When you set out on your journey
To traverse in seas unknown,
You will meet a set of characters
Who will test you to the bone:

You will hear such glorious voices
From the waters of below
Only stoop a bit, to glimpse of
The few sirens that lay low
With a wonder, you may doubt that
You have witnessed great beauty
The many scales they've fought to hide
Will in time, reveal so clearly

You will come across sea merchants
Who'll speak lengthy promises
Don't accept their words too quickly
Or their small venom doses
Gold to the eye, sweet to the tongue,
Their words drip like bee's honey
Yet to the thirst you've long to fill
So unquenchably sticky

When you find some shipwrecked sailors
Who are also lost at sea
Take them on board and you'll find that
They become your best mate-y
Keep them close, take good care of them
You will need them near the end
When you hit that last tidal wave
And your ship's about to bend

You will come by some sea pirates
Who will win you like a friend
When the seas get rough and rowdy
To you they will all depend
Don't believe their charming banter
They will empty up your lot
And then leave you stranded, lifeless,
Just to steal your golden spot

If you find a distant lighthouse
Do not fear to get too close
There you'll find such rare occasions
And gain gold you can't dispose
They will make you see the wonder
Of the smallness of your ship
And narrate those distant countries
For your never-ending trip

When you set out on your journey
To traverse in seas unknown,
You will sail through different waters
That will test you to the bone:

You will face a wave of troubles
That may come at an instant
Hold the ropes and brace the weather
Sunshine won't be too distant
Don't be too blinded by the rain
Don't get swept away by wind
For your greatest battle to face
Is not the outside, but in

Always remember your compass
For it knows you more them
It will guard your own sanity
Like a vault of precious gems
Don't believe them when they tell you
To exchange your own for theirs
You will lose your soul on the way
In search of approving heirs

At times you will sail still waters
But in these don't be deceived
For they come in strange intervals
In small bursts to be received
Do not chase after such waters
Those who did had died at sea
Not a name to be remembered
Nor a real captain to thee

Above all else, remember this--

When you land in shores uncertain
When your mates have all disappeared
When your compass has been stolen
When the journey's worse than you feared
When you stare death right in the face
When sea monsters outnumber you
When nothing falls right into place
When there is nothing left to do

--Don't lose sight of the North Star
In the land and seas you roam
It's your constant, day and night
Until you have returned Home.

You know
they say that
you should be careful
of the
things that fly out of your mouth,
because you never know
how how it might land.

Just like
how airplanes
try to land on
gusty airports,
trying to
land on the tarmac.
There are chances that it might
just instead of landing
like a kiss of a woman on
the lips of a man she loves,
their teeth and nose get in the way.
Your words,
can land improperly
the airplanes that carry the best of feelings,
turn into dynamites.

Exploding violently.

Misguided missiles
that does nothing but destroy,
just like how the army promised us,
that this will bring us happiness and safety,
but
only at the cost of the nation its bombing,
leaving its soil,
turmoiled,
disfigured,
and produces nothing
But
radioactive plants,
we have come up
with a classification for it,
we call it
insecurities.

So don't ask me if I'm ok,
if you did nothing but
toss explosives at my feelings
cause clearly
I'm destroyed.
So no,
I'm not ok.

You
cannot stitch
tofu
back together,
after being sliced into two.

That
a sorry
will not be a substitute
for superglue,
using it to stick back
broken pieces of me.

So remember this,
that
the next time
you release statements
words,
phrases,
that you have the
power
disintegrate
the person receiving them.

I am a sailor lost at sea
Setting sail to the land of the free
I know not well where the winds will take me
But days, months, & years I will conquer
To be the sailor I am to be.

I am a sailor lost at sea
With my bow set straight to the dawn of light
Though my hull is struck by raging thunders
& churning waters
I will not yield!
I will not yield!

Oh, I am a sailor lost at sea!
Young a bloke I am
Much I have to learn from the winds that have taken me
I look up to the mast of my boat
To see the winds ripping through my sails
Oh how glorious it is to sail the waters below like the waters above
Surely I will not yield!

Oh, I am a sailor lost at sea!
I have seen the stars move about the vast ocean skies
With their light gently touching your eyes
Oh! how I am glad to be a sailor lost at sea
With these winds guiding me to be the
Sailor I am to be!

Oh, I am a glad sailor lost at sea!
Glory to you who guides me
For I can not see
Yet have shown me the sailor I am to be!

When I was five,
My dad told me
"The world is tough,
So you have to be tough."

He told me
My grandfather taught him
The same thing.
"Tough love,"
They dubbed it.

Eighteen years later
I discovered that
Tough love is a myth:

Love is never tough.
It boasts of vulnerability to
Unforeseen and unnecessary pain
By the one
You have given access to.
It will be your compass
As you navigate the
Unexplained and uncountable reasons
Why you chose to stay put
When all the world was against you,
Why you chose to let go
When your heart whispered otherwise.

Love is many things
And also not many things
It is gentle, but never weak
It is forgiving, but never naive
It is honest, but never offensive
It is sincere, but never foolish.
But love is never tough.

We are carried through time
With the back and forth
Motion of tides:
Close enough to touch
Far enough to distance
But never to forget--
One does not simply
Forget you.

How easy it would be
To blurt out every feeling
The words being carried
Through every current
Only to get lost at sea

How easy it would be
To bring my heart out
In the open wilderness
As dust being swept to
Chase after the wind

How easy it would be
To feed on recklessness
To set fire in December
To launch a thousand ships
And die without a secret