I am done just surviving,
done keeping my head just above the waves.
I am done with fighting to just get that little last breath again.
I am done just making it another day,
done just being okay.
I am done lying just because it makes things easier.

It takes a great deal of courage
To wake up every morning
And put a smile on your face
Even when the only thing
You feel like doing
Is going up to the 36th floor
And letting yourself fly

Nowhere to go
No money to spend
Just a book in my head
With a pen in my hand ✎

The girl who was never seen,
During school throughout her teens.

Lonely longing for a connection,
Only loving was her obsession.

Any show of slightest act of ordinary kindness,

Made her glow with brightness, distracting her with temporary blindness.

Overwhelmed and grateful,

Though deep down, she knew strong emotions like these can lead to feeling,

So compelled and painful...

Again being used to occurrences of blissful happiness,
In the end she sees disappearances, feeling fearful and never ending resentment.

Bliss only to last for what feels like a few minutes,
She's living in the past clinging to what she misses.

As she grew tired of this cycle and all,
She often knew prior before the final result.

not wanting to go through those days of watching those walk away anymore;
She did less talking,
irritated by their knocking, she ignores.

Thoughts filling her with doubt,
She closes the door shutting them out...

I know it's hard to touch the clouds
when memories
hold you down
I know you cry a lot inside
when no one is
around
I know it is hard to wake up
sometimes
when breathing cuts so deep.

and the birds, they sing
but
you cannot hear
and the sun, it shines
but
you cannot see
and there's a lot of warmth around
but
you cannot feel.

I know it feels so hard
to live
with so many scars

but

light will shine and you will
see
and birds will sing and
you will hear

It's just a dark path
you have to walk
and I will be there
to walk along
don't hold your breath
don't give up yet
just
keep your hope
and you'll find one day
that you can fly again
for you deserve
the highest clouds
the purest air
the deepest love.

and I'll be here for you,
you, dear soul,
the sweetest lyric
of them all.

At low of night she strokes
Familiar tastes exquisite,
And quietly invokes
The spirit of laureate --

An orphic instrument
Unfit to take for granted.
It’s profound atonement
Stirs in her heart despondent.

Her fragile shell’s embrace
Of wood and gut and metal
Point out her shallow race
And weakness fundamental.

Yet all the night she moils,
Mistrusting augmentation,
And secretly despoils
The overzealous beacon.

-- Kerry Herrmann