I've always wanted to travel the world.
So I will trek,
Across your skin,
Sail through your veins,
And climb over each goosebump.
Your bones will guide me,
So that I don't lose my way.
I'll explore the ridges of your lips,
And swim in the pools
That are your eyes.
I've always wanted to travel the world,
But your heart
Is where I'll make my home.

Crowded rooms
Are the emptiest places
For rebels and outcasts.

I got a couple dents in the fender
Of my ****** car,
A couple rips in my best pair
Of my cheap jeans.
My scuffed up high tops
Are wearing thin,
Imperfection is my
New best friend.
My favorite t-shirt has
A couple of holes,
And my wallet's thinner than
My shoe's soles.
The scars on my skin
Are bright and white.
Imperfection is my
New best friend.
The streets of my ghetto
Are graffitied and dark,
And the knives in our pockets
Always stay sharp.
Though my best has a couple
Of nicks and cracks.
Imperfection is my
New best friend.

You've made tulips grow under my bed
And in my head,
Where monsters used to hide.
You made roses grow in my broken heart
And violets in the bags under my eyes.
My tongue is now a bed of roses
Where your tongue longs to lie.
You've made flowers grow,
My dear,
In the darkest parts of my mind.

That man, he's got eyes that shine,
Like the ocean in the morning time.
He comes and goes
Just like the waves,
And as he goes
He calls my name.
That man, He's deeper than the sea
And from the depths he calls to me.
He's got highs and lows
Just like the tide,
Yet through his lows
He won't say goodbye.
That man, he leaves a wake behind,
And like the sea he churns and grinds.
He's both the calm and the storm.
Always changing,
He's cold and warm
But his cold, never estranging.

My hands are shaking
And my nerves are shot
My whole body is quaking
And my heart's in a knot.
I need a quick release,
For some dopamine to flow.
I need to make some peace
And I needed it long ago.
So now I'm just blowing smoke,
Lips wrapped around a cigarette.
I'm out here going broke
But I feel no regret.
I'm spending all I got
Burning through packs.
I'm so **** distraught
And I just can't relax
Till the nicotine kicks in
And the smoke pours out.
I keep on giving in
Cause I just can't do without.

The exhibitionist
Taking every risk,
Putting everyone in danger
Just to be a little stranger,
Appearing more clear in its simplest form
Cause you're terrified just to conform.
So scared to lose yourself
That its affecting your health,
You're losing all your friends
Cause you'll go to any ends
To stand up and stand out.
So there isn't any doubt
That "nobody's you-er than you
And that's truer than true".
But you're false, you're fake
And it makes your heart ache
So now you're speaking out,
Cause there's so much doubt
That you're even you
Cause you don't even know what's true.

Love is a cold war,
I'm a colder soldier.
My heart has become barren,
A frozen wasteland.
Cracked like the ice
That encases it.
Its been the target
Of many a snowball's chance.
So now I hold
Strong and cold
With weapons in hand
Prepared for this cold war
Which has made me
Even colder.

Destruction,
After all,
Is a form of creation.
And you've destroyed me,
My dear,
From the inside out.
You smashed in my brain
With a sledgehammer,
Sawed off
All my nerve endings,
And clipped
My blood vessels.
Then you found something special.
Then you burned my heart,
My dear,
And I crumbled
From the inside out.

We've become cliché,
And not just one,
But a multitude.
The forbidden romance.
The older man.
The late night phone calls.
The cigarettes after ***.
The hopeless romantics.
The songs we sing to each other.
The late night drives to nowhere.
The fling that never ends.
We've become cliché.
And I couldn't be happier.

There is no greater pleasure
Than skin on bare skin

If every word I wrote to you
Could make you love me more
I'd write you a novel every day.
And then maybe,
By the end of our days,
You'll love me as much as I love you

There once was a squirrel named Nutty
Who was looking for a little buddy
But Nutty was alone
So he burned down his home
With himself inside of it

A tree,
Flowers,
Some tomatoes,
Your lips on mine.

When I was made
Someone must have ******* up the wiring.
There's a short in my brain,
Like water was spilled on it.
Now there's smoke pouring out my ears
And the gears stopped spinning.
I think a wire got disconnected
With the first blow I took to the head.
Now I'm smoking like a chimney,
But that's alright,
Its all electrical.

I may be legally blind,
But my hindsight is 20/20.

There's something beautiful
About the way
Your lips speak my name,
And the way
Your fingers fit perfectly with mine.
It's beautiful
How your smile
Pierces my heart,
And how your eyes
Pierce my soul.
There's something beautiful
About your soul, my dear
And the way it intertwines,
Perfectly with mine.

I find more and more that the simple things make me smile.
The things that make life make sense.
I keep a list beside my bed.
It makes me smile to know
The sun will rise every day,
Though there is dark, there is light,
Sugar will make my coffee sweet
And two plus two will always equal four.
I smile knowing
That music will never die,
Nor will hope,
And that even death,
Can't **** an idea.
I smile at the simple things,
For they are the most beautiful.

Family?
You don't know the meaning of the word.
It's not about drunken mistakes,
Arguments that last for days,
Abuse that lasts for years,
Or scars that last a life time.
Blood doesn't make a family,
Because the blood between us
Runs thinner than water.
Family means love,
But that's never been in your hearts.
You're my worst nightmare,
But maybe that's just family.

It been days
Since I've slipped into blissful sleep.
I'm running on fumes
Of nothing but caffeine.
My bed mocks me
And my pillows call my name.
The only relief I have,
Is a cigarette or two
At 3 a.m.
My hands shake
And so do my legs
As I tell everyone I'm okay.
"You need sleep"
They urge.
But this is the life
Of an insomniac.

Your interest is piqued
By we the people,
The prosperous poor.
Pacified by things
As simple as passion,
We push,
Pull,
And punch
Our way to the peak.
You're puzzled
By our paedarchy
Where the puerile rule
For they are the prudent.
We are the prosperous poor,
The pauperized children,
Packing our hearts
With dreams of progress
And thoughts of prodigies.
Poor by birth,
Prosperous by personality,
We are the prosperous poor.
We, the children of poverty
Who have been pure only in heart
Will proceed
To prove that the poor
Are prosperous at heart.
The prosperous poor
Are only prosperous
Because they have felt the pain
Of the poor.

I'm lost,
I don't know what to do.
I've got this hammer in my hand
But I'm pounding on a *****.
I've gone too far
There's no turning back.
Even the fundamentals,
I lack.
My head's spinning,
And my tears begin to flow
But through all of this
I'm grinning
Why?
I don't know.
Smart's gone crazy
I don't know if I'm asleep or awake
What once was clear is hazy
And I don't know if I'll live.

If your car could talk,
It would speak of shirtless days
And pantless nights.
It would wince,
Remembering our voices,
Out of key and raised on high
Singing to every song we know.
If your car could talk,
It would cry
Thinking about when
We broke its little window
With a tow truck hook.
It would seethe
Remembering how we dismembered it,
Trying to start it without a key.
If your car could talk,
It would tell the world
Of our long drives
To destinations we never reached,
And our need to kiss
At every stop sign and red light.
Oh, dear,
If your car could talk,
It would tell on us.

i.
I may not have noticed you the first time,
Or the second.
But when I did,
That smile hit me like a freight train.

ii.
When you first pulled up,
In that grey suit of yours,
With that little pink tie
And you kissed me slow and soft
I knew you weren't a mistake.

iii.
I gave you all I had,
Everything,
Without a single regret.

iv.
That night you lost your keys,
And we got stuck at the reservoir
In the middle of the night
I pretended to be mad.
But that was the night
I knew I loved you.

v.
I wrote about you a lot.
I always wanted to show you,
But I was too scared.
I still have the poems,
In an envelope somewhere.

vi.
The night you said I love you,
I almost cried for joy.
I really did cry
When you said it again.

P.S.* These are all for you. There has been no one since, and no one before you either.

Now I don't ever fall in love,
But on nights like this
When the city lights shine
And I dive to new depths
I have encounters like this.
I see him sitting on the couch
With that grin on his face.
I can't hide the nerves or the quakes,
He's beautiful.
I'm captivated.
His kiss is addictive,
I'm hooked just after one.
Now my delirium is gone,
I'm hooked on his lithium lips.

Hello old friend
I'd missed you so.
I didn't know you'd be back so soon.
I wish you'd written me
I could've prepared.
But here we are
Reunited once again.
I'm speechless.
You were never supposed to come back.
Sometimes that made me happy
But then I remembered.
I remembered all those times you were here
Even though no one else was.
And I missed that.
Can you believe it?
I missed you.
That little hand on my back.
Whispering in my ear.
Welcome back.
Welcome back to that hand
To the voice in my ear
The ever present.
Welcome back.
Welcome back depression.
I can't believe I missed you.

Last night I dreamt I married you,
Our wedding was all white.
Last night I dreamt I married you,
And we danced all through the night.
Last night I dreamt I married you,
Our house had a picket fence.
Last night I dreamt I married you,
Last night my life made sense.
Last night I dreamt I married you,
We spent our honeymoon in bed.
Last night I dreamt I married you,
But it was only in my head.

I walk down this road all alone,
No one’s problems but my own.
But they’re too heavy to carry.
I stumble, I fall.
Can’t stand up so I crawl.
I’m drowning in tears
Overcome by my fears.
I just need to get out.
My life’s in the drain,
Can’t handle so much pain.
Just gotta get out.
Everything seems so different,
But I’m still the same.
When I thought life was good problems came.
I don’t know where life’s taking me.
I go around like what comes around.
Never knowing home, I feel like a puppy from the pound.
I’m drowning in tears,
Overcome by my fears.
I just need to get out.
My life’s in the drain,
Can’t handle so much pain.  
I just gotta get out.
I’m filled with doubt,
Just need to get out.
It’s not them it’s me.
Can’t this just be a dream?

I search the world over for my inspiration. I find that inspiration comes more with the bad than the happy. Loss. Fear. Heartbreak. Depression. They inspire art to be made. Words to be written. Notes to be played. So in the sadness of the world is there not beauty? Who is to say only happiness and beauty and love are beautiful to our souls when sadness is what we all relate to. Sadness is something we all have shared. Not everyone has had a happy moment. But everyone has had their moment of weakness. Of sadness.

Faces, faces everywhere.
Faces who don’t know but care.
Faces I’ve grown to love, but now I can’t even look.
It’s not just a chapter it’s the whole book.
The rotting book wet with tears. That holds my life and my fears.
The spine is breaking, the pages falling out.
On every page it’s scribbled out.
So no one can see the words that haunt my mind.
So no one can see the faces only I can find.
The faces fly away, leaving me alone.
They close my book and my misery ends for a while.
But it’ll come roaring back soon.
Where’s my salvation?

Why are all my flowers dead?
I water them every day.
Feed my sweat and blood to them,
But still they decay.
Why are all my flowers dead?
I'll water them again.
I'll hook an I.V. up to them,
Until they thrive again.
Why are all my flowers dead?
They've decayed just like my heart.
Why are all my flowers dead?
They've been dead from the start.

You're my black tar,
My drug,
My ******.
I'm addicted
And I can't get enough.
I'll love you til I overdose,
With your needle still inside me.

Everywhere I go I bring my camera because I never know where something beautiful will be. When I look at people or places I’m always looking for my next shot or next movie scene. I think that people miss a lot of beautiful things because they have a set idea of what beauty is. Through a camera, however, beauty can be around every corner and in every person. I believe that the true meaning behind my work is finding beauty in the small things that people take for granted and the places and people that will change people’s views on true beauty. I want to show people that train tracks can be as beautiful as a forest path, that city streets can be the great outdoors, that abandoned fields can be mansions, and that every person can be a model.

My blood fills with poison as I look in your eyes. Being with you is an emotional suicide. I try my best to keep away, but the poison brings me back, wanting to fight. But I succumb to its weakening pull. I fall to my knees, and choke out my last breaths as your poison fills my veins, my lungs, my heart, my brain. I fall to the ground, spent for the day, hoping my fight will return, and your poison will go away.

We all have different faces that we wear from time to time. But with all those faces we sometimes forget the one that truly matters. Our own. And we lose ourselves in a void of lifelessness. No feeling, no thought. Just an empty shell of a person left to rot and blow away in the wind.

So much is coming back, overwhelming what already is. Thinking of what I lack don’t know how to live. Everything is changing; don’t know if it’s better or worse. My life needs rearranging, I’ve gotta escape this curse. I don’t know where I’m going; barely know where I’ve been. Life’s not getting any better now matter how hard I try, everything’s getting harder no matter how much I lie. I don’t know where to turn; pain’s too much to swallow. All I can do I burn and stay here to wallow. It’s all too much to handle, I’m burning out. Going like a dying candle smothered by my doubt. I don’t know what to do, problems swirling round my head. I don’t know what to do with the life I’ve lead. This rains coming down on me washing hopes around, there’s nowhere I wanna be. Each drop is like a person, just another ripple. I’m drowning in this lake people think is a puddle. They’re telling me to stand; my feet can’t find the land. I’m lost nothing left to say, speechless all the way. The words I can find are few; they go a little like *******.

You who hides your heart
your who fakes your smile
you who tears yourself apart
who thinks you're not worthwhile
come out of the dark
and into the light
come out of the dark
don't give up the fight
you with the scars on your wrist
you who cries alone at night
you who goes home to an angry fist
who listens while their parents fight
don't give up little fighter
don't let them win
don't give up little fighter
you'll be happier than you've been
you who has no hope to spare
you who feels alone
you who thinks no one cares
who has nowhere to call home
don't let a hell-bent heart leave you bitter
dear they'd **** to see you fall
when you think about the end reconsider
cause I'll help you through it all

Unrequited Love
What a painful thing
This painful painful love
Is so **** draining
Empty when you’re gone
Empty when you’re here
I’ve been empty all along
Except for all my fear
Fear you’ll find new love
Fear you’ll soon forget
How we fit like a glove
Dear, you’re the best I ever met
I want you to be happy
Even if it’s not with me
I want you to be happy
Even if I have to see
See you hold her hand
See you kiss her lips
Go to the Promised Land
With your hands on her hips
My heart begins to crack
From that smile on your face
But still I smile back
So yours doesn’t go to waste
Now I’ll wipe away the tears
Dripping from my eyes
I’ll face all my fears
With this happy disguise
Cause I’ll never let you know
Just how sad you make me
Cause when you wanna go
I’ll have to watch you leave
For unrequited love
Is not an uncommon thing
No, unrequited love
Is a common happening

I’m that girl no one knows. I’m friends with the kids no one understands. I love the music no one likes. I write the story no one wants to read. I live the life no one wants to lead. We are the kids no one wants to know. We play the music no one wants to hear. We write the poems no one wants to read. We live the lives no one wants to live. You are the kid no one knows. You love the music no one likes. You write the story no one wants to write. You live the life no one wants to lead. How’s it feel? I hide from the world. We hide from the world. You hide from the world. Now you know what it’s like to be like me. To be the kid that no one sees.

No I’m not ok. Can’t you see I’ve never been that way? There’s something inside me that never fails, to break me down to cries and wails. I can’t find a fix. I can’t find a cure. I’m stuck with this sickness. Stuck for sure. Where’s the antidote to my disease? Help me find it. Help me please? My life is swirling down the drain. Help with my life. With my pain. I tried to stand strong but I’ve been breaking all along. Who are you to try and understand? Who are you to take my hand? Say its all fine. Tell me it’ll be better down the line? Where’s the antidote to my disease? Help me find it. Help me please? My disease won’t go. Its here to last. Someone help me and help me fast. Help me please? Cure my disease? I’ve gotta stand up nice and tall. Work through the pain through it all. But I fall to pieces every time. It’s not just me on the line. This killing sickness, this draining disease. Keeps me swinging on a high trapeze. I know it’s soon when I’m gonna fall. I don’t know at all. Who I’m supposed to be. To get rid of what’s ailing me. You don’t know how I feel. You don’t understand that it’s all real. That life just tries to bring me down. It’s not a joke cause I’m no clown. Well I’m sick I need my medicine. Hey guess what? The doctors in. I said hey guess what? The doctors in!

You and me
Are mired in misery
We can't let go
And we can't say no
Tied to each other
Yet killing one another
We push pull and fight
Argue through out the night
But we kiss through the days
And so our love stays
So maybe its not perfect
Maybe its all wrong
But wrong feels so right
When you pull me in tight
You can't walk away
When I keep begging you to stay
We know that this is wrong
We've known it all along
But I'd give anything to make it right
Anything for you to love me through the night

Let the scars stay
For through the scars
Shines the soul
Through the scars
We show our past
We show where we fought
Where we've lost
And where we've pulled through
So let the scars stay
For through our scars
We find ourselves

Where I come from isn't all that great
My education was a piece of crap
My morals are a little whacked
And my friends are just as screwey as me
We didn't eat fancy foods
Happiness was out of reach
We weren't going anywhere
Had no money in our pockets
Still we knew
Someday we'd make it big
Rise above it all
Like the stars did
But that godforsaken town
Swallowed so many lives
Now Dom's doing 25 to life
Catie had a baby
And Justin lost to his own knife
The cops know our names by heart
Cause we spend more time in jail then home
And mothers hide their children
When we walk down the street
Cause we are the kids
Raised on broken dreams

Remember when you were young?
Your eyes shone bright like the sun.
Had no worries, had no care,
And everything in life was fair.
Tears came only from bruised knees,
Not from broken dreams.
Your backyard was your kingdom,
Your sandbox the palace,
Your best friend the king.
You had no worries of broken hearts,
Only broken toys.
Mom was your role model,
Dad was your hero.
You were infinite
And full of promise.
Death didn't haunt your mind,
Cause you knew you'd never die.
Hell was a ***** word,
Not where you lived.
Unbroken hearts,
Unbroken dreams,
Unbroken promises,
Unbroken homes.
Remember when you were young?
Your heart was full of hope.

You are the passion that makes your eyes light up
The words that escape your cracked lips
And the thoughts that keep you warm on a cold night
You are your crooked smile
Your broken fingers
Your scarred legs
And the words that flow from your pen like tears
But most importantly
You are your own

He feels like Carolina,
Looks like California,
Shines like those city lights in Philly.
He's wild as Wyoming,
With eyes like the Montana sky.
He's exotic like Hawaii,
Even though he's from Detroit.
He feels like Carolina.
He feels just like home.

The curse of this town is all in my mouth. I'm drowning in its misery. This whole place is going south, and getting so **** empty. My fancy friends with their fancy cars, take their money and they go so far. They're all too good for me, you see, I'm just a city kid with no money. I hate this town its so dressed up and all my friends don't give a ****. One day they'll realize that their money and their cars, won't get them all too far. Cause their common sense got lost, somewhere in the gloss and glitz and gleam and glamour. So now money's all that matters.

And out of all the people I’ve ever met
No one can make me feel
Quite as safe
And as insecure
As important
And as replaceable
As wanted and as unnecessary
As you can
With just a single look
You’re iridescent
And compared to you
No one shines quite as bright

And as we sat by the road
Staring at the country sky
We spoke of the beauty of the stars
Of the lives they hold
And the stories they told
And when you turned to me
You told me we were just like the stars
Because people stare at our beauty
But in reality
We’re already dead

A rose by any other name,
Means nothing at all.
For by any other name,
A rose, is a flower, is a ****.