You know those tears you get
When you can't stop laughing
Because you don't want to
And they just rest on your cheeks
Until you finish your laughter
And you wipe them away

You know those tears you get
When you watch a sad movie
And you feel like the characters are real
Even though they're not
And the tears just rest by your lips
Until the movie is over
And you wipe them away

You know those tears you get
When you say goodbye to a friend
And you don't want them to go
But they need to go
And the tears just rest on your chin
Quivering
Until the dust settles
And you wipe them away

You know those tears you get
When you walk down the aisle
And everything is perfect
When love is beautiful
And the tears just collect on your eyes
Until you need to blink
And you wipe them away

You know those tears you get
When you remember yesterday
And you wish it were alive again
But it isn’t
And the tears just fall to the ground
They soak into the Earth
And you can't wipe them away

One day my brother and I walked the path to the Mango Tree
I was so happy to go see my friend the mango tree.
How ever my brother was not…
“What’s so great about a stupid ol’ mango tree it’s never done anything for me!”
“SHH!” I said scornfully “She has feelings too, and she has done much for you. She has given us her fruit to fill our bellies and shade for free.”
But my brother didn’t listen to me,
He stubbornly went and kicked the tree repeatedly.
And yelled “Mango Trees do NOT have feelings!”
The tree shook violently and out from under it’s leaves dropped a bright green mango SMACK right on my brothers head and he fell dead.
Another juicy plump mango dropped at my feet like the Mango Tree was thanking me.
I picked it up and sat beside my senseless brother by the Mango Tree while devouring my mango and enjoying the silent scenery.

I once thought love
meant a trite Romantic metaphor --
"A bird that soared above some far-off shore" --
calling gently among the metronomic whispers of the waves,
casting a fleeting shadow on sun-kissed sand
where sea spray mingles with the scent of seaweed.

But after four weeks' absence
and the silence of those thirty days,
I saw, while in traffic,
a flock of seagulls
drifting lazily as flies
over the Oakland sewage plant.

What is life?
to the people with no light
Is It as sharp as a knife
but as short as we see the ocean insight

As our candle of life melt
You can't judge it without seeing the whole story
After you finish the knife as it smelt
you will realize it is the greatest gift of glory

Yet like a knife it gets rusty
but with a helping hand of a friend
It will never be dusty,
a hand that always ready to lend

For life can't be defined by looking at the end
But by looking at your memories with your friend

My ribs are not a cage
Built to contain
This fluttering beat of wings
A captive could never sing
Anything
Like I’m hearing

Your ribs are not a cage
Not like bars to contain
But a xylophone
Of your bones
To play along
With my birdsong

Distance
Does not have to be
Division
I keep striving toward you
Like a moth to the moon
Like every winged thing
Refusing to be imprisoned
When gravity clings

The wings within my chest beat on
Propelling me to flight and song
Run my hand over the memory of your bones
So like and so unlike my own
And though our bones are not light
Enough for us to take flight
Wings within me
Sings within me
To fly in the face of gravity
To defy what captures me

But my limbs are not made
To fly away
My heartwings beat over and over
And the bone white moon never gets closer
Now knowing what a caged bird sings
Flight needs freedom, not just wings

I hang my failures
Like ***** sneakers from
An old oak tree
In someone else's yard

I sneak in around two in the morning
Just when the shouting stops
And the man leaves the second story room
With the pink walls

Sometimes when I am sneaking away
I can hear her crying
And I hang another failure on the tree
For safekeeping