When a lie is whispered
it does more damage then intended
Our feelings get hurt
But the whole time we were only protected

The truth is too much
and I wish it wasn't that way
But I'll never forget
the things I learned on that day

From this point on
life is going to be tough
And I cannot quit
when things get rough

That would be easy
and life is the opposite of that
But I really wish
it was the opposite of **THAT

"*******! You've never cared."
I believe were the words she chose
every so carefully
digging through her arsenal
of piercing rocks.

"She didn't mean that dad."
I know these were the words I chose
because I've chosen them before
when this happened
last time.

"She's right..."
are the words he chose
as he begins to shatter
from the rocks
she threw.

A man whose made of glass
could shatter into a million pieces
just by stumbling.
But it's usually the words we throw
that impact a very fragile situation...

The lamp post with the shoes around it
that's what I want to write about
The one approximately forty yards northeast
from the view at the start of my driveway
Located in the middle of the end of the culdesac
It's funny because thare are three shoes:
My left Converse All-Star,
Cole's right Nike,
and the third one i cannot make out
In fact I can't recall who threw them up there
All I remember was feeling pride
in not only my community,
but in it's history
Tenby Court is where I'm from
I lived their for eighteen years
We call it the TBC
I look at the shoes now
and I get that same feeling
But now the only difference is
there's another feeling
accompanying the pride
It's one I haven't felt in a while:
Nostalgia

Dear Lauryn Hill,

As I listened to your album
I know you weren't concerned with the outcome
It was more of a way for you to vent
But it was still worth every cent
I'm poor now but your words make me rich
And I feel like my whole life I've been in a ditch
It's time I get out and really see the world
It's time I stop worrying about finding a girl
Because in time she will come to me
And two individuals will go
From "me and you" to "we"
You showed me love isn't easy at times
It can hurt so bad; I hear this in your rhymes
Although I may never meet you, I do know this
"The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" reaches the top of my list
I never knew such beauty could exist
I had to write this poem, I couldn't resist
At times I see the world and shake my head
Saying forget everything else and get myself ahead
But you reminded me that's not what it's about
L-O-V-E, Love!!! Love!!! Let's all shout!
Because if I can, you can shout too! You can too!

Love,
Jimmy Ellis

He took a snapshot of me in the rain
in front of the vacant house where
ghost lifted the dust and
suspended the rocks like a puppeteer.

He called the shot
A Thousand Different Versions of Your Soul
and he swore, if it takes a community to raise a child,
then a thousand different people ******* me up.

I walked back to my house under an umbrella
with the polaroid of my incertitude tucked close to my heart
I pulled down every Vonnegut book from the shelf,
took the Holy Bible from its case,
called Plath up from her grave,
and asked them what the hell my life meant, anyway.

Vonnegut told me to travel to Titan.
There I will fall in love with the beautiful Sirens
and die with the aliens of Tralfamadore.

The Holy Bible told me to carry His cross
to Golgotha,
so He could die for
the salvation from my sins.

Plath told me to keep on writing.
Then I will live until I'm thirty,
and die in with my head in
my kitchen oven.

All provided valid arguments
on why my heart keeps beating
and why the thousand different versions of my soul
haven't crawled out of my throat yet.