I'm shivering,
Listening,
Singing softly.
My voice projects.
I'm breathing deeply.
Words leave my lips
Like ghosts,
Only visible when their clouds
Condense on the windshield,
Expanding then dissipating.

Alone at last,
I make sense apart from busyness,
Singing,
"From time to time I'll pass on by,
But I will never stay."
Because everyone is singing about California,
So certain that their happiness resides in a place,
And chilled to the bone that night,
I'm happy in my sadness,
In my inability to settle where I'm busy
Nor while I'm sitting there
Singing and idling.

I turn the key
For perfect silence
And enjoy the steep drop,
Departing just before freeze.

God has an amazing way of tearing down every racist and hypocritical pillar of my legalistic mind.

I’m not sure what God is deriving of my present secrets and future sins, but although evangelicals would tell me otherwise,
I’ve never felt God this close before.

One day long ago
I ripped up a journal,
Ashamed of what I wrote.
Sometimes I wished I could erase the past.
I'd despair and self-criticize.

I knew nothing of grace
Until my mistakes were put into perspective.
I try the best I can
Yet I sin,
Pray,
Again and again.

I'm always good intentioned
And have legitimate reasons for it all.
I don't think I've hurt anyone,
Continuing to fall.

I loved you once,
And I'll love him when I'm done with you.
This time his grace will match mine
When I tell him what I thought we had.
I'll forgive him for the things he shared with her,
And we'll take our lessons and our pasts
Uniting them in our future.

I won't rip up my memories
Or trash the broken pieces.
My body and spirit were never damaged
But living a phenomenal story.

I'm dancing with my Muslim friend,
Tutoring with a lesbian,
Sharing quotes with the physics kid,
Night-running through campus lit,
Dreaming of journeys from deep within,
And nothing at all feels alien.

I remember our good times.
I miss thinking you were in love with me,
Even if it was a lie.

Pray for me.
Beg on my behalf.
Because God favors you
And won't bother with this heathen.
Be sure to be short with me,
While revealing your heart--
One puffed up with righteous pride
And pouring the salt.

Overwhelmed in a new city.
Dim street lights brushing the balcony.
I'm sitting with a friend and temporary roomies--
One German who is giggly and tipsy,
The other rapping--a mixture of English and Portugese.
Our eyes are twinkling as the hours are passing.

I can't stop the laughter.
The topics start serious, becoming lighter,
From the origin of man to experiencing higher--
Politics, stories, our different cultures.
Age is nothing but a number,
And I'm getting louder.

To get away from home
Is to truly become,
To be undefined by where you've come from.
Chicago has a uniquely special hum
And connected me to people who share this same blood.