The day I saw you there was something so enigmatic about you
I was mystified and intrigued at the same time
I mean you were interesting and I was curious
and it was the mere fact that your eyes told stories I wanted to hear

I wanted to more than know you
I wanted us to get lost in each other's minds
connecting on levels deeper than the depths of the ocean
in only ways we could understand

So I fell in love with you because you loved me
even when I couldn't love myself
I love you cause you love all the pieces of my soul, even the dark ones
I not only love the person you are
but the person you have the potential to be

So how do you know you're ready to love?
You don't. It just hits you like a wave you never see coming
but the water doesn't drown you
Instead you just breathe

Everyday you ask why I love you
You say
"Why do you you love me when I put you through Hell.
When I push you into your shell,
And I never give you a straight answer.
You say " Why do you love me when I can't love you back,
And when I have all these mood swings."
Well this is what I say.
I love you because you are like my Asthma.
I didn't chose to have you here with me all the time, but you are.
You are here to make my life harder,
But you also make me stronger.
When the voggy winds blow
And it gets hard to breathe
It is you falling.
Yet I pick that Inhaler of mine up
And I take two deep breaths,
and I lift you back up.
As my breaths become clearer.
I know that I will never be able to breathe as well as others.
Just as I know I will never fall out of love for you.
You are the chronic lung disease that forces me to try harder.
The person that makes me try my hardest when I'm singing up on that stage.
You motivate me.
It is you that is always on my mind
When I have to try hard to take breathes instead of just breathing.
When I am running and my lungs start to choke me, it is the pain I feel every time I see you with him instead of me.
Because Love
You are my lung disease.
You are the funny noise my breath makes when I dance,
Because the Oxygen doesn't want to go in.
And when you touch me I feel the buzzing sensation that I get when taking my albuterol.
The warmth of my Nebulizer as it vaporizes the medicine for me to breathe.
Every kiss you plant on my head, fills me with the dizziness that I get from my medication
When I try to stand up, I end up falling just as hard as I have for you.
You are the relief I feel when I take my
Meds on a bad day, you make me feel normal again.
That's why I love you.
That is why I don't care if you're with him instead of me.
Because you will always be with me.
Just like my lung disease.

Sometimes I feel uncomfortable in my own skin
It's like this chocolate shell is slowly killing me from within
Sometimes I think about taking up that cream and bleaching my skin
But it's only gonna lighten my complexion while the light inside me is still dim
Sometimes I wonder why I get left behind just because I'm not light
I mean we're from the same race, aren't we supposed to unite?
sometimes I think something is wrong with me because I'm not light
I guess the lighter girls at school feel sorry for me which is why they act so contrite
People pick up the book entitled me and they see a dark-skinned girl who is free
And they just put it down because they can't bother to read
But I don't want someone who worries about the knots in my hair and the cornrows
I want someone who's not afraid to run their fingers in the knots of my soul
So why can't you love me for my big lips and round brown eyes
And my wide hips and shapely thighs
Why cant you see that I'm beautiful, I'm confused
Don't you know that I reflect you in all my hues
Brown, caramel, black and all that's in between
We're all just the same if you know what I mean.

what I like about you:
                                       the way your smile glitters like colored stones in the sun, the fact that you give me the sweetest compliments at the most unexpected times, the fact that we've been friends since high school started, how cute you look when you wear your hat turned backwards, the way you make my heart pulsate with ecstasy when you say I love you, that good morning text you sent me the day after we first got together and the way we laugh and talk like two old drunkards catching up on old times.

what I don't like about you:
                                               your disappearing acts, the fact that you always like other girls' pictures and not mine, the way you try to escape our serious talks, the way you dodged Chelsea's question about if you really love me, the fact that you don't wanna admit that you're not sure about how you feel about us, the way you laughed when I told you I missed you so much that I literally felt pain, how you don't crave to hear my voice as much as I crave to hear yours and the way how you make me feel like silent chaos when you're gone.

I'm here thinking about you and this situation of ours
and I feel an intense throbbing in my head
It came so suddenly with such ferocity, I decided to take a hot shower
The warmth of it always seems to make my pain evaporate
like the water as it touches my skin
and as it touches me, I get a revelation
A revelation so powerful, the water becomes even more heated
it's like the throbbing in my head was God knocking on the door
of my common senses and asking me kindly to wake up
Wake up and smell the roses?
No wake up and get moving
Cause all the roses are withered and dying sweetie
He tells me to remember that thinking of yourself isn't always selfish but necessary
God was telling me to save myself from the tornado that's coming
don't get ****** in by him, don't get caught in his whirlwind
Let go if you have to
The water becomes too hot and I turn it off
And I suddenly hear a commanding voice say
*"Make the throbbing stop"

and no one has it easy
                 we're all either heading for a storm,
                 just coming out of a storm
or in the midst of one.