I was once in love that was
a long time ago, I am just a
skeleton of what I was once
before.

I had a heart it beat every
second, but that was a long
time past, now dust in my
hand dried up is the love.

Then I meet you and the dust
became moist, not beating but
not ash as once before. I felt blood
flow and my skeleton had muscles
and veins once more.

muscles to move veins for my blood
to flow, then my heart did beat a single
beat no more. We spent time together
then you touched hand skin was there
as we did hold each others hand.

I was hole was more, not the skeleton
I was once before, a kiss exploded on my
lips and my heart skipped a beat and then beat
some more, love was pumping through me
body heart and all.

Where once I was dead to feeling, I am
whole once more. my heart no longer dust
in my palms, it beats with love once more

How could the world be so cruel?
Spreading coffee with black peppers
Mixing tea with pink rock salt
Adding poison to the nicest heart
Giving thorns for a new life

Why are we living like this?
Things must change
Rain pelts heavily on roof
Rainbows can inspire even for a while
Sun helps plants to grow

But we will never understand

nights like these when
I want to drown my sorrows
in copious amounts
of *****
but I also want to drown myself
in copious amounts
of you.

S.W.

Hello again
We meet under familiar circumstances
Where the air in my heart is brisk.

You are white and empty
An open road for me to travel
To fill with trees and leaves of gold.

I can be silly,
Laugh as if I were a child
Until I am a child of wonder once again.

I can be a dancer
Moving about with grace
Fall on my *** without a single care.

I can be fake
Play with my words
Until my words make me real once again.

I can tell you my secrets
Like how his smile makes me blush
How it rips the socks from my feet.

I can be barefoot
Laugh as the grass tickles my feet
Nobody will hear me, unless I deem it so.

My body can be naked
My soul can be shaded in black
My heart painted with splashes of silver sunlight.

My soul can be an onion
Peeled layer by layer
As thoughts begin to form like bubbling ripples on the water.

My thoughts are boundless children
Laughing, crying, singing,
Being.

My thoughts are womanly
Sultry, intoxicating, liberating
Painted in red lipstick.

I can admit my fears
That fear can be beautiful
The unexplored path to self-expression.

My tears can be my pool
Where I can swim deeper into myself
Maybe even get lost out at sea.

I can call to the wild
To the untamed native inside me
Longing to be heard.

I can be a fool
A reckless rebel
A wide-eyed kid running free in a candy store.

I can be me
Ticklish, silly, deadly serious
And everything in between.

My mind is forever the soaring acrobat
Flipping, slipping and sliding to my own internal rhythm
Until I am but a song.

I am a canvas
As the paint splashes onto my bare skin
Scribbling phrases from my heart all over my womanly frame.

I fall onto the pristine white page,
My body spreading around the colors of my thoughts
Until the page is saturated with everything I am.




© 2012 Stacey Handler

YOU WILL NOT FALL IN LOVE IN A HOSPITAL, YOUR SKIN WILL SMELL LIKE THE DYING AND YOUR LIPS WILL CRACK AND YOU WILL NOT FIND BEAUTY

I USED TO THINK I WOULD FIND SOLACE IN THOSE SANITIZED WHITE HALLS BUT ALL I EVER FOUND WAS MY OWN EMPTY EYES STARING BACK AT ME FROM THE UNBREAKABLE SUICIDE-PROOF MIRROR AND THERE WAS NO COMFORT IN MY BRUISED TENDER FACE

HOSPITALS ARE NO PLACE FOR YOUNG GIRLS WHO HAVE NOT YET TURNED AWAY FROM LIFE AND THEY ARE NO PLACE FOR KISSING YET YOU READ ABOUT MOUTHS FINDING EACHOTHER IN THE DARKEST HOUR AND YOU THINK OF CEMENT HOSPITAL WALLS; THERE IS NO DARKNESS IN HOSPITALS, JUST PURPLE FLUORESCENT LIGHTS THAT MAKE YOU LOOK SO PALE YOU MIGHT JUST REALIZE THE IMMINENCE OF YOUR OWN DEATH.

YOU WILL NOT FALL IN LOVE IN A HOSPITAL.