dear twenty-year old me,
the storm in your head will settle and
the debris will remain down for a few minutes longer this time.
(and then you'll learn to hold down fortresses in the
hurricanes, instead of being the ragdoll that
the torrents play tag with).

dear twenty-year old me,
there will be a moment when no amount of
poisonous smog clutching on the every molecule of breathable air
will be enough to block the clarity of the sun, the moon,
even the little stars that seemingly do nothing but give you a carpet
of diamonds to cut your feet on.

dear twenty-year old me,
this is a test. this is a phase. if life has taught me
anything, it is this -
it
always
goes
on.
**so should you.

What are these words?
What are words at all?
Am I expressing?
Am I conveying an ideal?
I don't think I'm using words right.
I think I'm writing wrong.

I never knew how to
write poetry correctly.
It's not like it comes with an
instruction manual
that reads in italicized letters

"dig so deep into your head that if a brain aneurism were to spontaneously combust, you'd be the first to know about it"

No one told me that my emotions
would corkscrew like falling
meteorites every time I picked
up a pen.

No one told me that the thoughts
would sometimes dry up
and leave me searching like
a dog who buried a bone and
then developed a rare type
of amnesia.

No one told me that sometimes
it would be hard to get the words
onto the page without tears
falling like a liquid avalanche.

There was no instruction manual
or italicized letters. There was only me,
and a lot of lessons to learn.

Strength is an outward showing. If you think that anyone just feels like they can take on the world all of the time, you're wrong. Everyone is scared. Some people just push through it, in the hopes that it will inspire others to push forth as well, in the hopes that it will get better; it will get better. Create an epidemic of inner heroism, of inner strength. Sometimes you just have to do it. You just have to keep going, even when everything inside of you is screaming for you to stop. When others start believing you are strong, you will too.

We were close once
thick as thieves
less the thieft.
Apart we did drift.
Our rafts were too different.
Floating on consequential seas
as time dictated the tides
and faithful lovers where we moored.
Now even constellations glimmer strange to each other.
Nought in common anymore
except where we started from
along the same stretch of shore

Life is meant to look forward
not back where I should forget.
Yet even will all the faded years
When I see you Annette.
Misty colored memories come
From a time that’s long ago.
Drifting into the smoke rings
From a thousand cigarettes.

My cigarette is just an ash line
as it burns up in the tray
I am playing the piano
a tune from another day.

I see her clear and carefree
She turns those eyes on me
I remember once again.
My love for you back then.
We could have had a life together
If only I was free.

I remember her lips
so curved and crimson,
in the fashion of the day.
I can see her like it was now
If only I could stay.

My fingers cross the piano keys
I can play this tune with ease.
The old crowd they all sing along
Its such a catchy song.

Then I look beside me
you are stood  there sweet Annette.
She touches my head softly
and says Harry
re you alright?
Your eyes are red and wet.
I look up into her lovely face
I'm drowning in regret.
Yes I am  just fine darling.
it’s only the smoke
from my forgotten cigarette.

The government sealed up freedom the other day
I guess the reason, so it wouldn't get away
They put up a smoke screen so we'd laugh at Tina Fey
All the while stepping in to take it all away
  
They bought the banks and businesses from Frisco to New York
And look who's talking through the mic, the biggest world-wide dork
Face the facts and slap your *** 'cause we're now communists
They'll be no more retirements for The United States Socialists
  
I know it's pretty uglier but, we just watch t.v.
Instead of getting off our duffs to keep our country free
As long as we have video games and blue-ray DVD's
Does anybody give a **** that we're all new commies
  
We let this happen to ourselves; Now tell me how could we
Pay six hundred million daily to our enemies  
And tell me Bill how you're still free when you averred on t.v.
"I set a time bomb to explode/implode economy"
  
These men in power, please agree, are quite sickening
They've made a mired mockery of a land that once was free
How can one be a capitalist when the country owns the banks
I'm ready to reload my gun, those ******s need thanks
  
copyright 2008 1 Armed Poet

exactly one day and a lifetime ago
you stood before me with your lips hung ajar
awaiting my kiss, with you eyes lidded low

at the age of eighteen how'd we possibly know
one moment could reach so impossibly far
exactly one day and a lifetime ago

if i knocked and walked in and recaptured the glow
of our love in your heart, it would not have been hard
awaiting my kiss with your eyes lidded low

one kiss in one heartbeat would alter the flow
of our lives, of our dreams, what we were, what we are
exactly one day and a lifetime ago

we meet again, smiling a pleasant hello
you lean in and offer a cheek from afar
awaiting my kiss, with your eyes lidded low

One universe over I kissed you, and so
you took my hand.  I drove you home in my car
exactly one day and a lifetime ago,
awaiting my kiss with your eyes lidded low.