it is easy to love
when you aren't loving yourself
so many flaws that can't be overlooked
in the pursuit of being and doing better
love that ends up emptied into another soul

the undermined power of this little factor
is all that's needed
to set boundaries
to find a voice
to build happiness  
and hope for the future

a power that is easily savoured
and easy to get lost in its pursuit
a pursuit that can turn into a wander
with a deep compassionate soul

a self taught power
that has to be taken not gifted
free and important
but hard to master

I caught myself peering through the haze,
Weary of the dark,

The dull glaze of my mirror silently stares back,
From the black, I speak tales of the maze of my mind,
I find, till yet this day has failed to share the  unrequited love for myself,
For my sense of self, I delve into the skies,

The dull shine, just over there,
The longer I stare, It just becomes stranger,
Which one is me? Which one is real?

Am I the reflection? Or am I the stranger?

~Robert van Lingen

Little girls are always happy
They don't think about how they look
They are just genuinely happy
Until they start seeing pictures and ads of models
It is so painful to see these little girls compare themselves to them
They don't understand that those models don't even look like models
Due to photoshop and plastic surgery
Why does women have a physical attraction standard
It makes these little girls grow up and start to abuse their own bodies
Just to look like these models in the media

When I’m thin I’ll be a meteor

Thin will thaw my troubles

The path will be gold plated roses

No blues will ever come my way

And I won’t need to ask him to stay

there's a newspaper that gets delivered
when it rains it soaks & slithers on the front porch
melting into the cement
I never pick it up
I don't have an address
but it reminds me of Sunday morning
it used to cover a male face
there's a clearing of a throat and the sipping of black coffee
it's 2004 and the president is my father's favorite person
I'm used to living in tiny spaces
stir-crazy is reserved only for the *****-inducing extrovert
but as I turn on the light
the yellow glow reminds me of being inside an egg
I feel like I did in 8th grade when I was perpetually blushing
and all the girls in my classroom asked me why I was so nervous
I have flashes of a lemon tree
I was born nervous I tell them
the rest of the year is spent in silence