'Do not be afraid'
They said to him
For there is no greater pain
Than that of death

And afterwards
As he looked grim
They took turns in telling him
That he would improve

Cancer
They repeated in his ears
Cancer
His brain chanted

It is eating me alive

But, as he looked up
At the ceiling
Of a sterile, cold
Hospital room

He realized they were wrong

The pain of death
Would sooner turn to a pleasure
Compared to the turmoil
Of his disease

Cancer
Again and again
They whispered to him
Hushing him
Lulling him to sleep with their evil, evil sighs

He did not believe their lies

The next day
He left the hospital room
He sat on the bus
And sat for hours

Going wherever
Fate wanted to take him

Everyday he did this
Everyday he tried to live
In another person's shoes

The bus driver's
The woman across the street
The man in the window,
At the motel down the road

He lived like they did

Until finally,
He realized
He did not want to live
Any life but his own

He went back to the hospital
He fought
He ached
He scarred
He broke down
And he won

Live no life but yours
He said to me as I wrote
Write any lives you want,
He repeated,
But live only yours

On a cold November morning
She awakens
Her eyes
Sunken and unaware
Of the beauty
That lies ahead

All she sees
Are the fears
The weights,
Dragging
Pulling
Gnawing away
At her frail, fragile bones

She is lost
She is broken
She is gone

Sitting
In a ***** room
Picking up a pen
And trying
Desperate and futile
To take back
What she believes has died

She stops
The naked scars taunting
Watching from her forearms
She grins
In that eternal moment
She is perfection

Her scars smudge
Her flesh smooth
Those vicious weights
Nowhere to be found

She is free
Untouchable
She is the words
That she has written down
She is the future
Which she had feared

She is the reality
**Which she can believe in

We are the stardust
Of the broken
And the ******

We are the followers
Of angels
And of sinners

We walk alone
In fields of gold
And fields of green

We are the dreams
Of all the dreamless children

But, they say
I am different
And they say
We are not the same

Look up
Watch the sky
And listen
To all the cries
Of the alone
Who shriek in vain

We are part
Of a movement
Changing the world
In a matter of words

We walk alone
In step with others
Our brothers and sisters
Who we may not know

Today
We link arms
Away, away, away
We go
Illuminating the night
With the daylight
In our souls

Today
We form reality
Today
We form the world

I cannot forget
The way you sat there
Watching, waiting
For me to understand

The way you leaned in
As if whispering a secret
Your deep, velvet voice
Humming in my ear

I cannot forget
The hope that tore through me
It wrenched open my chest
And blanketed my heart in warmth

The way you smiled
As though someone had told you
That all the love
In all the world
Was yours

I cannot forget
The way my blood ran cold
When you kissed me
When you took away

Every ounce of pain
Every moment of grief
Every second of unhappiness
And turned it into euphoria

I will never forget
Whether my old age takes over
Or if my mind escapes itself
Even if we lose each other
In the worst possible ways

I will never forget
The way we sit here
The way you lean in to me
The way you look at me
The way you kiss me

Your smell
Your laugh
Your smile

I will never forget this love

There are moments
When all I can do
Is sit here
On these white sheets
And watch the sky

I fall apart
As the breeze touches me
It takes away
All the worries
Fears
Regrets
And leaves me with nothing
But my thoughts

I think about
The way you look
At three in the morning
With your head on my pillow
And your eyes half-lidded
While you smile

I think about
The way you talk to me
With your voice quiet
As you murmur poetry
Against my lips

I think about
The way we laugh
Loud and hard and crazy
We ache with mirth
And drown any and all sorrows
With everything
That we can find amusing

So, I stand on the balcony
Eyes on the sky
Palms up and praying
My futile thoughts
A nothing
In comparison to you

I drink in the atmosphere
As I stand here
Waiting for you