He tells me to paint him a picture,
paint it with strokes bold
I nod and cover the canvas in gold.
I throw some red in there to show my beating heart.
He knows nothing, not even our start.
Our love's purple, a war between red and blue.
When we dance, we're red
like the devil's tune.
We're splattered colours and broken palettes.
We sit at beaches waiting for our fates.
He could choke on his own cigarettes
but I won't leave him
till he tells me to paint another picture
with strokes bold
till the air in our rooms is no longer cold
till the fire has destroyed our pretty pictures
and his ashes cover my bones.

I wonder how much
a cloud weights? 1,000
pounds or nothing at all.

Someone
Somewhere
Is thinking good things about me
Somehow

I hope
I do
I hope
Its you

Someway
Something
Is reaching past this distance and time
Someone

I hope
I hope
I do
All I can say
I do
Hope that
Its you

Some dream
Coming true

My ear is burning

when you're strong enough to stand
you will discover
how easy it is
to sneer at those
still on their knees.

I'd like to thank you.
Yes, you.
For taking the time to read this.
I've wondered who really takes the time,
To comprehend what I throw on the page.
But whatever it means to you,
You're not wrong.
My words mean everything,
Yet nothing.
They imply love, hate, fear, courage,
And all in between.
But I'm asking you.
Yes, you!
What does all of this mean,
To you?
-Mike

When the ant had told
that December cold
night the grasshopper,
who had spent Summer
singing in the tree,
to go dance now that
he was hungry but free,
he didn’t show the hurt,
for he was alert
To the discomfort
of Winter and language;
but he left the village.

When he, years later,
Came back as a baker
(who sang in the day
and worked in the night),
the first thing he did
was to go see the ant -
a gift-wrapped guitar
in his hand.

(c) LazharBouazzi

Gray
Gray such a sad color
The type of sadness I feel
Not terrible and dark
Just Gray
Gray like a thunder storm
My mind filled with nothing but rain clouds
It's such an empty feeling
Almost like nothing really matters
The words they speak to me never get through the clouds
They’re too big, too heavy to fade away
Sometimes I wonder
I wonder if this is what dying on the inside is
But I fear the answer too much to ask
To ask for help
Help from people who don’t see gray
Gray
Gray the color that haunts me
The was a ghost haunts a house
Thunder and lightning accompany the clouds now
Now I face an even bigger monster
A monster with no face that leers over me
I find my body is weighed down
Weighed down by the clouds that are spreading
My feet drag as if rooted permanently to the ground
And I have stopped believing
Believing in getting better
Because only I can see the gray in this world
Gray
Gray the color that keeps getting darker
My skin has begun to mimic the shade
It's the only shade I see
There is no color in my world
Only the dull, lifeless gray
My mind screams for help
Help, I think, is no longer possible
The thunder and lightning consumes my mind
Sometimes I wonder
Wonder what it would be like to live in a world without gray.