Dear world,
       If you're reading this, know that I'm alive.
Life is too hard and it hurts too much.
So I accept your challenge and I will live.
And love.
And hate.
And smile.
And breathe.
My family loves me and Libby is angelic.
There's not a day goes by when I'm not
Living for them and I adore it.
So I praise chance or fate or god or whatever runs this ****
Because they gave me this chance to feel

-grace

as humans we have
two legs to carry us
if we break one we can still hop around

two eyes so we can see
even if we damage one

two lungs
and we can still breath if one deflates

two ears so we can hear
even if you become deaf in one

then why do we not have two hearts
for when someone breaks our heart

Take my heart,
Crush it
Then feed it to the birds
Pretend that you're helping
Stopping the hurt
Feed my empty soul with words that caress me
Til I burst
You were good at your craft
Obviously rehearsed.

Behold my eye
See what I see
Age is lovely
According to me

Wrinkles like road maps of where i've been
Crow’s feet of joy
And frown lines of sorrow

Spots of warm summers
Long past
Stuck on my face
From the ancient sun
That sets in the West

My voice
Past its time
Telling stories of my prime
When my beauty was clear to see
And people didn't have pity on me

Now that I'm old
And hunched and grey
Look beyond my face
Where my true beauty lay

A spiderweb cracks the sky
in oranges and reds
as I inhale deeply
the mountain mist,
I insist this place is Heaven.
Twenty minutes ago
the singing began
in earnest,
echoing off the white oaks,
those twisted hickories.
And in a frenzy,
Goldfinches
crack sunflower seeds
by the pound.
Oh the wonderful sound!
I love this place,
nestled near
the West Fork
of Wolf Creek.

Maybe it won't hurt as much when he leaves
because I am so used to loving him from a distance
Across the hall
Across the room
There is still so much distance even
When he is right in front of me
When my mouth sputters words that try to pull him closer
There is always so much distance
Even when I am pressed against him
With our arms wrapped around each other in a hug
I can never seem to get close enough
But like I said
I am so used to loving him from a distance
I guess a few more thousand miles won't hurt

I'm smiling at you accusing me of smiling accusing me of smiling accusing me of smiling at how much I love you.