Tell a little girl that her coily hair is beautiful when all of her playmates think otherwise. Marvel at a little boy’s drawings when everyone else he shows them to is too busy to spare a glance. Compliment someone’s floral dress in the subway; compliment someone’s smile, someone’s art, someone’s cooking, someone’s gumamela flowers soup they made especially for you. Thank someone for the songs they introduced, for the songs that now have become your shower jams and lullabies. Tell someone that you think they’re amazing and smart, especially if they don’t think so of themselves.

In a world where everyone looks past a street singer and ignores the old man painting sunsets in a park, be that someone who isn’t afraid to tell people about the beautiful things in them. Be that someone who isn’t afraid to be soft to others. Be that someone who isn’t afraid to be kind.

I have known many men.
I have known kind men.
I have known sweet men.
I have known men
that scream 'not all men'.
I have known men
that are those men.
I cannot claim to have known all men,
but those that I know vary greatly.
I know good men.
I know gentle men.
But I have also known violent men,
Angry men,
men that make me want to rip my hair out
and men that did it to me.
So, while I know there is good,
I know all too well that there is bad.
I cannot change all men,
but I am sure that I will find a person
that does not need to change.
Until then,
I shall not be hurt by more men.

Do not be gentle with my mind.
I know that to move on
I must deal with my past.
My childhood.
The disorders.
The ****.
The trauma.
I know that to truly love
I have to move on.
Maybe I am not ready to love yet.

If you must sing me a song,
make it soft and gentle enough
for a baby's skin.
If you must shut the lights off,
give me a colorful nightlight
to reflect bouncing shades
about the perimeters of my walls.
If I must sleep,
allow me a sweet, sinking feeling
in the center of my everything
as I drop from reality into dreams.

I am a kite
lightly floating in the gentle breeze
I am a cloud
dancing in the skies delicacies

I feel only wind
I see only light
carried only by the sky's currents
I am almost out of sight

As I dance the winds settle
the clouds and sky are now more
brutal than they are gentle

I am no longer a kite being carried
fooled by the skies shifting
by the dying breeze
I am wearied

send me down the moon river
when I have only passion in my heart
when my body's in chills and shivers
take me to the river of art

when there's nothing left of me to give
take me to the place of dreams
where my soul can forever live
nourished by the gentle streams

send me to the moon river, I beg of you
I'll be home by late noon
so please don't cry when I bid adieu
goodbye, goodbye sweet one, I'll see you soon


© L.F.

I don't want to think straight
Because all that's ever gotten me
Is the coldness of reality
Existential aching
Loneliness and grief
But I've been crazy too
Fed lies by my brain
Paranoid beyond function
Paralyzed by indecision
Why can't life
Why can't my mind
Why can't people
Ever just be gentle?