Fate climbs trees while everyone sleeps at night but you;
She slips through the branches towards the star dusted sky;
Not a hair out of place or a scratch on her skin,
a nocturnal creature made to the likeness of the moon—
There'll always be a yesterday, but you remind me of tomorrow.

You wouldn't be my prom date because you’re “actually straight” and everything with me was “just a phase”, yet you made out with me on the dance floor in front of everyone and whispered in my ear “I wish I’d gone to prom with you”. And then we spent the whole night together, but only because you were drunk.
It’s funny how things work out for the gay girls in high school… I can still be your best friend though. I mean, it’s better than nothing.

It's funny how something so simple like a high school  heartbreak can hold such a dark grudge on your heart. All these poems and all my cries. My venting and worrying all gone. My life feels so much lighter. Happier. You dont notice that your being held back until your finally released. One message. One message, changed this all. I put my ego to the side and talked to you first. After months of unanswered calls. We made ammends. I can breath without worrying what I intake. You don't realize you need peace until it reaches you outside of your nightmares. Peace, it's the only thing holding you back from reaching beyond your state of mind.

i miss high school
not really, but y'know
i miss all the things
i got to be.

a thousand pinpricks of light
sunbeams dissolved in concentrated words and memories
gaps in teeth and blanks in speech
salty waves and flushed cheeks
your aura is the most beautiful

i've ever seen.

There’s a world beyond this
Yet for a moment it stands
This Christmas-lit gym
Filled with students
Like a bad high school movie
We watch the student band play
Reflecting on our small world
We sit safe and protected
Our parents patiently waiting
Soon we will be launched into adulthood
But for today we sit,
A high school cliche.

You are a Woman Honey
…Jude's advice to his teenage granddaughter


*If you grow up to be the type of woman
That men want to look at.
Well let them look at you
Show them what a real woman looks like.
Let's thier eyes learn your power.

If you grow up to be the type of woman
That men want to touch.
Well if it's right for you let them
But understand why they want to.

Are they reaching for a drug
A drink a fix to loneliness.
Are are they reaching to touch you
Your heart your spiril your beauty inside.
That wants to help every hurt animal
Or every lost soul.

You are strong not made of
Excuses promises and metaphors.
You are a Woman.

If you grow up the kind of woman
That men want to hold.
Well if it's right let them hold you.
Let them hold you as the woman
Who is smart equal and strong.

Not as the Oracle that can fix their
Lost identity with all the answers.
You don't have them
You are a Woman not a crutch.
Or a drink of wine
Ore a rose petal.
Help him stand
upon his own feet.
Not on yours.

If you grow up
to be the kind of woman
Men want to love.
That's ok
let them love you.
Just know the difference
between being loved
And falling in love yourself.

Falling in love
is flying to the planets.
When you have never left
the one traffic light town.
It is breathing the air
at the top of mountains
Where eagles fly.

And if it falls down
and love flies away.
Do not break up with
its crumbling dust.
Remember
you have seen the planets.
Been to mountain tops.
They will always be beautiful.
And love
will always be beautiful as well.

You will know you are not just
looking for a place to be.
And that you are the place.
A place to be shared with a worthy lover.
Who knows and loves your power
And the magnificent life you can build
With your woman's  hands
And strong woman's heart.

Grandad
Jude