind that mask
You are a fake
And everyone can see that
You are fooling no one
When you wear that ugly mask
Stop fooling yourself into thinking
That this is the real you
Take off your silly mask
And show the world
Show your friends
Your family
Your peers
Show yourself the real you
Show you true colors
Let them shine through
That hideous mask that you hide behind
Have no shame in the person that you are
In the flaws that you have
In the problems that you have
Have no shame in the past
That you want to be known as the past
Take off your mask
And be proud of who you are
Be who you really are
Not the character you pretend to be
In this play call your life
Take off that mask
And be free with who you are
The truthful, real you

Forget about what other people say
About you
About how you’re dressed
About how you act
About how you present yourself.
Forget about people say
When you walk by them
When you try to speak
When you try to fit in
When you look for that
Older brother or older sister.
You’re your own you.
Forget about what people say
That you should’ve
That you could’ve
That you would’ve
That you didn’t do.
Forget about when people say
That you should’ve been like
Your sister
Your brother
Your mother
Your father
Your cousins
Your entire family.
You’re your own you.
Forget about what people do
To make them stand out
To make them better
To make them perfect
To make them fake.
Forget about what you hear in the news
About the best jobs
About the best medicine
About the best towns
About the best states
About the best nations.
You’re your own you.
Look into the mirror
And tell me
And tell the world
And tell yourself
Who you see staring back at you.
It’s not the fake people
It’s not your family
It’s not your relatives
It’s not the news.
The person staring back at you
Is the most perfect
Is the most intelligent
Is the most unique
Is the best.
You’re your own you.

We all have done something
That we feel bad about
That we feel sorry about
That we regret the most.
We all have done something
That we don’t wanna do again
That we don’t wanna see happen again
That we regret the most.
We all have looked back
On our actions
And we have decided
That what we have done
Have harmed our images
In the eyes of our friends and our peers.
Don’t live in the past.
Don’t yearn to live in the future.
Don’t look back on your past events.
Don’t look back on your past experiences.
Don’t plan for the future.
Don’t prepare for what ifs.
Don’t prepare for maybes.
Live with no regrets.
Don’t get mad at what you have done.
Don’t get mad at what you could’ve done.
Don’t get mad at what you would’ve done.
Don’t get sad at what you messed up on.
Don’t get sad at what you didn’t get to do.
Don’t get sad at what you have caused.
Live with no regrets.
Use these bad experiences
Use these bad events
As fuel for what you want to do now.
Focus on what you will do this morning.
Focus on what you will do this afternoon.
Focus on what you will do this evening.
Don’t look back.
Don’t look forward.
Live in the present times.
Live your life with no regrets.

This feeling inside of me
Is burning stronger
And stronger
And stronger
I tried to tell you how I feel
But I keep on growing weaker
And weaker
And weaker
Whenever our eyes meet
My heart sinks deeper and deeper
I yearn to be with you
Forever
And ever
I tried to say, “I love you”
But my voice keeps on getting fainter
And fainter
And fainter
My hands sweat with anxiety
And my mind is nowhere to be found
I search for that special someone
Near and far
Above and below
And she is standing there right in front of me
I feel like I wanna cry
I feel like I wanna die
I feel like I wanna scream
Because all I feel is love
But love has taken my voice and my heart
So instead I will wear my heart
I will wear my soul
I will wear my love
In red

“Do unto others as you
Would have them do unto you.”
The Golden Rule applies to everyone,
Every brother, sister, daughter, and son.
If treating people with respect
Is what everyone should live by,
Why don’t we say hello or hi?
What about your son, Lonnie?
Not feeding him is funny?
You watch him starve
And then you carve
Into his brain the image
Of Pain, Suffering, Damage.
You stand there, watching him suffer
Do you think you’re a good mother?
He cries from hunger and he cries from pain
And you tell him to shut up; he’s insane.
Poor, little Lonnie, your son, hasn’t taken a shower or a bath
For forty days and nights, but he’s staying quiet to avoid your wrath.
His clothes are torn and nonexistent
He’s not making a sound; he’s distant
From you and what you call being a mother
Because all that he needs is a big brother.
He looks in the mirror and all that he sees
Is a reflection of what ifs and maybes.
What if I was with a new family?
Maybe I can feel alive and feel free
To attend school and to get rid of these clothes
Then maybe I can turn these pages and close
This awful chapter in my young life
And avoid being stabbed with the knife
Of lack of respect and compassion
And this awful food called field ration
That you, my mom, told me was healthy
While you go out and get wealthy
And you spend that money on clothes and food
And whatever else that lifts up your mood.
What about me? I’m your own flesh and blood.
I feel like I’m being dragged through the mud
Of Pain and Suffering and no Respect.
Well you know mom, I’m done with the neglect.
I live by the Golden Rule and you will witness
My wrath unto you will be full of sweetness
Because mom, you know what they say around this town?
It is all Karma: What goes around, comes around.
I live by the Golden Rule, mom, what about you?
‘Cause in the end of the day, I’m no longer blue.

My dad taught me how to throw a baseball
And how to throw a football.
“Thanks, Daddy!”
Every time we walked back inside,
“Thanks, Daddy!”
He tried to teach me how to ride a bike.
Even though I fell…I lost count…
I still said, “Thanks, Daddy!”
Coaching track to little kids last summer
Brought back good memories from my childhood.
I remember Johnnie,
Little Johnnie with brown hair
And blue eyes
And the biggest smile a kid can have.
I see myself in him,
Minus the brown hair and blue eyes.
He always wanted to learn more of track
And I always wanted to coach him more.
“Coach David? Can you teach me the 200 meters?”
“Sure, Johnnie!”
He would answer with a “Thanks, Coach!”
I always see his mom dropping him off
And picking him up.
Every time after practice he would say, “Thanks, Coach!”
And all I can do is give a pat on his head
And say, “Good job, kid!”
Last day of the program, I gave him a medal
And you know what he said to me?
“Thanks, Daddy!”
I stood there as he ran to his mom
And I thought, “Yeah…thanks, Daddy!

Today’s society is full of hate and discrimination
As it redirects people away from their destinations.
Life goes on for those living in the dark,
But life stands still for those living under question marks.
How can people be so mean and be so cruel?
This isn’t the Medieval Times where we can all duel
To see who is right and who is wrong
And the only one left standing is the one that is strong.
They say that the grass is greener on the other side,
But why are people running to hide
From the bullies who take away our rights
And we do nothing but scream with our might?
Why can’t we come together
And be brothers and sisters?
We are all related,
We’re the children of God.
We may look different,
But deep down we’re not odd.
Brothers and sisters,
Come one, come all.
We must come together before the Universe falls.
Together we are threads of God’s little tapestry
That He likes to call Earth and Humanity.
All this Hatred and Animosity
Must stop because we are all friends, not enemies.
We all form our own little tapestries,
But together we form the greatest tapestry
That He likes to call Earth and Humanity.