people don't make you
and they don't ever break you
you are in control

Rumors spread,
but you control the size of the bread

Show people who you are,
so they do not misunderstand

If you are told lies
and you do not know the truth
will you be content?

Love bugs, why do their bites create a
h o l l o w
Hope,

So because you are sheltered,
means that I don't struggle

Had my hands not been sweating from peer pressure,
I might have saved you from suicide,
you might still be beside me today,
sometimes I feel your words in my mind when I do something wrong,
I smell your cigarette stained clothes that your mom didn't have enough quarters to wash,
I still see the burn marks that are on your arms from the hot cigarette pressed to your skin,
I wish I could have saved you from the man you were supposed call Dad,
but I couldn't,
I remember the way you cried when he beat you in the other room while I just sat on your bed crying with you, you would come back and we would cry together,
I should have done something, but fear covered my mouth like a muzzle,
I wish I could have brought myself to look death in the face with you,
but I couldn't,
I couldn't save you, I couldn't protect,
but I could watch you deteriorate inside,
I'm sorry

I will not throw stones
my words will do more damage
I will just skip them

I sing to trees,
but only when
they are
alone

Why do they believe they can crush all my dreams

you may not know this
but your reading light is just
another fire

You live another day,
to contemplate why you are here,

I'll give you my heart,
as long as you don't sell it back to me,
I'll shield you from the fire,
as long as you don't burn me in return,
I'll will be your love,
as long as you don't become someone else's,
but if you commit all the don'ts,
I will be forced to throw my love in the fire and shield you from my heart

I fractured your rules,
but I should have broken them,

We blink quickly,
so that we miss nothing,
we compact an entire lifetime within an allotted time of two hours and a small two minute window for creditentials that acknowledge 1,326 people,
not including "special thanks,"
we indulge on the dramatized events that may or may not have happened, We thrive on sports that televise a group of ten to twenty-two grown men that run fast jump quickly, and
dance weirdly,
but that is the pursuit of thrills