All these days
I thought I was fated
Challenged against my will
To gain the trust of strangers
Strangers who turn into friends
Friends who turn into lovers
Lovers who turn heartbroken

I don’t bow my head to their feet
I bow down way beneath
To offer this trust
In desperation to be trusted
With the impression that trust happens on the outside.

While I feed my soul to the world outside
While I feed myself an understanding
That strangers turn into friends,
I am blinded away from my world on the inside.
Those I always know are my own
Become more transparent than invisibility
Those I take for granted as my own,
Become the strangest of strangers.

While I chisel and chisel away
I shape strangers into friends
Friends into lovers
Until I carve a bit too deep into the stone
Realizing a little too late its fragility
Lovers turn broken hearted
And I fall

And there they appear all over again
My very own strangers
They reappear
With love
They disappear again
With strangeness
Yet only they appear again
And again

Godsend, these strangers are
They let me walk away from them
They let me befriend
They let me love
They let me hurt and get hurt
They let me fall
They watch me fall

Yet they appear,
Only to pick me up again
To hold me with grip
To be my crutch, my wheel and my horn
To be the strangers I first opened my eyes to
To be the strangers who showed me friendship
To be the strangers who taught me love
To be the strangers whose hearts are too strong to break
To be the strangers I call,
My family.

I don’t want you to go fishing
For salmon, when you can get ray;
If you’re fast enough, you can shoot –
– A hook around a horse’s tail.

If you’re patient,
You could weave through the jelly’s glow,
Glimmering softness through each filament,
Calming your senses from morbid to mellow.

I don’t want you to go fishing
For make-believe, when you know it stings;
If you’re strong enough, hold on –
– Gills and fins are just as brave as wings.

If you’re yearning for more and more,
Boundaries are all you’ll see;
If you’re ready to stop waiting,
Why are you telling me?

You can’t see the air around us;
It doesn’t mean you’re not breathing it.
I could lie on hot coal to show you;
If you want my wings instead, nothing else will fit.
Every note, every vibration,
Bears the fruit of your powerful mind.

If you truly wanted love and peace,
You’d be devotedly singing it out to mankind.
Honesty can be sweet, it can be brutal.
There’s nothing like facing your fear,
Afraid to discover the truth,
When like a fool, you treat trash talk so dear.

That tiny ray of light shining through,
Is for us, me and you to be reassured,
There is no pleasure, no gain, no good,
In the absence of what has to be endured.

What am I
Without my baggage?
Do I have what it takes
To be somebody with courage?

What am I
Without those who cling on?
Do I have it in me
To fly light, being anything but a pawn?

What am I
Without my limits?
Do I have the strength
To fathom my journey through all climates?

What am I
If I’m perfect?
Do I have the power
To change the world that lives to contradict?

What am I
If I’m but a spirit from my own past?
Do I have a future
So I can make this present forever last?

I perceived you only as I could
I saw you for what you were
You were an innocent being, of all
You never saw coming what caused the stirs

Your purity won my heart
Among all senses, there was my seventh
That awakened me every night and day –
My rationale, my core’s filament.

I have always been myself
I’ve carried myself with care
Once I am told that I do not belong
My heart, mind and spirit are all stone and bare.

I have seen and faced many heavens
With my hands, fingers, lips and conscience
I have been all that there is to be
From devoutly hopeful to hopelessly incontinent.

In your name, I have set myself free numerously
My zeal faded each time, as my fetters clinked
I know I became your entire world, but did you at all know –
You were my cage, within which I fluttered incessantly to fly out and sing?

I stand here
Awaiting your touch
Free me forever
From my crutch
Take me away
I’ll join you in your freedom
From days so achromatic
Preserved in an arboretum.

I bear water in service
Like a tree bears its bark
I stand by hope
Until my faith makes the mark
I search for answers
The more I know, the less I know
Everything is a mystery to me
But the water that guides me.