he stares off and inhales slow death
green lungs
red eyes
his soul reminds me of the sun
older than time and burning slowly
his halo hangs undecided between his body
and his aura
deep purple,
guess that's why his voice sounds like purple haze
with green lungs
red eyes
here I come, baby.
and he starts walking like there's no star in the sky that could stop him
walking through the clouds,
riding through the sky
he's the chosen one
gold streaks running through his long hair
Samson, your time has come.
you don't know who you're talking to.
I long to know the secrets woven into your dreadlocks
yesterday's broken song
and the beginning of the universe
what your god sounds like
and what it's like to have god running through every vein in your body.
I'm a cute little heartbreaker
with a tar black heart
let me take you over.
back roads, cold night
inhaling poison
blasphemous hotbox in the house of The Lord
clear mind
tainted soul
green lungs
red eyes
you're enticed by the darkness shining behind mine
unintentional seductress
with unholy motives
so I get you to the backseat of my car
inhale the smoke dripping from my lips
the cyanide laced flower you cling to
the light fades from your red eyes
as realization hits
your last thought asking why
seven inch bloodstained blade torn from hearts of the many before
pulled from my belt
I cut the purple haze from your soul with every strand I steal
the gold fades
I can hear your god
see the secrets of the universe woven in your dreadlocks
watching the universe begin
mesmerized
I don't know if it's day or night anymore,
or if it's the end of time
but I've taken you over
oh, samson.
and then he rises, his hands on my throat
he sees me standing over him
gets up and screams
his voice brings pillars down,
the house of god obliterated
in this moment I'm all his
his rampage beginning.
in the midst of his purple haze
green lungs
red eyes.
the revolution is mine.

1.  apply for that job, to that university, to that internship. call back the friend you haven’t talked to in a while, call back the boy who left that voicemail you can’t delete, call the person you never said a real goodbye to. do it now, do it today. stop putting it off. stop waiting because you keep saying you’ll do it the next day, the next week, the next year like any of these are guaranteed and suddenly you’ve put your life on hold for a later date. stop living for days you might not have. if you want to do it before you die, if you’ll always regret not doing it, then stop putting it off.

2. do not say i love you just because someone else does.

3. don’t let the fear of saying something you’ll regret ever keep you from speaking. you have so much to say.

4. an open letters to all young writers, poets, teenagers and twenty-somethings with inked-stained fingers: you say your writing’s ****. and i’m not gonna lie to you, sometimes it probably is. but sometimes everybody’s best words and ideas still kind of ****. whatever’s on the paper right now might be no good but keep writing, because some day it might be something people find worth quoting or sprawling on their wrists in semi-permanence. we all started at the same place. some day people might read your words and find the truth they were looking for.

5. do not listen to anyone who tells you to curb your ambition, tells you to aim for less than exactly what you want. do not listen to anyone who tells you to aim for something a little more achievable. if you allow yourself to settle, to set your sights on something a little less risky than it’s true you will never be disappointed. but you will also never be satisfied. the risk is often worth it, and if it isn’t then get back up and take another one. life doesn’t not happen when you’re sitting still, so do not listen to anyone who tells you that not everyone can be a star. you do not need negativity. you have no use for people who don’t believe in you.

6. make peace with your demons, they are a part of you too.

7. decide you want it so much more than you are afraid of of it. your fear is like cough syrup - tough to swallow. but you need to, you need to. the things you’re scared of are the things you will remember. adventure is rarely found inside of your comfort zone and sometimes if you are terrified that just means that it matters.

8. never make yourself miserable for the sake of someone else’s happiness.

9. there is a time and place to sharpen your tongue; know when it is. sometimes you need to be mean, you just do. sometimes you need to be selfish, sometimes you need to protect yourself, sometimes you need to think about what you want. sometimes you need to put yourself first because if you don’t no one else will.

10. but in general, be kind. it might not get you everywhere you want to be, but you’ll usually find wherever you are you’ll be happier and sleep easier. so, be kind. be gracious. be grateful. remember, some people have to fight every single day for the rights and opportunities you’ve been born with. in the grand scheme of things, we’re pretty ******* lucky.

I.
What has language wrought?
Ignorance has no language;
same cultivates same.

II.
Though, love is still love,
kind is still kind, red is red,
we still barter our daughters.

III.
But, we are above.
Let's hide in our forts of things
and claim we are better.

IV.
Such care poured into
the power of paper, lies,
progress, they say. Same is same.

Because even though
we aren’t as we
used to be
the truth
of the matter is
that I
always
want to be
with
You.
A friend told me
about how
dictionaries work;
about how
-when you look it up-
Life
comes before
Love.
And I realized
that maybe you knew
from the very beginning.”

A friend told me
that when life
ever gets me down
I should just remember
That Day.
No,
I’m talking about
a completely
different
day
now.
How did that song go again?
“I will always remember;
it was late afternoon.”
Wasn’t that
how it went?
To be right there
with You
on That Day
was more than I
could have ever
asked for.”

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
   —The Serenity Prayer

I. Heron

I was born arrow-straight, built for flying,
Three skipping stones past Otter Creek, hollow
Bones blanketed by slate gray, blue stones slight
And callused by well-worn prayers and shallow
Swells of minnows — subterranean aches —
And water cold on yellow scales, hardened
By the calamity of sunsets, lakes —
The drowning weight of too many pardons.
Dip low, tend this broken shoreline sweetly,
Spread shadowed wings and break honeyed silence.
Forgiveness take flight at dusk, discreetly
Written in psalms. Tepid soul find balance
Between the calm, a resting river space
This old trembling mind cannot displace.

II. Quetzal

After the storm, the chaos and quiet
Meet like dew poised on timid fingertips
And shallow grasses to quell the riot
Stirring inside. Fix fragments of this ship
Made of broken parts. My soul’s petrichor:
Inhale failure with a benediction
That fills tired lungs with bravery, before
Nature proposed expectations — fiction
Taut and mended by truth. The earth exhales
In breaths refreshed by rain, accompanied
By loudening trills and harmonious tales —
The tremor of circumstance, and the need
To continue existence like the weeds
That grow in sidewalks despite human greed.

III. The Pelican and the Gull

American Magicicadas choose
To surface seventeen years after birth
For the purpose of recreation. The Blue
Pelican cannot quietly unearth
The patterns of the tide without the gull,
But she does so with tireless trials
And the moon at her back — the lunar pull
Shaping stray shells for a little while.
Twenty-one years of tawny solitude
Shattered by innate desires, buried
Deep by stubborn aches, and kindly allude
To breathing for the first time. Weight carried
And lifted by rekindled hope, reaching
Sands like a button shell kissing the beach.

IV. Kingfisher

I pondered self-acceptance before diving
Into seas uncharted, with the patience
Of Tibetan monks softly harvesting
Grains of sand on an abandoned shore. Since
Emptiness is impermanence, we change
Like shifting seas suspended in nature,
Born from the crease of God’s hand — rearranged
Flaws bound by circumstance. Come close. Nurture
This silent heart into awakening.
Beyond these gray waters surges the sun,
Hopeful in the wake of a newfound spring,
Ochre and alizarin. We become —
Aware that no one saves us but ourselves,
With self-worth rising in tremendous swells.

I still love you.
I caught myself searching for those
lingering stares;
like your eyes don't want to leave.
You still glance at me too intensely
to be considered
just a figment of background
in each other's presence
but I still harbor every memory
in the shores of my mind,
always greeting my thoughts
when I don't want to swim too deep.

The silence
As she stands in the bathroom
With a bottle of pills
She blinks twice, three times
Then she gets the chills
She falls to the floor
With a marker in her hand
An hour goes by, two, then three
When there's a knock on the door
"Maria, please" her moms voice pleads
"There's someone here to see you"
"Maria?"
The door opens slowly
"There's a boy here to se-"
She stops mid-sentence as she watches a corpse
"Maria!"
"My baby"
Her mom looks up
A tear rolling down her cheek
"Jack it's you, it's always been you, too bad you couldn't see"
The writing enveloped the mirror
"Jack,come here please"
Jack walked thru the door
A note in his hand
"You have been number one, since day one. Maria I love you "
Maria
Too bad you couldn't see