Interesting,
how I can only
bleed on typewriters
when my heart
has ripped into shreds,
as if pieces of tissue
are spurting into
strings of nonsensical,
literary madness.

I tried to shield
my heart
to keep it whole

but all it did
was turn to stone.

I learned
that our heart breaking
in half
is not the worst
thing that can happen

What might have been lost?
if I never see you again

I call your eyes
one of the dreamers
and your eyes dart
across the room

always above my head
like you're watching
shooting stars collide

I learned you are
a body of water
elusive and mystical
flowing between the gaps
of my fingers

always slipping
through my fingers

I know that
your life will rotate
perfectly
without me

But I wish
I could be the compass
always guiding
you home

I like words.
I like watching them
f
   a
       l
           l
together
m e l d i n g    i n t o
                   one
large collection
of feelings
thoughts, emotions,
               d
           r         e
       a      m       s
and stories
that you whisper
before I drift
                      to
                          sleep.

Better than you;
always considered myself superior
--a delusion I nurtured
with vicious remarks
and cold sniggers;
within the remotest of land,
full of dust,
you learned to bloom
with your youthful flowers
growing larger
than me
and yourself.

caramel skin
like the sweet scent
of toffee & warm sugar
during a summer festival.

you called me exotic,
with black eyelashes
******* my even darker
raven eyes.

no other woman
could ever compare
with my soft voice,
strong principles,
and thoughtful nature.

you called me exotic.
but I wonder if you know,
I am a stranger within my skin,
within my community.

I am exotic
in an unsettling way--
halves and quarters,
of thoughts and ideas,
and never whole enough
for anyone.

my parents
are whole people
with a fragmented daughter;
to them,
I am a stranger--
I am exotic.

I am both
sickened and liberated
by my difference.

but mostly,
terrified.

i’m a quarter lifespan
half human
and too delicate to be
broken.

can you find
the paradox in that
statement?

and in the times
you measured my
force against oceans

I carved soft footprints
in the sand

and watched the
lavenders
grow in them.