25 daydreams and nightmares i've lived
25 trees i climbed and fell from
25 poems i wrote and then destroyed
25 cherries i stole from Death's lips
25 times i danced in rain trying to forget the pain
25 hopes i found and hopes i lost
25 cigarettes i smoked until suffocation
i died a little more  25 times.

25 years seem sometimes like they went in a blink;
sometimes like it's been an eternity.

i'm looking in the mirror trying to find
a sign of peace
a trace of light
but i can only see
the ugliness building up
the heavy rain in my eyes
the craks in my skin
the 25 wringles life has put all over my face,

25 years and i feel too old, too tired, too weak
to destroy
these 25 walls
i've built
around
myself.

The thunderous rumbling of a busted exhaust pipe disturbs another Gamecube binge on a rainy autumn night.
Is she ever gonna get that fixed? Makes that Altima sound like a 1930’s car.
I  know too well by now the tapping of the steps coming up the stairs. Rushed and soft, just like her knocking on my door.
11:00 pm. “Just got off work” –says she. Like any other night in which she  came to only 'chat', we end up naked on the carpet, I’m on top of her, my hands laying siege on hers, holding tightly, thrusting wildly.
We wear each other out like teenagers in heat; I want another round.
Stamina depletion: complete.  
I ask her to stay the night. I wanna sleep by her side, her body next to mine. I wanna hear the little sounds of her breathing, feel that she is mine.  Like any other night in which she  came to only 'chat', she replies: "Someone is waiting for me”.

So....
You're 25.....
You've survived!
25 years and
more than 25 tears shed
over 100 times
25 beers
Not counting 25 lies
And 25 broken ties
Or the 25 and more blows to your sunken in eyes
Here's to the 25 + shovel strokes
To get you out of that deep dark hole
The hole you were birthed into
25 years prior
With no voice, no choice
No written down plans to escape from fire.
But you've jumped from that window of the 25th floor building;
Each story built
from each year
that you're holding.
Not knowing if you'd collapse
from your fall
Or relapse
or perhaps
even survive at all.
But you chose to anyway
Better lie dead smashed on the pavement
than go out burning away.
Took a long time to hit rock bottom.
Never dreaming you'd reach the ground,
never thinking of your feet
or that you'd land on them.
But you made it!
You've crash landed!
Took 25 years until you couldn't stand it.
And now you're standing up
for the very first time.
From the crash
and the ash
and you're feeling alive!
Took a dive to realize
This whole time inside
That you've got it in you.
The strength to survive!

I was never a hopeless romantic. I never believed in love. I guess things change when you meet someone. Now I’m just hopeless and romantic.