BILLY: do you think some people take their medication on the moon?
LISA: I think most people do, not counting zebras
BILLY: I think they’re faking it
LISA: they have no reason though, except for seagulls
BILLY: what do you mean?
LISA: you know, seagulls, adventure, rebel kisses
BILLY: oh that
LISA: well at least it’s peppermint flavored
BILLY: candy ways
© Matthew Goff
I am not Cinderella,
but you didn’t get tired looking for me.
I am not Snow White,
but to you, I am the fairest of them all.
I am not Jasmine,
but you showed me your whole new world.
I am not Rapunzel,
but you are there to support all of my dreams.
I am not Belle,
but you admire my intelligence.
I am not Ariel,
but you overlooked my clumsiness.
I am not Aurora,
but you are always there to save me.
I am not Mulan,
but you are there encouraging me that I can do it all.
I am not a princess,
but you treated me more than
what a princess should be treated.
I've been on the low.
I've been taking my time,
I feel like I'm out of my mind,
It feels like my life could never be mine.
I don't wanna be alive
and let me tell you why.
All the shit speaking happening and presently occurring, as those same culprits pop up in my head as if I'm memorizing.
I've been praying for somebody to save me, but no one's heroic.
My life doesn't even matter, I know it, I know it...or at least I tell my myself that.
I'm hurting deep down but why can’t I show it?
I never had a place to call my own.
I never had a home, ain't nobody callin' my phone.
Where have you been? Where you at? What's on your mind?
They say every life precious but nobody cares about mine.
I've been on the low.
I've been taking my time.
I feel like I'm out of my mind.
It feels like my life ain't mine.
Who can relate?
-- Alex Wilson, 2017
i came to a point in life where every time i breathe i wish it will be my last breathe
i wish the people i love somewhat know it's going to be okay
i wish words would be as promising as what they seem to be
i wish their own ghosts wouldn't haunt them when they're alone past midnight
i wish they wouldn't feel the weight of a thousand thoughts drown them as they try to step foot towards what they genuinely want
i wish they wouldn't feel the burden of waking next morning after a restless night
i wish they know it's only a matter of time
i just wish it wasn't so difficult for them to believe it's going to be okay
allow yourself to be in pain for the things you do not understand
watch the river make its way to you
and see how beautiful things will destroy you
sometimes i write poems
that i love.
they have meaning.
they are dark & honest
& vague.
i feel those words
leaking from my bones,
but i never share them.
i save them...
for music
for photographs.
but i cant play an instrument
& i stopped my photography.
but i save my
favorite poems.
for exactly the right thing
& time.
the most peaceable places end up under willows, shrouded with angelonia clusters against lilac streams. framed by a clover carpet, granite stones sprinkled across flowered ground. there is little history here, bones buried in grass tiled earth.
terra-cotta ground keep treasured secrets. no one hears any stories the earth could whisper into rose-colored ears. melted, molten, muddied metacarpals, sternums, ribs, and tibias moored against dirtied pits covered over to become unknown graves.
it seems the most peaceful here.
CURRICULUM
Blood seeps
It curtains their eyes
Rendering them
Temporarily blind
Semi-scalped
Skin folded back
Exposing of skull
Ready to crack
Holes drilled
An access to the mind
Pumped with liquid knowledge
Which then solidifies
Conventional learning
Soft subjects barred entry
Too fluid to be controlled
Deep fear of creativity
Kicked into touch
With confined education
Sent into life
Into great expectations
3R certificates
Irrelevant to some
Force fed on dictates
From the seed to the crumb
For some who think outside the box
Of the language of academia
Why have knowledge forced upon
When it’s free on Wikipedia?
Stifling ideas
Kettling free thinking
Those and more values
Lined up for the shrinking
You will think in the ways
That we want you to think
You’ll sink into rules
And you’ll fall into sync
You will follow the norm
You’ll adhere to the rules
Of stagnated teachings
In stagnated schools
Copyright Marc Hawkins 2017