Four letter words
Two letters can bring you joy and adventure
When like becomes Love
When Like becomes Love
Your partner in crime.
The person that has your back
Your soul and spirit rises
Stop looking for it and it will find you
Two letters that can make a lifetime
When like becomes Love
When like becomes Love

C@rainbowchaser2021

Side by side
Yet miles apart
Misunderstanding
A broken heart

One tired, One awake
One oblivious to
The other’s hurt feelings
Their point of view

When the sun rises
Both will pretend
Nothing has happened
Nothing to mend

This way a small rip
Can become a large tear
If no party takes
The time to repair

I Will Never Write My Obituary

I bleed before the world
in many different ways,
by rocks and knives
and paper cuts,
sometimes it is blue
sometimes it is red,
every time it feels real,
because it really is.
I bleed before the world,
cutting myself open
that it may read the entrails
through what my poetry says.
But this (upon reflection) is not
what will be written of me
after I have died
and it only concerns me now
while I am still alive.

James E. Roethlein copyright 2020

i killed myself in winter
it was 37 below zero
and my mind was as numb as my toes
i didn't think it could get any colder
i was wrong.

To this day,
your name
still hurts my tongue
but I still say it anyway.
Sometimes I like to
hear my soul
gently tear itself
apart.