I hope you've heard my love hiding inside the melody that Donny Hathaway plays
From every poetic note folded amongst the ivory keys plucked
This heart writes light like butterfly wings fluttering in flight
But it's heavy when I barely see you
So, my vision grows old like my wishes of us
Weakened only by fleeting time
Yet. lengthened
Like desires that chain-link hopes to the wildest dreams along far streams
You could say I'm always in your hair
Wherever the strands flow, I follow its fibers feverishly
Strung along by song of nature so strong, that
I'm in a Pinocchio-state, made to move by your voice
A puppet parroting psalms to praise your personage
In the richness of your favor
In the hour of knowing
It's been a minute
And time is indeed money
Every second counts when I'm around your golden smile
I wish I could play this track forever
Or rewire my brain to rehearse every one of your favorite verses
Be the B-side of your cassette
And rewind to the best moments
Unwind together.

Ifeanyi N. Okoro II © 2018

consider the possibility
that it is gently unhealthy
to wrap your arms around me
while the one you want is she

I love you though
but you tell me no
so I let you go
but your actions show

that while you stand with her you look at me
so I start to weigh the probability
and I know the thought is blasphemy
but I love the taste of a maybe

I took your words as meaning
but your actions are seeming
to get me dreaming
so please tell me what are you meaning

when you hold my hand
and unfairly command
that I understand
I'm less than what you had planned

but still you hold my hand

and I don't want to let go
but as soon as it shows
you push me away
so that nobody knows

to consider the possibility
that it is gently unhealthy
to wrap your arms around she
while the one you want is me

isn't it amazing
how one day you are just going to get up
and never look back

never looking back,
hand in hand with someone who is never
going to leave,
without so much as a trace
of the misunderstandings and hardships of your past

is that too much to believe?
am i being unrealistic?
am i no longer an optimist,
but a dreamer
stuck in fantasies that may never happen

i have to go on
believing that, though
otherwise,
i'm not sure how i'll continue life

i know
after hours sitting at the table
discussing the soul and the afterlife and
/our true destiny/ with my drunk aunties

that there has to be something
i know of my own self-worth
but there is more

i know now
how to live for myself
and now
i can love someone else

but

how's that going for me?

i'm not entirely sure
when i'm going to get up
i'm not entirely sure
when i'm going to take someone's hand
and walk,
carefree to whatever it is that is waiting for us

i'm not sure,
but a girl can dream, right?
isn't that the one thing i cAn do?

i sure hope so.

A desert wind blows hot and dry,
whispering a prayer for rainclouds.
The Milky Way spills across the night sky,
with Saturn and Jupiter shining down,
interstellar eyes
that see the white lizards
skittering in the sand,
and me laying on my back,
gazing up,
swimming in starlit possibility.

It is possible.
To leap beyond where fear takes us.
Surely so many things happen.
By contrast
We stand still.
Wound up in total curiosity.
To dream in wonderment.
With each twirl we captivate the essence of someone else.
A sort of inspiration that convinces us that we are more than what we believe.
Beginning to walk,
Our other functioning parts come to life.
Embraced in true courage.
Spun around and round.
This huge metal behind it's back.
Suddenly this obstacle isn't what it seems.
First finding what is important.
The touch of someone else
Through encouragement.
The wind-up doll begins to move
No longer incapable by what we define as fear,
But enormous faith.
To place all of it's self in another
Without fear of adding another chip to it's face.
It waddles along.
Moments later,
Pride interferes.
It's movements stop.
To be spun up again and again
Falling to the floor
Seconds at a time

I knew the first swallow of vinegar salt-water memory
Would not leave me in peace
But awaken my wolf’s hunger
For pensive penance

Which leaves me thrashing my boots, khakis, coat,
Sweater, watch,
Suddenly immersed in the pure sapphire blue,
Of my past.

Coffee shops, Like brains,
Mock the idea of ridged conformity

People of all shapes and sizes
All makes and models
All styles and varieties
Wander through looking for single refreshment
The background weight of memories caught in my coat
Pull me down until I’m sputtering, splashing,
In the days I've lived,
Or days I've just watched.

But no day as no person in need of quenching
Stops for long
Each just here to slow down my day
Just here to do me death by a thousand charms
Treacherous tenacity of “what if” at the counter
Tears a hole inside my heart

My thoughts,
They run.
My letters
Do scramble.
My words
line up.
But they are all
Drunk on the
Endless possibilities
Of fantasies
And truths.

It's not possible to give what you have,
It's not possible to say what you want,
It's not possible to feel and to be felt completely,
It's not possible to love someone the way you wish,
It's not possible to touch someone the way you imagine,
It's not possible to write what you truly felt,
It's not possible sometimes to be who you really are,
We are ever changing, ever exposing, ever defining, wandering souls.
It's all about possibilities sometimes.