I used to call them brave, the people who would misbehave
but it was destiny one day I would become like these kids
broken and alone, not feeling loved or happy

the bond between those youngsters was unbreakable
blood is thicker than water is what the old people say
but it in their case the water had won

some people call them tiger stripes
others choose words like battle wounds
you always called it beautiful
but for me it was a curse

something I could never stop
demons whispering in my ear

the devil loves pretending
he always seems to care

and for me that was enough.

Freely accepted, constraints that bind
The senses can free the mind.

And so I knelt before her latitude.
Her choker became the horizon,
The light from her eyes a silent beatitude.

“What do you feel?” asked the voice of the wind.
I tried to answer, lips rapt and spellbound,
Eyes questing, but made no sound.

Enlarged by desire, encircled by pain,
I felt the fire and the rain.

I watched the walls of the room
Dissolve into clouds
As a crack in the sky beckoned,
Opening wide.

I was pulled upward into a swelling storm
And watched all around as I climbed
A mirror world form,
Like the universe rhymed.

Then calm.  I found myself at a steely gate.
A sign read “The Labyrinth of Language.”
The path began straight
Then forked into uncountable branches.

Words took shape and tried to dance
But hung
Captive on my soundless tongue.
They have remained there ever since.

Free them, goddess,
Let these words find flight.
Take them from the shadow of my tongue.
Release them into your luminous night.

A little part of me breaks when I catch you leaving through your eyes to some place you'll never tell me about,
leaving your body living dead
and me to wonder what to do because I want so desperately to be your home like you are mine.
No matter what I do,
I don't feel like home
and that's maybe because I am not a safe place to live in.
My windows have been shattered
and someone stole the door,
the walls have been ruined with spray paint
and droplets of water spill through the cracks.
But when you're here with me,
it stops raining
and the broken crystals from my broken window dance with the sunrays,
making beautiful light art,
the door-less entrance lets butterflies along with pollen from beautiful flowers in
and the spray paint looks like it's fading.