"You're too young," they said
"That and you're too fat,
You can't accomplish your dreams you need to be in shape to do that.
You need to be able to run and take flight."
I've answered all of these questions  with out discord or fight.

I proved myself with action not by pounds on the scale
I faced their doubts head on, every concern every wail.
See doubts to me are gasoline
They fuel the fire of my soul
I don't need your support because there's no way I will fold

See I've faced doubts all my life
Proved everyone of them wrong
So what's a few more pieces of kindling and wood to pile on
The fire inside me the blaze it burns red
Consuming my opponents I will fill them with a dread
So if you're one of my doubters stand  and just ask
"Who do you think you are?" And I'll take you to task.

Peace is acceptance and understanding of ones place in the world
Which is why it's so rare
We can't see to the end of our own noses
So how can we think we can care?

Hope is a broken promise that naïveté allows to breathe
How can we hope when it's just hard to believe?
When you can't see the bottom
What could you plan to retrieve?

Trust is the brother of honesty but no one treats them as such
They invite Trust to tell secrets but shun his brother instead
So Trust listens to the rumors
But the brother won't bother as the bitterness spreads.

If peace, hope, and trust lose their way in our lives
Can we ever believe that we would recognize
Those who need help or those to be encouraged
Those needing a word or to be showed how to endure it

See life without these is less of a life that we live
But it's a life that we survive with more take than of give.
Remember the problems you face and know that others do to
When you keep that in mind we walk a mile in their shoes.

BROKEN is not a term of endearment
Rather it is used to deter
Don't buy that it's BROKEN
Something's wrong with her she's BROKEN

BROKEN is a term for things and not people
It conveys a need to be fixed
Our scars and bruises have made is whole
We aren't BROKEN, but reborn through every pain, every loss, and every trial.

We have learned through our BROKENess that others struggle too and maybe we can see that if everyone is BROKEN
Perhaps the word BROKEN can mean something new.

Maybe EDUCATED, WISE, STEADFAST, and LEARNED.
Could it be STRONGER or FIERCE are the words that we've earned.
Whatever your word live it out in embrace.
Leave that BROKEN word lonely far away with no trace.

The old lady talks into air,
Of friends and family.
She asks poignant questions,
Or so it seems.
Her wrinkled brow furrowed
And eyebrows raised,
Tell just as much of her age as her intent.
Her words wander with lost syntax.
They ring with waves of sound,
Trying to find an ear to fill.
Still she sits.
Wondering why everyone stares,
But no one listens.

Life: The Pages Between Birth and Death
The book too thick to actually choose to read.
Cross-referenced with words too lengthy to even sound out.
Adjectives and adverbs, metaphors and similes
Neatly describing each seminal moment
That no longer makes sense.
A book dust covered and yellowed.
Pages dog-eared citing someone's past interest
In whatever was actually printed however many years ago.
Saying "Not the read I want,"
As I place it back on the shelf.
Avoiding the unavoidable,
I pass on it.
At least for today.

echoing images pass through aged eyelids.
through deadened nerve and grey matter.
leaving themselves in limbo.
hanging in air.
floating.
captured only in fleeting stills on pages.
unrecognizable.
clouded in murky after thought.
"Remind me again of who that was," it begins.
"Do I know them," it continues.
and with confused silence it ends.

Is it worse to continue to remind someone of what once was
than to just let me go?

overwhelming.
brightness flooding over angled nose and curved jaw.
trickling over pores and hairs
to nest within a well that reject and tightly closes.
refusing. relenting. relinquishing.
eyes fluttering open.
lashes sweeping away relaxation
away dreams and wishes.
forcing thoughts to lingering lists of facts and figures.
as reality's pavement likeness persists.
responsibility, risk and resolution resolve.
until the head rests again.