(4 essential reasons for being)
sundown’s renewal layers celestial seasons of all seeing
silent forms of life bridge a gap beyond all being
reason stands for reasoning and will lapse before the fall
heated ions complete a circuit of a parallel winter’s (withered) wall
bare spots where the paint has chipped
threadbare skin wherein pigment’s clipped
radiation points of coma without separation
condensation bullets without just compensation
a fair and honest appraisal of an afternoon without
whispering from concrete acres of god’s love devout
distant from such as sky and sky alone as such
every night as much as last and last alone as much
falling faster than any sound has sound enough for calling
fallen angels never know exactly how far they’ve fallen

the ocean felt much remorse
for the ships she’d drowned
trying to help them cross her
waters as gently as she could.

Keep good friends by your side
Leave bad friends way behind
Support each other
For today you are together
But tomorrow you may be far apart
Cherish your friendships
Some may fade
But they will never go away
Don't be sad
As the saying goes
*"It's better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all"

Darkness morphs into a sliver of light
opens on a stained glass kaleidoscope -
patterns shift, rise, fall like we did last night,
I'm in over my head.  Throw me a rope.
Dangle me just at the edge, hang on tight
an empty vessel lost, if not for hope.
Secrets crash on a shore of skeletons,
bones picked clean by circumstance undone.

When I was fifteen I started kissing
every single boy who held my hand,
because holding hands was simple, innocent, lovely.
How could anything but gentleness
come from a boy who just wanted to hold my hand?

My biggest fear used to be
failing to see the beauty and goodness in the world,
now my biggest fear is failing to see the world
for what it is, and trusting people
that would, without remorse,
run rusted, ragged, knives
through my ribcage.

I don’t hold hands with boys anymore,
because I refuse to redefine what it means
to hold someone’s hand,
so instead,
I’ll redefine myself,
and my lovers,
and redefine who is allowed
to hold my hand.