I beg of you to destroy me
To take the pieces left of my heart
To ruin them
So I may look back on this moment
So I can remember the way you looked at me
Your caresses along my body
Your fingertips across my cheek
Your beautiful hands through my hair
So I can drown in your scent
And burn in the memory of your spirit
Destroy the last vestiges of my heart
So I can look back on such beauty
And say I was loved
And I loved
So much, I was destroyed

-KB 2016

They come for us when we're lost
When we're hurting and forget our path
They show up and stand next to us
Hold our hands and speak to our hearts
We are never alone in this journey
They are always right there
Waiting, listening, watching
Standing strong so we always remember
So we feel them in our blood and we know
We are one
We are The People
And they, are still here

-KB 2016

Like the drum of the earth
Her heartbeat guides him home
Reminding him of who he is
Where he's from
The strength of his blood
As he travels afar
Learning the lessons that come
Letting go of what is no longer needed
Forging his way through
Until he is back in her arms
Near to her heart
Close to her breath
His woman he calls Home

-KB 2016

Coming and going...waves
Burning and ash...regeneration
Fire and warmth...birth
Cold and windy...desperation
Open and empty...desolation
Coming and going...repetition
Burning and ash...destruction
Fire and warmth...building
Cold and windy...searching
Open and empty...freedom

-KB 2016

There is an ache in my chest that will not fill.
I can only assume it is because you are missing from me.
I feel you as you are away.
Missing your voice.
And a life I have not known.
I find myself wondering if I am selfish.
If this life is meant for me,
Or if you are a beautiful fantasy.
Have I only dreamt of this warmth as yours?
Am I so deluded in my day dreams that I cannot see reality anymore?
You are missing from me.
And the loss is tangible.
I feel it with every heartbeat.
This pain.
This hole.
This ache.
Is this the emptiness of you?
Or the emptiness of me?

-KB 2016

I feel the beauty of the earth all around me.
I listen as her children awaken.
The winged,
The two legged,
The four legged.
She sings her morning song
In the gentle breezes
Flowing between the leaves on the trees,
And I know I am a part of her
My heart the drum to her melody

-KB 2016

The full moon rises marking another month has gone,
And still I miss you.
The sun awakens a new day,
And still I miss you.

-KB 2016

Hope is lost in the heart
In the visions of innocence plundered
In the war cries of the proud
In the hate filled screams of the wicked
Hope is what is looked toward to be the light
But the darkness calls
And not all who heed her cry
Can find their way in her beauty
They are consumed and lost in her
Torn by her thorns
Mesmerized by her misunderstood power
Hope is lost in age
In fear
In ignorance
Hope, that one guiding light
Destroyed by men
And sought by soldiers

-KB 2016

He's killing himself
He's drowning in truth
With each inhale of a cigarette
He fills his lungs with ideals
The smoke gathers around him
Changing the perception of reality
Another pull from the wine bottle
Another dose of novocaine
A swig of whiskey
A sip of *******
Freedom he says
It's all I've ever wanted
My way or the highway
I love you
I don't want you
Another pull from the bottle
Another inhale from the joint
You're my everything
But I walk in truth
The truth is I am me
And I have nothing to offer you
The smoke gathers in his reality
No vividness in his realm
This honey colored existence
This freedom
This perception
This alone

-KB 2016

I've never seen him as typical
He was always more ethereal than this
A king
A god
Something and someone apart from the norm
Magical
Intense
Real
Beautiful
Especially beautiful
Beauty in his touch
Beauty in his eyes
Beauty in is voice
Beauty in his mind
Beauty all through him
Has this caused me to fall prey to what I hate done to me?
Do I want to own what should never be owned, but merely appreciated?
Perhaps I am not his and he is not mine, but we are just us.
Perhaps he is just typical
He breathes
He hurts
He angers
Perhaps he is just a man
A man any woman can have
Perhaps I am just a woman
And our elevated status is only existent in a memory
In a lifetime long ago
In a time where he was the king and I was his queen
But here,
Now
He is just a man
I am just a woman
And typical is all we have left

-KB 2016

The color of the treasure may have changed,
But the tactics are all the same.
First come the discoverers, then the mercenaries, followed by the soldiers to "protect" us, for we know not what we have.
They come to "protect" and "civilize" us.
To save us from our wild savage ways.
Be it 1492, 1851, 1975, or 2016
The goal is all the same.
**** the Indian, Save the Man.
**** the Indian, Save the Man.
We're still thinking we're seen as that man,
But THEY are all part of that clan.
We are The Humans, The Protectors, we are The People, just as all of our languages remind us.
We are the children of the Earth.
Now the cycle has come again.
First came the discoverers,
And we prayed.
Then came the mercenaries,
And we reasoned.
Do more than just dance this time my people...
The soldiers are coming.
The color of the treasure may have changed,
But the tactics are all the same.

Mni Wiconi

-KB 2016
Cante Waste Mani Kici Win

Beneath the waves of consciousness
Beneath the skies filled with dreams
Under the illuminating moonlight
Within the warm embrace of the sun
This is where your heart will meet mine
The tenderness of your touch
The sweep of a petal against my skin
The depth of your gaze
The galaxies looked up to in the night
Your sweet breath against my neck
A gentle breeze on the wind
This is how you remain with me

-KB 2016

Beyond the facade of love, lies the desire for normalcy and freedom.  
An aching yearning for the self, but the self with another.  
The self with a partner.  
That other that fully embraces
          and accepts without
                  judgement or
                      withholding.  
The other that loves,
         but does not need.  
           That needs,
         but not too much.  
All this is covered in love desired.  
We want to love,
       but we want to be free,
                and is there freedom in love?  
Is there not a freedom,
    but with limits
          because there must also be respect.  
Am I not me,
         but I'm the me that I am with you and isn't that a different me?  
For truly,
       you wouldn't want the all of me,
               there are far too many critiques.  
Too many judgments.  
        Too many thoughts that invade the space of my personal realm,
               the one that used to just be me,
                     but I let you in because I love you
                               and I want to be me with you.  
Does this mean you are not you?  
What has this done to the you that I knew?  
How has the me changed you in such a way?  
And now are we just us?  
Is this a facade covered in the language of love?  
            Have we gone mad?  
                  Completely lost ourselves?  
                         Has freedom escaped,
and yet we fight for this new us because it feels good
           and bad
                    and happy
                            and angry all at once?  
This adventure,
         this experience,
                this thing.  
So many consistent inconsistencies,
    but I love you so I navigate them.  
I fight for the me that I knew so well,
   but I love you and so I'll fight to be the me you want me to be.  
So am I still me?  
        Are you still you?  
                    Or are we now us in this language of love?

-KB 2016

As you spoke those precious words, the ocean in me calmed and came alive all at once.  
My heartbeat created a wave that shifted the pull of the moon.  
My night skies lit up and stars paled in comparison to the depth of love in your eyes.  
In only a second of time, all I knew had forever changed.  
The indifference I had surrounded myself with melted and caverns to bury my soul filled.  
The gift of you illuminated all confusion and in that moment, I was safe.

-KB 2016