True, they don't hurt you physically,
Not
A
Scratch.
But inside,
Beneath these lies
You tell yourself,
I'm okay, I'm fine, really...
inside,
A ceramic plate chips,
A corner taken,
A fragment gone.
With time, what was strong
Has become weak.
For what is a house made of
Straw?

Once it's gone, it's
Gone.
That part, however little,
Will never, ever be
With you again.
Like fixing porcelain with
Glue.
It just doesn't feel the same.
And it hurts,
Hurts, hurts, hurts.

But...
If the glue is applied with the
Right care,
Love,
Effort,
The end result, can be--
will be more beautiful
than
If it hadn't been
b r o k e n
before.

sticks and stones may break my bones but words never will
I guess it depends on what kind of words,
Ain't it?

The rich will always be rich,
Computers, clean body, nice clothes,
Proper homes, not shacks.
Elite schools, branded
Motorcycles, jewelry

The poor will always be poor,
A pen, a marvel
Firewood, abandoned train tracks
YMCA funded classes,
Hand-me downs, nakedness

Grandfather, father,
Son. Same lineage, same burden
To pass down
Generation
To
Generation
To
Generation.
A Never-ending cycle

Cruel game of Russian roulette,
Spin the revolver, watch it
Turn, pick it up, iron to temple
--BANG BANG-- you're dead.
The more the rounds, the
More
Lethal
It
Gets

It is a gap that cannot
Be plugged,
A boulder that cannot be put down,
Like Atlas holding the sky,
If released, the sky and earth
Collide, and we die--
All of us.
Everyone.

He raises the bow, slides
Delicately across strings,
D major, A sharp, C minor
Elbow straight, raised high,
And something magical happens

Notes released into the air,
Gliding swiftly, cleanly, clearly.
Mourning put into music,
Rejoicing in regret,
Reading without words,
The deepest, the understanding
of the soul.

Of the bass, harp, violin,
there is only one sound I hear
It is the cello, one cello,
Played by one whose every breath
in rhythm, flat nose, sharp ears
Eyes closed, head rocking, like of
one possessed, but by the spell, the
beauty, the ethereal essence of music, that
One cannot simply deny.

Brother, I know you have the it
that it takes, though I don't know what
is it, really. But I watch you, and I
Simply know, deep in the
Recesses of my soul,
that you can.
So stop dragging me to these
performances to tell me
look at them! I'll never be
This good
And start trying, actually
trying, for once in your life.

I'll be waiting to see you
on that stage, playing for me.
Don't disappoint me.

It caresses my face,
Rubbing one velvety gloved finger up and
Down my neck, tracing up the
sharpness of my chin,
My, what a contrast.

The wind is like
Dry ice,
It freezes lips shut and
chills even teeth,
But when it warms,
Your skin craves it like
Parched throats crave water.

The wind is like an
Earthworm, it burrows straight into my
Nose when I tilt my head back.
It slithers through the holes in my shirt,
And breathes in life.

The wind is like a swarm of
Bees,
Stinging my eyes, making them leak.
It stings for a second, then
Flies away,
Only to attack again, and again,
And again.

The wind is like a spider's
Web,
Invisible to the untrained eye,
Yet strong as steel--
Maybe even
Stronger.
It catches stray objects and
Swallows it whole,
Trapping them in its
Unrelenting fist

To me, the wind is also a force of
nature, both
Meek and Mighty--unpredictable
But what is it? Really...
It's all up to you

Everyone has different opinions on
Different matters, so
Please
Don't judge.

From my ******* button eyes,
I have experienced the world.
The colours, threads that make up this fabric
One which can only be seen--and observed
From the corner of a room,
My corner,
The one under a piano, home to
Abandoned playthings and
Languishing crotchet notes, and staccatos.

From the corner of her bedroom
I watch her laugh, mouth agape,
Hacking out unintelligible sounds, and feel
Feel how the air rejoices at her mirth,
How it allows waves to travel--
Announcing her joy for all the world to share.
And I watch, watch her leak,
Leak her troubles, heartbreaks, hurricane of
Emotions
All into a puddle, tiny as it is.
Watch her face remain steadfast, strong even as
Inside, she dissolves, like white paper in acid.
Burning, burning...

And I experience all of her,
Her emotions, fiery temper, icy demeanor,
Warm hugs, cool attitude, everything,
Like the seasons of the earth.
With my ******* button eyes, I stare,
and I understand,
This entire world that has slowly been revealed to me,
The ball of yarn inside a person, waiting to be
Unravelled.

I had a feeling
Yesterday night I think.
But my head might be wrong, as it is
Sometimes.

It was a queer feeling
Rather peculiar, one might say.
It was blank--as white as an
Unused sheet of paper

A Kaleidoscope of colours, shapes, sounds,
Feelings.
All put in the blender that was my head,
And so it mixed, clashed, tumbled, blended.

Into a white frothy substance--
Pure, clean, white.
The absolute, infinitely
enormous, sense of nothingness

And for that single, flashing fraction of
A moment,
I felt weightless, free from the burden of emotions.
The calm before the storm.

If only for a moment.

A uniquely unique me,
Is all I wanna be!
When you can be so special,
Why waste your own potential?

When I can move my ears,
And growl (although it's queer)
And choose how loud to ****
--consider it a type of art

When I can hiccup-****-sneeze,
And appreciate blue cheese
And laugh and chortle and guffaw
--all my friends stare in awe.

When I can recite so many words,
(It doesn't mean I'm a nerd)
And snack 20 times a day
--don't judge okay...

When you can do all that,
Why feel the need to act?
Please just accept the fact
You are you and that's that!

The sea strains for the sand,
pulling, grasping at
each precious granule,
Their lovers embrace
shattered
with the rise and fall of the tide.

But I am not the sea.
The sky is not my sand.
"Reach for the stars"
They say.
How?
When I am bound.
Chained to the rocks
Shackles made of iron
Caressing my feet

I reach for my sky
My haven, my light
But I cannot
For my wings are far too
Small, To carry my weight.
And I fall
      And fall
          And fall
Until I am grounded.
A fallen angel
Yet again.

It took just one teeny tiny slip
The slip of a tongue
Oh
No.
Mocking laughs, eyebrows
Raised high
But not at you, oh no no,
It wasn't even yours to tell
But you had to, didn't you?
Hesitation, what should I do?
Laugh along, as you do, in your own
Special way , but not this time
Maybe it was the shimmering air
That seemed to whisper, graze your skin
Or maybe it was the way
Your smile ended at your cheek
You were always not that good of a liar anyway
I could always tell, and you knew it
Was that why you
Spun away from me, put on your mask.
The one I had thrown away
I wonder when you had picked it up.

In the end
It was your conscience that
Killed you, murdered you,
At least the part of you that I cared
To search for
The burning part of you that
Seared itself into my memory.
I didn't mind, no, really
Everyone makes mistakes sometimes
You didn't think so, always the perfectionist.
Lately I seem to be a friend of the devil
He told me about his precious gifts to me
And why they seemed to
Latch on to me, like leeches, like glue
Like me and you, before all this happened.
I don't mind, really.
Now you act like it's a
Daily masquerade
You can't keep hiding, I did find you,
Remember? Please... I need you
You think distance will heal? I don't understand.
I really don't. Don't understand why you closed
This door, the one we painstakingly carved
Together.
I miss you,
I really do.

Nursery
Blurred shapes, lines of
hazy memories.
Babbling and wailing and curiosity,
Why, why and whys, and kissing boys
And not caring how others
thought of you.
Bright-eyed smiles, hopeful

Kindergarten
Fun-filled days of
Tricycles and grass under my feet
And swinging and falling and
Getting up.
Of giggling and friends forever and
Most of all,
Innocence that know no bounds.

Primary
No more tolerating of
Un-done homework.
Punishments and ugly laughter
And friends who ditch you
No more chortles, guffaws,
Only eye bags and rumours
brought by knowledge.

Secondary
New chapter, new
Friends, new school,
new, new, new...
Balancing precariously on an
Angry horse,
Threatening to buck and
--send you careening--
over the edge...
What's new?

The girl sits
Lonely in a corner
Blank empty space  in the
Classroom of laughter

The girl breathes
The tiniest movement of air
Invisible
To everyone but herself

The girl tries
Tries to laugh
But nothing comes out
From her cold empty heart

The girl stands
Mere ghost in the midst of mortals
As vacant as her existence
A ghost she felt inside

The girl staggers-
Broken body falling
Apart she goes
Never to be heard