Explode off the page in a whirl-wind of understanding
Let Coherence show its head
Through measured guidelines and enforced comprehension
Find deeper meaning in the mundane

Leave your books in the dust and race toward
yourself.
Explore the crevasses in your complicated, beautiful head.
Feel your mind mold itself into a shape all its own
Until its own is all it could ever be

Pour over books and words and pages until letters s-
                                                              ­                        p
                                                         ­                                i
                                                               ­                             l
                                  ­                                                             l
over the confines of what society says is enough
break rules, do it on Purpose.
You’re acutely aware of how each syllable
Crashes—
a symbol of your refusal to be “ just enough”
Know the outside of your words half as well as the inside,
Make it so the half as many people who pay attention have Something worth attending to.

Open the doors   w    i    d    e   and let pride saunter in
You created something
Your head your thoughts your intuition
It’s never been done before
But there’s a catch:

You have become Different
And Different is Dangerous
Different means change, and loss of control
A thing of worst nightmares for those who clamber
To ensnare and suppress the individual Individual

This is not a poem—this is a statement.

Peel back wax paper
Wedge my nail between two disks
separate; they stick

You see, for me to keep myself afloat in this raging ocean
this roiling, writhing mind of mine
I need something--
A Human Life Safety Floatation Device
why not use a Lifesaver?

I think you are like me
leg hair
television
feelings
Similar.
And I think you miss your sister
You must,
sisters are special things.
I empathize.
And I hope you have friends close by
Who can be Similar
nearer in proximity.
I don't pretend to know your head's
inner workings.
I can't know.
but, I have this feeling.
You're probably feeling a little bit like me.

Now, someone whose head
supposedly works like mine
must hate it sometimes.
I hope you have an
Escape.

And i think you are Interesting,
cool and so much your own person.
that you understand
yourself.

And that Self intrigues [me]

Thank you--
For looking me in the eye--really
Seeing me.
Thank you for always making
me Laugh
Because laughter is underrated.

The thought of you fuels my
day and and saddens my nights.
Saddens because I can't
For the Life of me
Carry a conversation well anymore

I love your eyes.
And it's cliche, I know, but
You used to unnerve me with them
Your blue stare
You jolted me from a world
Where eyes are for makeup and tears
Now for this connection.

Thank you for carrying a conversation
with me.
I feel safe around you enough to
spill
practically
my entire life
You listen and respond
intelligently, nonetheless.

We teach each other things, but
what I want, more than anything
is to teach you all the things I
love about you.

Mostly I love that you make it better
I love that we trust ourselves with feeling
I love that you are different.
I love that you know how to make
things work

Make me work, Jack.
Make us.

It sways and flickers
away. Like a wren.
The flame stains the glass
and reflects fully
the inconsistency.
Casts shadows
on the wall
Frightful swirls.
Turns wax to syrup
Sweet, seduced I want to swallow it
Feel the liquid fire scald my throat.
I shouldn't be allowed to have candles.

We sit on the blankets in the park; I say he smoked.
And they say:
ew! Cigarettes are disgusting, I could never
poison myself like that.
And they take another sip from their contraband Sailor Jerry's
And they light one more bowl

And I don't say anything,
But I am surrounded by walking contradictions
slurring their words and crying out compliments

And somehow I became one of them
somehow I inhaled like them
--too wary of the pipe,
I breathed the smoke from their mouths' instead
And I threw back my head and
let the alcohol worm its way into my system, decimating my pride
like the mold that covers a bruised peach.

And nothing of consequence happened.
it's all too easy to hide.

"YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO DIE."
Okay, I won't.
My life means something to someone
Someone.
I am not allowed to die.
That makes things a helluva lot easier.
Not an option.
No. Don't even have to let my mind
linger
for a minute
For a minute, I can go on living.