Sometimes, the summer you're dealt with needs long trousers.

Sometimes, you are wise to carry an umbrella and pack wellies in the boot.
Sometimes, the only warmth you get is from friends and family and from a Father who knows what storms to expect.
Sometimes, the brightness you find is the kind you get from laughter, not sunshine.
Sometimes, you need a board game, and to put the bucket and ***** away for another day.

Sometimes, the summer you're dealt with needs those long trousers Dad said to pack.

Dad knows.

Can you believe it's been five years?
Those few days, I mourn in million ways.
And I fall for you each time as they fly by,
Breaking my heart a little more, each July.

Did you know it all along?
Were my glances loud, or my silence strong?
So careful to never do anything wrong,
Carrying all that's unspoken for so long.

Keep it benign without crossing the line,
Despite my wishes and all that cheap wine.
'Cause it was never supposed to become real,
I was content with keeping in what I feel.

Sometimes, I wish people like you,
Could peer through the eyes I see them through.
You were a midsummer's dream, mighty, divine,
Unreachable, untouchable, and never mine.

I'm not someone who dwells on fantasies,
But I do love to romanticize my tragedies.
And despite all the admiration and yearning,
I liked it when it was but a dream returning.

You turned the lights down, and the room went black,
But you were never supposed to kiss me back.
I never prepared myself to win the game,
I lost the plot when I realized you too felt the flame.

What made this year the one to break?
What changed in you — or was I the mistake?
Was it just timing, or something more?
Something new, or was it there before?

I don't know what to do with all these thoughts,
With the flashbacks and the guilt, and purity lost.
I'll never know why, and that's the curse,
Nor why it matters when I had it so much worse.

All those years — yet I kept myself sane,
Now everything I thought I knew went down the drain.
I feel like the confusion I feel is driving me mad,
And I never even knew you can feel this type of sad.

You were my favorite never-was,
Yet I admired you for following the laws.
Now that I touched what once felt divine,
There's only emptiness, and the "you" I can't define.

You were better as a ghost in my head,
Than the man who left me sleepless in bed.
What I thought I wanted — I left in your hands,
Now I don’t even know where our story stands.

I can’t forget, but I don’t want to keep,
Reliving a truth that won’t let me sleep.
By telling you this, I know I've said goodbye,
But I had to speak before more time went by.

The music calls me
Takes hold of my soul,
pulls me to the dance floor—
and I become
the girl in red shoes,
driven to dance through pain,
through exhaustion.

Suavemente, bésame

But I welcome it.
I laugh through the ache,
move through the burn.
I crave the sweat,
the heat—
the way my body forgets to hurt.

Quimbara, quimbara, quma, quimbamba

The drums take me captive,
and I go willingly,
hips in sync with the rhythm,
feet defying fire.

What is it that makes me burn this way?

A curse—
etched in my bloodline.
An inheritance I never chose,
but never refuse.

It makes me feel alive.
And I never want to stop.

Atlantis

A body blessed
With perfection and purity.
A pond running
Down a village stream
With grace and beauty.
Sunlight drips like honey
Through the trees,
Into the warming body—
Nature’s purest creation.

The sun breathes
Warmth into the water.
Kids swimming
In the most loving
Bedtime story,
Putting their minds
To sleep—
Just for a second,
Entranced
By happiness—
So much so,
It almost feels
Like home.

An Atlantis
That never fell—
The only purity
Left in the world.

Birds awaken,
Turning silence into song.
Splashing sounds echo.
Lotus flowers bloom
On the surface,
Shedding sweet, scented petals
Into the water—
Feeling like,
There a relic
From the lost city of
Atlantis—
Reminding everyone
Of nature’s innocence.
The sweet scent
Reminds the children
Of a mother’s hug.

This is our Atlantis—
Our purest creation.