Rose petals like love letters crinkle around well loved edges
The sweet scent of their memory still saturates my senses
I miss you more than I could ever articulate
Each nerve ending longs for just a whisper, a touch
Occasionally I stumble across old recordings of your beautiful voice
Now only in dreams do I witness
Soft movements, tender touches
Waking with aches and pains that only you could ease
A well painted visage fits perfectly over the sadness
Aglow with sunlight and smile veneer seals solid with coarse tears
I keep hidden what I cannot hide

they expect you
to take the pain
They expect you
not to care about injustice
They want you
to accept blood
They want you to let them hit you,
and take it "like a man"
But they don't want you
to fight back
When we cry,
"shush child"
"shut the **** up, boy"
I hate those people.
I hate the parents
who hit their children
For fun.
Punishment is one thing,
cruelty is another.
So,
Shush, father
*you had this coming.

The words on the paper flow endlessly
a cycle of dying and
living and
breathing and
choking
with pepper sprinkled in for
good measure

great is the depth of the
sea
that infinite battlefield where the
war never ends
the fishes themselves with not a moment of sleep
carry life as a trophy
we once called their land home
but
now it's a place where the world goes
to drown its sorrows