They say love becomes hate
But love, I've been seeing
I don't hate who you are
I hate who you're being.

|b.g.|

I loved you once, but somehow
Your heart is the same, but you're different now and I can't help but miss the man you wanted to be but I also can't pretend you were better off with me because now you are happy, more you than you've been, and yet the man I fell for is still somewhere within underneath the new mask and the hair and the smile still your eyes hold the boy I loved, the one who was wild and you still slump your shoulders, rolling in ease and within their shelter my mind was at ease but you've changed so much, love, you seem so different now, and I cannot believe I loved you somehow. Maybe who you are is allowed to change and maybe time can rearrange our priorities now and then. Maybe you can fully be yourself today while burying you from yesterday and maybe it is time that I really learned how to let you be.
|b.g.|

Some people take comfort in labels
Finding which little box to fit in
Knowing just by a glance, by a hashtag, a stance
That others can see what's within
Some people rely on their labels
On things that tell them who they are
That simplify life into boxes of white
Scribbled meaning stuck onto their jar
Now some people, they run from all labels
Afraid that they hold them down  
And losing their minds to a few words and lines
In social adhesive are bound
See people forget that their labels
Are choices, not simply assigned
Meanings can change and symbols rearrange
By those by whom they were designed

So friend, take back charge of your labels
Because You create them in the end
And if labels align, well that would be fine,
But remember that you hold the pen.

|b.g.|

How did I end up back here
Blind to what lies ahead
Yet in the fading road behind
I see each bridge and bend

Like the tide I have returned
With your mem'ry on my mind
Yet like the tide, my lessons learned
Wash away before my eyes

I lost so much with you, my dear
To walk along your way
The path we planned together
Would have led us both astray.  
So,
I washed the silt, the sand, the dirt
In brackish water tears
As hand in hand, God led me on
Back to familiar piers.

The dust I stirred up as I left
All settled with each stride
So here again, I journey on
With you not by my side.
|b.g.|

Respect yourself enough to see that
Unlike where your heart may lead,
No woman should date a child.
Remember, new love will taste sweet
Until his comfort outlives his care, and
No woman should make him try.
Realize the vast potential he has
Understand the man he soon may be, but
No woman should make him grow
Raising men is for mothers, not lovers, and
Ungrown things need space and time
Now a woman should let him go.
|b.g.|

Going through the motions
A vast and blackened ocean
Drinking in this potion
They say is for my best
Breathing in and breathing out
Stagnant air flows through my mouth
Vision fading, thirst like drought
No pause, no peace, no rest.

Awoken from my walking slumber
I reach from my realm of under
For a grasp, for a lover
Of my weary soul
New light breaks through ground and grime
I feel a punctured hand in mine
With whip torn flesh, and spear pierced side
He lifts me from this hole.

Lost sight restored to all fullness
My thirst is quenched, the air now fresh
I see Him there, my soul's found rest
My savior, it is He.
And now I will forever praise
The one who saved my life with grace
How beautiful, the bloodstained face
of Jesus, Lord, and King!
|b.g.|

You.
If beauty lies
    In beholders' eyes
         Then you are all I see
For my heart knew
    Beauty was you
          When you first smiled at
Me.

|b.g.|