without remembering
our past
we cannot understand
   the present
   plan for the future

   that is what they have told us
   in so many words

with advancing years
memories accumulate
   eventually
making up most of our lives

and yet

memory is there
   life is here

the present always
outruns the past
leads us into futures
we do not know

those who think
detailed knowledge of the past
would help them cope
with future life
are right
    and wrong as well

we imagine
our future modeled on the past
with the present thrown in
for good measure

and yet

the future may be
   the present is
      the past was

to live in it
makes you an addict
of events that were
once upon a time

   no matter
   whether fairy tale
   or trauma

the art of letting go
is in demand
and in much need

to square the circle
of life’s mystery

i will suffer no fruits or faults
no laboring hands:
just the sun, and the sky behind it

why do we get so sad
over the people
we can't have as if we have lost them?

This, I will never understand.
We love these people with every part
of our heart,
and then suddenly realize, They are not ours
to love. They cannot love us back.

And when we finally convince ourselves
to stop loving them, our bodies ache
from the absence of that feeling we once
had as if we are going through withdrawal.

Except the effects are backwards.
Instead of each time we are infused
with the drug creating a weaker high,
it becomes stronger than the last.

Or maybe it's even more complicated than that,
maybe love isn't the drug.
Maybe you're the drug.

Because I can't think of anything more complicated
and intoxicating
than loving you.

The way the world sees a woman today
Is quiet strange to me
It is survival of the prettiest in the hallways
Death of them on the streets
Playing the first game we learned how to
Twirling our hair to the boy with the cigarette in his mouth
Because the bad ones were always more alluring
Wearing a short skirt in the city is like driving without a seatbelt
Girls are taught to survive by using our bodies as weapons
We convince boys to love us the only way we know how
Because what good are words when he can't see your mouth
We know the answers but do not raise our hands
Let someone else take the victory
Male kindness is so alien to us we assume it as a cat call every time
And after you have given your body away to countless boys,
each one taking a piece of you
That is when you will realize how badly you needed them to see the whole picture clearly
You will greet the mirror like a criminal in a line up
Do not think that this is your fault
Do not think that this is his
Strip your clothes, get into your shower and wash off his scent
Let it linger for only a moment but not for too long
Wipe your face, comb your hair and let all of the crippled reasons bleed out on why you should give yourself up again
Remind yourself of your value
And get dressed

I've had grit in my eyes
for so long.
I've had sleep stuck in my
eyelashes for so long,
refusing to sink and rest.
This is the kind of grit that I cannot wipe away
not the kind of tired I can sleep away.
I've so tired for so long.
When will it go away?
It will go away, right?

Your love is a poisonous green Palm tree, it provides shade from the tough times, but always leaves out the fact that it will **** me in the end.

Burning branch lit aflame, no dove can rest and it is a shame.

When peace needs rest and the city is burning, her heart grows tired and rest now yearning.

A safe place, lovers in a field, where the dove does rest and needs no shield.

Beside the Rhine where all is well, let me stay, let me dwell.

But calling back that world on fire, more knowledge he said, you do require.