~

I read your poetry
and I am taken away
to a place where my childhood waits

Those sunny summer days
when life was easy,
and pressure was only a word taught in school

I feel weightless,
as if I can fly
and your words are my wings

You tug at my heart,
tempt my senses
and touch me in ways I have not felt before

I read your poetry
and it is as if
I am talking to a long lost friend

Catching up on good times,
crying tears with you
and sharing every smile

Walking long paths,
waving good morning to each sunrise
and good night when it sets

Dancing in moonbeams
and counting shadows,
which always add up to two

I read your poetry
and I am in awe
of your amazing talent

and I think maybe I should
just put down my pen, for yours
*is all the poetry I will ever need

Being a writer
Is not a part-time job,
Like being a nurse
Or a teacher:
Where clocking in
And out
Is as simple
As lifting and putting down
A pen.

No,
Writers have words
Flowing though their veins;
Poignant thoughts and emotions
Shape and reshape themselves
Into poems in the writer's mind
Almost by instinct.

But
Do not be fooled:
The writer's world
Is no paradise:
Thoughts tug at our brains
In the middle of the night,
Like a child pulling
At its mother's coat
Beckoning us to the page
Where finally we free the thoughts
That have been held captive.

And finally with sleepy,
Satisfied eyes,
We place the final fullstop
On our latest masterpiece
.

dad left
for his second tour of duty
on my third birthday

mom kept
a jar full of jelly beans
on the living room coffee table

every night
she gave me one to eat, saying
"when these jelly beans
are all eaten up,
dad will come back home"

sometimes
i would sneak another,
to help dad come home sooner

one night
the phone rang
and i watched mom
wipe away a tear
as she filled
the jar
back
up

I want to softly whisper
incomplete poems
on your collar bones
that don't rhyme with anything
but your heavy breathing.

I want to bury my face
in the curves of your neck
because you smell like the winter clouds
and I've been gazing at the sky
since you left.

As I blow out my 18th candle;
My only wish is that my mom was here to cut the cake.

The wall between us
Makes me insane
Cause I can't hold you with my arms
And make you stay

You're the saddest thing that happened to me
But i have our best moments
That i can hold on forever

I will always say the three words
  behind your back
I love you
To the moon and back.