Emblazoned.
Can you feel it?

The fire,

The white hot, radiating flame

Set ablaze by an intangible being
Something nobody knows

Like an unsolvable mystery

A question left unanswered

Left there to decay

Like an unopened letter,

Corners tearing and wasting away
Edges beginning to burn into nothingness

So the contents may never be seen,
Never be felt

Never be heard again

The ink melting and splaying

Across the page, tiny remnants of it
Forming a microcosm of the unrelenting haze

That is suffocating the night sky
Forcing itself upon the tops of the trees

The smoldering branches and withering leaves

Making a revival of the forest almost impossible

For all the trails and paths are unnavigable

Clouded by a smokescreen of pain and misfortune

The once endless, lush, 

Serenity of branches 

Attempt to reach for the sky

Like a baby reaching for its mother
The only thing it knows that can give it life

That can keep it safe

But are constantly smothered by the endless grey

The seemingly perpetual mess of burning air

But somehow,
Somehow, 

There’s a pinnacle of light

One last glimmer of hope
That hope is you

You’ve started a spark in my soul

And even though my face has started to burn up

I finally feel whole.

Dust settles
And air,
Once a warm,
Welcoming presence,
Had turned cold,
A seemingly lifeless,
Bitter cold,
Determined to strand
All life
Shackled inside its grasp
Until nothing is left
But the freezing,
Blistering wind
Blowing it's apathetic
Stream of air
Harshly in my direction
And all that
I can remember
Is how, at one time,
The air around me wasn't like this,
And the path I was walking,
Was certainly not
A road less traveled,
For it had been
Many a year
Of me wandering down
This road,
Exploring the same
Cobblestone road,
As smooth as fingers
Gliding along another's hand
And sending trails of electricity
As well as
Shivers down their spine
As if they were
Being caressed by
The same
Chilling breeze
That I am,
As if somehow,
This feeling
Could be duplicated,
That these emotions
Could become replicated,
And the sensation
That runs through
My hands
As I imagine
My life
Before my heart lost it's warmth
Is just enough
To remind me
That this isn't the road
That we'd traveled together
This is something completely different,
Something I can't handle,
Like losing you
Just proved that my life path,
This trail ran cold, too.

Is it just me?
Or do people not notice
Going to a crowded place
Different aromas wafting,
Emanating around you
They just ignore the sights
Painting their own pictures,
Telling their own stories
Colors invading your personal space
Encompassing you
With a foreign feeling
That creates its own thoughts
In your mind, sprouting
Like trees at the park
Pine needles softly tumbling onto your arms
Tickling each one as it flies away
From its home in the trees
Like a baby bird
Just old enough
For mommy to think he's independent
And there he goes, coasting downward
Until he haphazardly brings himself up
Not a foot from your face
And for a second
Those flapping wings
Sweep up pollen into your nose
Before it jets away
Where? The sky's the limit
But he'll go somewhere populated
Maybe someplace he can fly
Fly like a plane in an airport
Disgruntled passengers hustling
To their respective flights
To go on vacation,
Make it to a meeting, among a plethora of things
Their eyes on the screen of their iphone more than the world around them
All of them, ignorant to their environment
Almost as if they've never seen it before
Like the baby bird that was in front of your face
But how did you see those wings
But those thousands of people didnt
It's because they were too busy tagging
That tweet that wasn't finished
So don't ever feel like just walking
And watching birds
Means you're not doing what you should do
Because those people sitting in the airport
Are missing so much more than you

The sky,
The voluminous, otherworldly
Expanse,
Floating above you,
Motionless but for the clouds
Barely fidgeting across the skyline
Shuffling down the horizon
In no particular fashion,
No structured order,
Just like the ground below it
This path, worn, beaten,
But not defeated,
Lay in a dreary mess,
Dreary in a way that one would know
At a single glance
What a relic it was.
What a gorgeous, unbelievably lush
Wonderland it once was
Teeming with life,
Overflowing with love
And now,
The flowers have wilted
Hanging their heads in sorrow,
Knowing the next day will be just the same as the current
Rain falling on them constantly
Weighing them down
With the burden of themselves
Cobblestones covered in moss
And coming up from the ground
Uprooting themselves just like
The tree, the massive
Wondrous oak,
Once standing tall, a pillar of hope
In this land of misery, now sleeps
Endlessly on the beds of dandelions
Long since decayed,
But the path is walked on still,
By one, one casual visitor
A blind man,
Seemingly oblivious to the surroundings
Ignoring the rain,
And sat atop that oak tree
Blissful in his haze of fog
Just as I am,
Willingly blind of the world around me
The only thing in my thoughts,
Beauty,
Beauty that only nature can provide
Through blooming roses,
Red as your cheeks are right now
The same face that sends me straight down the rabbit hole into a wonderland of my own
Because like the blind man,
I block everything around me out
Like I too, was reading a good book
Because I see the beauty in everything
And with you, I don't have to look.

Imagine,
A slippery, charcoal, behemoth of a rock

Lying dormant, as if sleeping, 

Under the comfort of a seabed. 
Waves are crashing onto

The shoreline,

Rippling across the weightless,

Unblemished sand

As though it were hair

Gently being pushed across your face

The almost unnoticeable,
Yet constant breeze

Of the in and outs of your breath

Are the only constant left.

Small indents,

The size of dimples

Are the only remains visible

A last and final reminiscent memory

Of the grace that was once there.

An almost tranquil sendoff

As the water gets pulled back into the expanse

An expanse as deep and as beautiful

As the locks of your hair.
Unconscious thoughts dart through my mind

As quickly as the most nervous fish

Conjuring pictures and images

As vivid as Van Gogh’s

Streaked with lost and quickly forgotten words

Like a smoothed out seashell

Pulled under and out into the sea

To a place more wondrous than the eye will ever see 

The shells float away,

Making one last attempt to stay above the water’s surface

To stay conscious.

But the smell of the air,

Mixed with the comfort of the water

Coaxes it back

Like a siren’s song.

Under those waves,

Beautiful waves,

The same everlasting and flowing haven I have fallen into
,
The endless,
unexplored, untouched,

Flawless shelter of your locks.

The ones that gently touch against my sand-colored skin

Lulling me and inviting me to drift away,

Away, back into the expanse of a dreamland

One almost as endless

As the ocean of us.

Expand your mind frame
Enhance your paradigm
Let thoughts flow through
Like a coursing stream
New aspects and ideas
Pouring over you every second
Washing you in innovation
Occasionally pebbles get smoothed over in your mind
And become coherent
Round, unmoving thoughts
Ideas that have been polished,
Perfected,
Until they are nothing, if not monumental
Don't ever, ever let these ideas go
Away from your body, your body of water
No matter how hard the wind blows them
Keep those close.
Because one day, they'll be flawless
Stones, completely and utterly
Breathtaking,
Something that children marvel at
And adults search for
Adults that ignored their own gems,
The diamonds in the rough that their mind created
So they scavenge,
They sift through the lost rubble and soul of others like them
Hoping to one day find
Something that ignites that spark again
That sets ablaze that fire,
Blows that wind,
Wets that river,
The one they neglected and let dry up
So all those priceless stones they created
Were left to bake in the sun
To become warped
By the same horizons they ignored expanding
The sunsets leaving those gems for the moon to watch over
With wind moving then farther,
And farther,
Until they're completely disappeared
Out of sight
And out of mind
Tossed aside for another lonely,
Stagnant settler to come across
While trying to regain
The paradise they took for granted,
The utopia they threw away,
And the diamonds they tossed aside
They'd give anything to be where you are
To have the opportunities you have
Don't let yourself go,
Never ignore your own soul and being
And tend to that river, let it keep going
So that your mind isn't afflicted with a permanent drought
And you're stuck,
Wading through filth that's not even your own
Just to find the beauty you already have inside
Just let those thoughts rain down on you
And I can guarantee
You'll create something worth looking at
Just you wade and sea

How stunning
Can a single,
Lone human being be
With skin so smooth,
Flawless
Like a stone
Washed over and perfected
From what seems like
Years,
Blossoming in all sorts
Of colors
Like the vibrant reds
The same shade
As the most adorable blush
One I'm unable to decipher
Whether it is
A natural beauty
Or a masqued era
Shadowing eyes
Behind the truth,
What lies just below the surface,
Of what you think you see.
Your lips stick to what you're saying
Concealing what you're so afraid of
What you're trying to hide
The very foundation
Of who you are.
The smile you show,
Gleaming at the world around you,
To them,
May be completely normal,
Absolutely genuine.
But I know you,
And that air of confidence
Comes with it,
Much more consequence
Because,
What you never learned for yourself
While you were
Too busy
Primping your hair
And checking your nails
Was to focus
On what was truly beautiful.
So you spent endless money
Crafting a perfect face
For imperfect people
To impress those
Same people you seem to hate
For no good reason
And what killed me
Is that what you forgot
I noticed while you were with those who didn't relate much
Was that your mind was the most beautiful part you
And it never had on makeup.