i only knew i loved the stars
on that night in Batangas—
my sisters and i rested our tired bones
on the dewy grass of a cliff,
we rested where the sea met the sky.

we looked at the stars.
"look, you can see the milky way right there,"
my oldest sisters said
as they traced the sky for me,
i saw it for the first time, in the dark
and i felt so big yet so small,
i learned to read the skies
from two people who knew how to
watch the world.

and i only knew i loved the stars
when i came to learn to see them
as i watched them
with the people i loved
beside me.

Sisters,
We are in trouble
Overwhelmed by reality
We choose to sleep
Being awake is painful true
But what else would you choose?
Disconnected with the truth
Disillusioned with "inclusion"
But when we as women chose to stand
With other women
Away from our brethren
We undermined our people
Their problems weren't ours
Respect in our households and communities was never the problem
But now we're truly  included
In the reign of terror
By the hegemony
that we were never actually excluded from
So now while we've branched off
Into this group and that
Engulfed in the rainbows, weaves,  
****** objectification, drugs and popular culture
We are sleep crawling
To our extinction
It is better to live through pain
I n order to achieve gain
Than to nap through life
Never understanding your greatness
It is time to rise and return home

Niacin formal chat night
She dont wanna hear about her grudges moving through the mud
In a crowded dinning hall
Shoves her platform sneakers between the path way
Locked ankles with the smite
You only ever bring in the neighbors dogs, if you only ever toss your cats in the trash

We both promised ourselves
—drinking our blood,
tying up the knot
in the name of sisterhood
but you ***** them
like it was a bad food

There's a sister who floats with hungry collarbones and a razor-edged smile. She smokes sadness when she isn't ready to exhale.

She is beauty in fine art and wrath the colour of thunderstorms; the rain comes when she smiles.

Holier than thou and quick to judge, with antiseptic perception known to bring out the things you were not aware existed.

Addictive, those imprints from her feet will stamp all over you; nimble fingers puppeteering those who fall out of her thoughts.

She is selfish and always leaves, leaves, leaves. She ran away at the first tremor; she did not stay to watch the concrete crumble.

But she picked me up when the concrete friction broke my knees, lashed tyrants with her tongue and prowled behind the boyfriends that came and always went.

This sister whom I project; the image of her I mirror. She is love and laughter and moods that taper and flare.

She is a cluster of persons, a bomb liable to a detonate on a short fuse. She is trouble ailing in the best possible way; her flames light up the shade.

Sister, I told you
How much I needed you
You listen to all my pleas
And cry over my bees.

But there's this beast inside me
Stay away from her, it pleads
You are not supposed to open that bag,
But how can the snake not lie?

Oh, well, my sister, you took in all of it
Swallowing my temporary misery.
But what have you sewn?
You made it all your own.

My love for you is real
But I can't put it into words
Because you know me as well as I do
That I'm a meal.
A curse.
A shoo-away.

You see, my darling, nothing can ever come out.
Scarred when I saw six
You can take it when the demon picks.

Everyone is a little broken inside
All I've been doing is not burden you all night.
I hope you understand!

Please tell me you'll never let go
With the dog just inches below me
You're my last hope.

Can you grab it all back again?
You were right and I was wrong.
My fingers are begging to work out
But it just doesn't go with my brain for long.

As you slip away from me
Please do remember these moments
Those fragmented keys
To the garden that is to come.

Sister... It couldn't have been better.

Be smart be alert
Do not hide the truth my friend
Defend the truth until the end

RW Dennen-

Come my brothers and sisters
  let us be basked in the sun of glory
Be we the tears that fall
  surrendered on cheeks that tell their tale

Let slavery's master-yoke be broken
  and cast away

Come my brothers and sisters
and so do join in our power's struggle
  to lend a better day

Come my brothers and sisters
  may your shining soul be at rest

Come be as neighbors no matter far away
  let our colors merge one into one is one;
    let racism fade away
  and let rest us upon the immovable stone
     of brotherhood; so powerful we are
And so too awaits our resolve enlightened by
our hearts of day

Then tear that awful blind of ignorance
and sing our song till all merge into one
And laud that peace that will increase good tidings to us all

Be that light until that sight
when colors merge and BROTHERHOOD,
  to never go away...

The thoughts in my head uncertain
My heart hides behind a curtain
And to those of you who know
I can think of no greater foe
For when my head is filled with grief
I can not think to start a beef
I only wish I could know all
And not make such a blundering fall
For my words left unspoken
I only ask for one simple token
Of love
Understanding
Compassion
Loyalty
And most of all...
A friend like **you

There’s a certain disharmony in the way of things,
and how it turns humans into monsters. I saw a monster turn a girl
into a woman with her clothes on the floor,

and he carved ‘liar’ on her chapped lips. I reached out when
she stood before me, holding a razor in one hand and whiskey
in the other. She had dashed lines on her wrists

and shattered glass at her feet. I feel like screaming, but my gums bleed
from a mouth full of broken metal wire.
I cannot tell you the story that sits on my shoulders like a child,
too young to understand the weight of himself.

Now my eyelids have been peeled from my face and
I cannot look away from the girl when she comes home after school
and asks me for help with her homework
because the least I can do is solve a few math problems.