Words hang full of weight
Cement filling hollowed out bird bones
Represent this moment
When we started flying planes
To liberate the regret of our potential
Walking into brick walls
Excited because we broke ourselves first
We are always first in the afterlife

These painted billboards are holographic images
Of plea bargains we made with the devil.
In this case the devil looks like
A society with more money than love
More violence than conversations
Enough hatred to fuel an economy

I hate that we are taught as children
To be helplessly free
We are liberated
As long as we stay in our boundaries
Don't be black son
You must be a carbon copy
Of the white out in our past
Please don't stand up for anyone
But yourself

Silence spoke the loudest today
Rendering another 1000 miles between our destined destination

Loosely leaping for compliments
Falling into black holes who are still angry they exist

Empty rattled anything in nothing
Leaving shattered constellations in unknown galaxies

Gravity will not bring this closer
Swimming in a sea of going no where fast

Finding lost satellites
Projecting incorrect displays of what it means to be forgotten

Left me arm wide open dislocated water pipe
Spilling my remains upon hardwood floors
Drained sponge shell
Parts missing
Love longing

At what point do scars start looking normal
When did I become a picture of my past mistakes
These scars lay within my playing organs
Musical chair
Broken symphony

Read these scars like a bedtime story over the phone
Don't get too close to my
Yet use your words wisely
Fading ghosts
Interrupted dreams

The coffee dripping down my throat
Was okay
Lights seemed obnoxiously interrupting
Which was fine
Sound reached me at an average speed
I guess better than being deaf
My blood didn't get enough sleep
Eyes a little timid of objectionable presence
I was a teacher today
Seen better days
But it was honestly
Okay
Average found me accepting
Warm embrace of spinal taps
Laying my head on my pillow
Was decent
I will find tomorrow in its entirety
Willing to exist in awkward small talk
During bad weather
Moderately mumbling about ordinary things
Like today

Let me be the batteries to your sun
A force warm enough to lift you out of bed
With a smiling heart

Talking without purpose
Has become company
We fill the air with empty syllables
A complicated language
Created by intelligent minds
Volcano ash tossed into the sky
Substance is a fleeting dream
Left in airwaves
Too far away to reach

Put me on your wall
To catch everything unwanted
Bad thoughts of consuming darkness
Emptiness feeling complete
Doubts of tomorrow arriving

I want to hold onto all of these
Memorize their architecture
Rehearse the words in the sky
Tattoo them on my skin
To finally become, a part of your dreams

One day I want my poems
To be etched into the sides of mountains
Upon the ceilings of caves
Left for my ancestors

Allowing them to feel with their palms
The emotion set into stone
From times I was too weak to speak
While only words would suffice

They will inscribe these artifacts
On pages of history books
Telling the next generation
To never stop writing

Each day my heart grows more fond of the way you love me
I find myself constantly in awe of how phenomenal it is to be loved by altruism itself.
You have redefined beauty for me.
Because it is no longer just the perfection in your body.
It is not how perfect your hair always looks.
Not just how much I love your style and the way you dress.
The way your fragrance makes me weak at the knees.
No, Beautiful has turned into a word defined by complete.
Something that is all encompassing.
Beautiful has to do with your always loving heart.
Your complex and constantly working mind.
The voice that will forever change this world.
Beautiful has become something so much deeper than appearance.
It has become the hearts that will benefit from your presence
Beautiful is a reminder that we can always do things a little better.
I don’t think I can simply use the world beautiful the way I use to.
It has become a word specifically designed for you.

Science has discovered the speed of light

I am present and perplexed at the speed of darkness

Teachers are working organs in a sick body
Constantly challenged out of our comfort
Lungs expected to pump blood
A stomach that can't break down
Hearts begged to filter water
Diluting our true purpose
Administrators cannot function without us
A body is working system
Not a conveyor belt of replaced organs
Death is known from organs going on strike
Sickness can only last so long before we pass

Mouth please listen to me
You can't turn water to wine
Stop trying to convince me of myself

Ears please recover your authority
The world is happening before you
Slow down to hear the earth's axis creak

Eyes absorb each ray of unthinkable
For there will be a time of darkness
And I still need to stay on path

Body don't fail on me now
We are moments from disaster
And seconds from arrival

The phone line dripped apologies
While I sat silently
All 3,000 miles north of me
Isolation froze solid on this moment

He had a heart attack they tell me
The room gift wrapped around me
Ripped open
Exposing a flaky rib cage

My arms wanted to stretch back home
Grab his heart
And palpitate his benevolence
Rewinding muscle memory

I have been told too many lies in hospitals
Watched a plethora of lives fall victim
Heard too many **** machines scream
Longing for the lost all too often

So I reprogrammed a code
For my Heart to beat overtime
To satiate the hearts
That no longer exist

Worn rough below my eyes
Growing without apology
9 months of love
My face has stayed warm
Thanks to you, beard
Storms fall weak to you
The wind a faint tickle
A smile in disguise
Your warm embrace
Has held me captive
Cheers to many more days
Of hugging my face

Sometimes I want to learn new languages
Until I realize
I barely have a grasp on English

Never underestimate

The gravity

That exist in the core of your tongue.

For the words of strangers

Have grounded me

This heart communicates through airwaves and satellites

Spreading thin on  paper skylines

Looking fully complete there in its worthless

The wind dilutes the potency of me

These words are tumbleweeds on a lonely highway

Waiting to be picked up and taken on a ride

Shall you never let your god hold you hostage
As your god shall hold you gently like your mother
May your god never frighten you
Your god shall comfort you in times of despair
Do not let your god speak for you
This god gave you a purposeful tongue
Never force this god upon yourself
All your god wants is to be understood
Love kindly of yourself
Find your god in simple accidents
Not in burned books

Her body is more than a form of elation
Delicate as a dandelion on a summer's eve
Respect does not define the way my hands have graced her
What happens when you take care of something too perfectly
That in the end you lose it
With too much delicacy you can never fully understand
The true beauty of something

Our lungs represent love

Better than the heart

Even when I hold my breath

My lungs refuse to give up

Today is more than yesterday

Falling short of tomorrow

Right where it needs to be

Presently perched

On the high wire

Of being present

There is a universe of dictionaries I will never read.
Library stacks of Volumes, collecting dust for most to see.

And here I stand in my ignorance.
Perplexed by your phenomena.
Extravagantly awaiting arrival.

Words don't always suffice.
When faced with extravagant.

I want to orchestrate a collage of every mistake
Of all the broken bones of my past
The gnarled roots I grew incorrectly
Twisted metal of permanent choices

Music will remind me to stay present
Bones will rattle with a stronger future
My roots will show of perseverance
Metal a foundry of choices I refuse to rebuild

Time is wrinkled hands of a father
Reminding me that there is still more to do here
Time has not run on empty
Smiles lifting pages of the history channel
Time has seasoned us into working machines
Grinding geared up perspective
Time will not forget this body
Each tick a reminder of phenomenal
Time asks one thing of us
Do not waste a single moment
Because that may be all you have

Imagine her hands on your heart
Tapping Morse code into vertical velvet walls
Hieroglyphs I am still decoding, present

My heart is better known as an island
A place for the shipwrecked
Beautiful in its desperation

Her presence an S.O.S. in sand
I am trying everything I can
To let her save me

Teach them about the backbone your culture has bolstered through the permafrost
Tell them stories of Moby ****
The tale they never took the time to write

Inscribe your language on the ice
Let the global warming melt your dependance
And drown the cities who refuse to believe you
A warning sign of broken promises by the government

An island not aloud on American soil
Your culture is its own nation
The lives here will rise against the sloth in your veins
Inupaiq will build on new waters, ready for the storm

I am the poem she has not written down yet

They called him a black hole
A collapsed version of his former self
Exhausting all energy found inside
Absorb nothingness
This is universal rock bottom
Gravity can't grasp this freedom
Releasing all forms of attachment
From here he evaporated
This is everything he has ever known

The sky is gods canvas
We are all college students
Studying his perfect history
Paint splattered Auroras
Delicately placed stars
A throw up of millions of galaxies
Flawlessly intricate
Laying on our backs
Wanting nothing more than for gravity
To keep us there a little longer

We are all sitting books in a library
Falling off shelves in angst
Looking to be checked out


Begging for someone to memorize our favorite line
Realize the intricacies of our language
Check our glossary to understand us

Too often we are returned with broken spines
Torn pages
Coffee stains

When all we want is to stay on your bookshelf
Broken yet complete
Exactly what we are meant to be

The wind swallowed the warning of blood red skies
Sunsets are shifted into nightmares about days evicting themselves before our arrival
Pretty
All balled up in herself
Earth delicately ballets around the sun
Lacking all modesty and full of beauty
All eyes have been on her
God writes stories on her existence

I pray for your fingertips. That each edge of this world you touch will walk away equally blessed as I am each day to have you. That the blood that circulates through your skin considers itself grateful to power such a beautiful monument.

I pray for your shoulders. For they will hold the weight of our universe for no other reason than love. That the stars will remember your constellation. And with the strength of god himself you will move mountains.

I pray for your feet. Each sinew of stretched promise embracing the footfall of your everything. Your presence, a fossilized stone blazing trails of altruism with a smile. And for a foot massage when you return to my hands which have Awaited you ever so eagerly.

I pray for your eyes. The cinema they are will tell me stories. Displaying travel with a short film of service and the ending credits written in forever. For your eyes are filled with life and will be memories in dreams for those wanting a better tomorrow.

I pray for your lips. As waterfalls of words will slash into the immensity in front of you, remember the power you possess in your tongue. Always speak in tongues of forgiveness. In tongues of acceptance. Your voice alone, is proof that god is good.

I pray for you mind. Finding patience in washed clothe pockets. Slow yourself to anger and quickly grow to understanding. Keep a treasure chest of memories that I may find when you return. Peace shall be present upon you, If not don't forget to ask for it.

I pray for your heart. May your heartbeat find the same channel as mine. Absorb each and every fiber of the moments you exist there. Carve drawings telling of your life on the walls. Pump life into the air current so it reaches me. After all, we are under the same sky.

Her clavicle found me weak
Surrendered aside my confidence
Melting into each curve
Found under the sheets

We fell hard into tomorrow
Missing pieces of ourselves
Writing history in the dark
Telling stories about god
And freedom

Two things being discovered
In the gold rush of sleep in our eyes
Fixated upon allocated perfection
Her body spoke to mine

Home has transformed into a relic of forgotten memories.
A destination no linger desired.
As I stuff my existence into stiched bags.
Home has become where I will place myself next.

You are my perfect nightlight
Giving me light in darkness
Subduing the fear in me
Protecting my shins
From dangerous coffee tables

Do not let a day end
While lacking gratitude
Sew your merit badge upon your heart
You are ******* incredible
Stop acting like a deflated parade balloon
Your heart is a trophy
Keep that **** polished

The moon spoke heavily in the sky
Drifting within time itself
Creating a comma upon gods plans
A pause of the hurry to get to the future
Hearts beating in unison
Gravity let go
Just long enough for
The world to freeze
To absorb the phenomenon
We call life

My skin longs for your touch
A phenomenon so easily taken for granted
Given but a few minutes of your time daily
I will never forget how perfect your body felt against mine
The sun hides so sweetly here in the Arctic
Each day my body walks my skin
Searching for the horizon
That has this star tucked behind it

We are birds, plucking each others feathers
Complaining about reasons we can't fly
Tearing each part of each other off
Allowing us to come together as equals
Naked, afraid, and without hope

He told me he has hit rock bottom
That he sees this world in a Kaleidoscope of empty liquor bottles
His veins run thick with well whiskey from problems he has yet to talk about
My brother told me he can see the future
Things are clear there
That he will die
It is all facts when it falls off his tongue

I tell him rock bottom is okay
That from here the only direction is toward heaven
I show him what strength is
I ask him to trust me
I speak through tainted lips without the correct vocabulary
So I drink
Searching for answers in my brother rock bottom
Praying for new ways to drown
Knowing we will all die one day

Let today teach me the things that yesterday did not.

We are empty caskets. Broken Surgery tools. A banned book in a school library. We are backpacks with busted straps attempting to hold other people's problems while lacking support. Teaching our arms to only hold onto things we can complain about.

We become a teenagers forgotten toy. Under a bed and covered in dust. Our hands are winter gloves covered in holes. Hearts bleeding to find a home. Our bodies play one hit wonders with low batteries in a empty prison cell. We are prisoners of our own thoughts.

Scribbling love poems into our rib cages in hope that someone will open us up, and understand the language these lips can't speak. That the rose bouquet of bones in your body will let go of it's thorns so you know pain isn't always your fault.

Loneliness exists in lost socks behind the dryer. Let it stay there. Find the symmetry in your stem and bloom out of the depression of ruined soil. You are a buried treasure. Let them find you where you are. Snuggled up in your excellence.

She spoke in tongues
Riddling of temptation
Exhaling reasons to slip into darkness
Fingertips blood red with deception
Lips moist of lies
Eyes screaming for love
When I asked her heart for the truth
She showed me confetti
A celebration of being broken
We lay there defeated
Absorbing in reasons to be fixed
Dawn left us breathless
And alone
For another night passed
Without words shared
Our lives
A parallel understanding
Inside broken hearts

Keep your head up
And your heart below





Because if your heart is above your head for too long
The blood might rush to it and you might die

She asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up

I told her many things

Like a fire truck
Something large enough to put out the fires we create
Glasses
Shaping things up and making them look better
Let me be an iceberg
Built from breaking down and re freezing

There are other things I would like to be as well
Like a father
A husband
Or a man
I want to fill in the occupations my father
never grew up to be

Sank
Her hope
A moonlit nightmare
Collapsing
With all intentions
to never return

The phone call
Innocent vibrations
Crumbling a foundation
His name felt jagged in her universe
Solemnly swearing
In tongues of past

Diluting words
Sifted through expectations
She remembers his breathe
As a torch
Branding sadness
Across her lips

Can someone choke me
And remind me how to breathe

I found myself in the hollow
Painting pictures of you
With no color and all the memory
A film with audio cut
Silently grab my hands
Trusting knives for fingertips
Show me how how to feel again
Painting this backdrop
Of the darkroom we hide in

Sit down and give your attention
I need all of it, now
I am not asking for a lot here...
But I need your everything

Give up on the tremendous mountains in your sternum
Let go of the abuse
Clear your octopus ink mind
Get better grade on the district assessment

They are watching me bleed for you
I have given up on state expectations
Built a castle for these students of mine
Clearing a safe environment in the moment

Preparing you with the proper armor to fight for yourself someday
Take this sword imprinted with my words
Protect yourself
Fight for something worth it

She got drunk on Monday I know son
I just need you to do better
She hit me on Tuesday, I know son
Please just finish your assignment

I can't
I don't know how
I have not eaten in 2 days
You have no idea

Teachers are white blood cells
Expected to fight bacteria and show victorious statistics
With none of the time and less of the understanding
Maybe the bacteria looks different than we really thought

Our own immune system is causing fires
Putting unrealistic expectations upon our jobs
Too many students not enough teachers
Too many tests not enough love

We working organs in a bodies coma
Working without the recognition
Hoping to keep the system alive
Creating chances for our students to change the future someday

Self-worth holds more value than self-defeat

Stop selling your heart short kid