i used to hate having
     my photo taken

to see every flaw and imperfection on display.

i used to hate
    the photos taken

the ones you glued into our scrapbook.

but now?
i love the photos given

& what they do to me.

for before
it felt like memories stolen

a painful reminder of
love
lost

today?
it reminds me of memories given
all the love we gave

it's scrapbooked in my memory
and brings a smile to my brain

so thank you for the photos taken
as they no longer bring me any pain.

i lost myself
so i went for a drive
& the cracked payment led me here

i then pulled to the side
          on that foggy night ride
& remembered my dreams
& the mountains i'd climbed
& the dragons i'd slain
& the nights i was weak
     - but decided to stay,
          if only for
                         one
                            more
                               try
                                  to just stay
just stay,
oh please,
please stay.

so on that foggy night drive
i found myself
   on the edge of that bridge
just repeating a phrase

& then i realized:
my soul is fierce,
my heart is brave,
& from here is where all the best stories are made.

i'm not sure when
we turned the corner,
but i'm not sure that i mind.

your laugh echoes through
the small cracks he left,
but they fill them quite well, i find.

so it's hard to write
just quite the words
to explain the flutters inside,

but my heart does this thing
when you smile
just like the moon pulls on the tides.

im lying here in bed wondering when we will meet again, and angry that i trusted you with words no one else has read.

you took my firsts- my words and touches, and i assumed you would be my last, but you took them and never looked back.

i guess that's why i haven't written on paper since.

My country is full of people
too violent and dumb to be anything else.
We value money, bodies, and your stuff
because it is not ours yet.

My flag is wrapped around some
white-trash hick's *******.
You look different than us and
that is ******* terrifying;
please leave while we stay
in your country,
'protecting you'.

My country is home to
religious freedom, as long
as the religion is Christianity.

My country is the world's
greatest melting ***, but
we'd prefer all ingredients
to be the same or die.

My country is a joke,
thinking it's the standard
the world desires to achieve.

My country is the world police,
creating tension, harassing you,
hating you, taking from you.

you used to leap over mountains
     to reach me
you used to sail through the seas
     to see me
you used to journey through darkness
     to hold me

and now you can't be bothered to do anything at all.
          because you simply "dont have the time."
                                                            s
                                                              o
                                                  s                  q
                                                e                      u
because t                              i                           i
                  i                         l                              c
                     m                 f                                  k
                          e                                                   l
                                                                                y


and then days become weeks,
weeks become months
& then it's becomes years since we've spoken

you say you don't have time,
but they say that you make time for the
          people
                          you
                                      love.

blue eyes, crashing into the seas of my heart.
you created a storm when you came and left.
now you're gone, and the ocean has left little but ripples to remind me of what once was.
     now you're gone, and i miss you.
          but i remember the tidal waves that once were,
               and i am fine with the peace that now is.

so i guess storms like you only come once in a lifetime.
and i guess that passion will never return quite like it did before.
and i guess that's okay.
     because i don't think i ever want to find a storm better than ours.