Remember that time
When it all seemed clear?
The path laid out
A straight shot into the sunset

Your bag was packed
Boots laced up tight
Slathered with sunscreen and bug spray

But after a few miles
Something happens

Maybe you see a storm in the distance
Roiling dark clouds
Cracks of thunder
And lightning that splits the air apart
And all you have
Is the light jacket you packed
In case it got chilly

Maybe, without warning,
The road splits apart into two, three, five
Different routes
No signs, no maps, no markers
And the fear of choosing wrong
Paralyzes you

Maybe you simply grow weary
Of walking
After hundreds of miles
Boots chafing
Water dwindling
Skin torn and blistering

Your backpack
Weighs you down
But you refuse
To leave it
Or even rest for a while
Even though
All that's left in it  
Are stones

Loneliness
Is such a hard thing to carry

A backpack full of stones
That we add to
With each day that passes

How can such an empty feeling
Be so heavy?

He was big and fat.
He was black and white.
He was the best cat ever.

He loved to snuggle with you.
Even if he didn't know you.
He loved being brushed.

He was so cute and cuddly.
I loved My little kitty.
But he is now in kitty heaven.

I’ve walked through graveyards in the broad daylight,
Not to feel like I’m alive,
But to search for a place to die.
I want to know what section of the cemetery I’ll be buried in.
I’ve walked the grass between the headstones,
Reading the different names,
And in the far corner underneath a shade tree,
I used a shovel one night to dig out six feet
Of dirt which lies in a pile beside the rectangle hole.
I’ve knelt beside my plot and wondered if my casket
Would keep me warm after having left the cold earth.
The grass that surrounded my future home tickled my legs
As I prayed to a folded paper headstone that I held between my fingers.
Wrapped within the creases, rested my beloved razor blades
And written in the tear stained white space
Read the word, “depression.”

I threw the folded paper six feet under and stood up to refill the grave.

In my veins you flow.
In my mind you run.
In my heart you live.
In my soul you exist.

I watch people in the world
Throw away their lives lusting after things,
Never able to satisfy their desires,
Falling into deeper despair
And torturing themselves.
Even if they get what they want
How long will they be able to enjoy it?
For one heavenly pleasure
They suffer ten torments of hell,
Binding themselves more firmly to the grindstone.
Such people are like monkeys
Frantically grasping for the moon in the water
And then falling into a whirlpool.
How endlessly those caught up in the floating world suffer.
Despite myself, I fret over them all night
And cannot staunch my flow of tears.

If everyone else was a drizzle,
you're a downpour.
If they were locked,
you were the open door.
As easy as a breeze,
blown by the sea,
are the feelings between you and me.
They, a small tune,
You a symphony.
A warm song that can keep me company.

As these summer months fade and are plundered,
By the lengths of fleeting time while I sit and wonder.
I hope we stay as we are,
With everyone else the sky and us the stars.